Jealous Woman
By James M. Cain.
First published in 1950.
Published by Black
Lizard Books.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 0887390889
ISBN-13: 978-0887390883
Description:
An ambitious Reno
salesman. A wealthy would-be divorcée. An insurance policy. It’s a toxic
combination in this noir thriller by an MWA Grand Master . . .
Jane Delvan had dark,
red hair and plenty of shape of a nice, refined kind. To Ed Horner she was only
a little fancy flirtation under the Nevada moon, but he found some peculiar
circumstances developing when Jane’s husband, Tom Delavan, himself came to
town, followed very shortly afterwards by his first wife, the beautiful but
jealous Lady Sperry.
Ed wondered what kind of
game Jane Delavan was playing with him, leading him on as she was? And why
should Lady Sperry take a heated interest in him of a sudden? What were the
cause of secret midnight callers roaming at will through hotel bedrooms?
Suddenly Ed Horner found himself slowly being ringed about by a group of
hard-hating, highly emotional people who all had motives that involved them in
a case of murder and the Jealous Woman.
If Las Vegas is a city
of lovers, in Reno, the business is divorce. Six weeks in Reno can erase the
darkest marriages, and the only question is how to pass the time – craps or
roulette? Jane Delavan is a roulette woman, a stately beauty from back East who
is too classy for the motel where she’s shacked up. She’s come for a divorce,
but her husband has other ideas. He wants an annulment, and in exchange offers
to take out a $100,000 insurance policy on himself – just in case something
happens to him before their paperwork goes through. Jane is cunning enough to
make sure that if she wants something to happen, it will. Ed Horner is the
insurance agent sent to settle the agreement, and it doesn’t take long for Jane
to settle him. They fall in love over twenty-five-cent roulette and soon have a
bigger score in mind. In the Biggest Little City in the World, a king-size
scheme is brewing . . .
“Cleverly plotted.” – The
New York Times.
“Swift
and absorbing.” – The Wall Street Journal.