Partly because of the widespread currency of Wilson's essay (it is still frequently quoted today), partly because of the time when Cain published his first novels, Cain is usually grouped with Hammett and Chandler.

But Cain's hard-boiled fiction departs from the tradition established by his contemporaries, for in Cain's works no detection process is involved. Cain tells astonishingly early in his novels, often before the close of the first chapter, who committed the crime and why.

Cain employs the tough-guy mode, then, not for the purpose of executing a who-dun-it, but to give an impersonal view of the American scene of the 1920s and 1930s. The crime becomes the occasion for an almost clinical observation of the men and women of his time. Cain's novels can also be thought of as long dramatic monologues (Frank's story is told in the form of a death-row confession to...