The Institute
Published on 21. May 2024
260 pages
978-1-5040-9468-9 (ISBN)
Description
An academic looking for money finds a seductive woman-and trouble-in this suspenseful tale by the Edgar Award-winning crime writer.
Professor Lloyd Palmer loves a good biography. His fantasy is to start an institute to teach young scholars the biographical arts, and it will take old money to make his dreams come true. In the Washington area, the oldest money is found not in the District, but in Delaware, a land of wealth so astonishing that even the Du Ponts are considered nouveau riche. But when Professor Palmer goes to Wilmington, he comes away not with old money, but young trouble by the name of Hortense Garrett. She is his benefactor's wife, a twenty-something beauty trapped in an unhappy marriage, whose good looks conceal the most cunning mind on this side of the Potomac. She needs a ride to Washington, and Lloyd offers to give her a lift. They've barely left Delaware before he falls for her. By the time the pair hits the beltway, the ending of his biography will be in her hands.
Praise for James M.Cain's fiction
"Lean, racing... stripped of inessentials." - The New York Times
"Nobody has quite pulled it off the way Cain does... not even Raymond Chandler." -Tom Wolfe
Professor Lloyd Palmer loves a good biography. His fantasy is to start an institute to teach young scholars the biographical arts, and it will take old money to make his dreams come true. In the Washington area, the oldest money is found not in the District, but in Delaware, a land of wealth so astonishing that even the Du Ponts are considered nouveau riche. But when Professor Palmer goes to Wilmington, he comes away not with old money, but young trouble by the name of Hortense Garrett. She is his benefactor's wife, a twenty-something beauty trapped in an unhappy marriage, whose good looks conceal the most cunning mind on this side of the Potomac. She needs a ride to Washington, and Lloyd offers to give her a lift. They've barely left Delaware before he falls for her. By the time the pair hits the beltway, the ending of his biography will be in her hands.
Praise for James M.Cain's fiction
"Lean, racing... stripped of inessentials." - The New York Times
"Nobody has quite pulled it off the way Cain does... not even Raymond Chandler." -Tom Wolfe
More details
Person
James M. Cain (1892-1977) was one of the most important authors in the history of crime fiction. Born in Maryland, he became a journalist after giving up on a childhood dream of singing opera. After two decades writing for newspapers in Baltimore, New York, and the army-and a brief stint as the managing editor of the
New Yorker-Cain moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s. While writing for the movies, he turned to fiction, penning the novella
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934). This tightly wound tale of passion, murder, and greed became one of the most controversial bestsellers of its day, and remains one of the foremost examples of American noir writing. It set the tone for Cain's next few novels, including
Serenade (1937),
Mildred Pierce (1941),
Double Indemnity (1943), and
The Butterfly (1947). Several of his books became equally successful noir films, particularly the classic 1940s adaptations of
Mildred Pierce and
Double Indemnity. Cain moved back to Maryland in 1948. Though he wrote prolifically until his death, Cain remains most famous for his early work.
