Double Indemnity

Walter Huff sells insurance, and he has a knack for sensing which prospective customers are heading for trouble. That knack draws him to Phyllis Nirdlinger, who asks him for a policy covering her husband's accidental death. Her requests soon grow darker, and Walter, drawn in by his desire for her, agrees to plan a killing that will look like something else. The cost of that choice reaches well beyond the crime itself.

James M. Cain's novella is narrated by Walter in the first person, which gives the reader a direct view of his scheming and his self-deception. Published in 1936, it is a foundational work of American hardboiled crime fiction and noir. Billy Wilder adapted it into the 1944 film noir of the same name.