The Cocktail Waitress

Discover the lost crime novel by the noir legend behind Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity, and The Postman Always Rings Twice—now published here for the first time!

Following her husband’s death in a suspicious car accident, beautiful young widow Joan Medford is forced to take a job serving drinks in a cocktail lounge to make ends meet and to have a chance of regaining custody of her young son.

At the job, she encounters two men who take an interest in her—a handsome young schemer who makes her blood race and a wealthy but unwell older man who rewards her for her attentions with a $50,000 tip and an unconventional offer of marriage . . .

Now published for the very first time, The Cocktail Waitress is the last, lost crime novel of James M. Cain—the legendary noir author who wrote some of the greatest classics of the genre, including Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity, and The Postman Always Rings Twice.