Pastorale
The Baby in the Icebox
Dead Man
Brush Fire
The Girl in the Storm
James M. Cain
Everyman's Library. First published 1928, 1932, 1936, 1936 and 1939.
The first two stories of planned crime. The next two are of accidental murders. The last one describes a violent, but not criminal, event. All are set in California, during the depression. All involve drifters, young, homeless, jobless and hungry. The setting and the characters, and the incidents, particularly in the third and fourth stories, are reminiscent of Steinbeck - 'The Grapes of Wrath', 'Of Mice and Men', and the characters, though not the spirit, of 'Cannery Row'.
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