The Postman Always Rings Twice

The Postman Always Rings Twice is a crime novel by the American writer James M. Cain, published in 1934. It is one of the founding books of the hardboiled crime style, and it has been adapted into a film several times.

Frank Chambers drifts into a roadside tavern in California and takes a job from the man who owns it. He falls for the owner's young wife, Cora, and the two of them begin an affair while her older husband is still around.

Frank and Cora each want the same thing, and they are willing to do the same thing to get it. The plan they settle on is simpler than living with the alternative, and the story is told by Frank, so the reader follows it from inside the decision rather than outside it.

Cain writes the book in a spare first-person voice, and it has been filmed more than once, including in 1946 and again in 1981. It is a standalone novel.