James M. Cain's Serenade: Fate and Blindness 11

Maybe it's just that I'm a sucker for Cain's fast, lean, hit-the-ground-running story-telling -- talk as straight and sharp as a machete blade and twice as likely to leave you sore, since Noir heroes never end well--but it's also that the Noir hero sees so much, narrates and describes what he sees so meticulously, and yet fails to see the destruction that awaits him.

May-December (In July) 3