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James M. Cain started his novel-writing career with three bangs: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), Serenade (1937) and Mildred Pierce (1941).

If a reader liked The Postman Always Rings Twice or Double Indemnity, she’ll probably like Serenade. It’s a terse page-turner of only about 150 pages, balancing sex, fear, beauty, revenge, violence and the transformation an American man goes through to find himself through his love and obsession with a Mexican-Indian woman. Cain puts to use his knowledge of music and opera, which almost made me take opera seriously. The only minor fault with the short novel is that it never slows down and lets us readers catch our breath. It has many changes of scene, much action from a lowdown Mexican brothel to garish Hollywood to the chi-chi Met and luxury apartments of New York. True, it’s melodramatic, but lurid is okay now and then And yes the stereotyping of Mexicans is about what we would expect for 1937. An enjoyable read.

A falling off was Love's Lovely Counterfeit (1942) mainly because the female characters are less than credible and the ending is melodramatic. Still, it’s worth reading, especially for its lurid moments. After not cutting it with Big Sister, the hero gets close to Little Sister by getting her to realize that they are both bad to the bone. Readers who have been there will connect with circumstances like:

Obviously, they had got to a point where the word love, if either of them had uttered it, would have been somewhat inadequate. Insanity would have been better, and there was some suggestion of it as she raised her face to his.

People into double-crosses and mind games found in better crime novels by Hammett and Himes will like Love's Lovely Counterfeit.

The Butterfly takes place in the mining region of what sounds like West Virginia. The mining company has pulled out. People have a lot of time of their hands. Bad stuff -- really bad stuff like moonshining, feuding and the shivareeing of one's relatives -- comes down. Worth a read, especially if you're the type that reads anything.