James M. Cain 1946 Photo: AP / TT
Sample of authors
Cain, James M.
The American author and journalist James Mallahan Cain was a prominent figure in 20th century fiction. Alongside Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, he was among the first authors of "hardboiled" crime fiction that came to influence American noir fiction and film. Many of his works are considered classics, especially the novellas The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) and Double Indemnity...
Literary figures
Reggie (Reginald) Fortune
Gender: Male
Doctor and pathologist, often engaged by Scotland Yard. He is a gourmet, and thus somewhat overweight, and looks more like a middle-aged cherub, and he is happily married to actress Joan Amber. But above all, Reginald ‘Reggie’ Fortune is a skilled amateur sleuth who, in books by English writer H.C.Bailey, often helps the weaker party and solves a number of tricky whodunit mysteries.