Books: The Butterfly by James Cain

-Cain is best known for Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. This is one of his later, shorter works (144 pages, with big print). This is a gritty, dark novel about a retired miner in Kentucky, very religious, who hasn't seen his wife or daughters in eighteen years. Then his youngest comes back into his life . . . and she has the morals of a werewolf. It isn't pretty, and it isn't nice, but it held my attention. Cain says he writes about "the wish that comes true, and how it destroys people" and he did a pretty good job of it here. I think I'm going to hang onto it. Moderately recommended.