Underlying the "reverse-pattern" or "crime-suspense" novel is the idea of "intentions gone haywire," as Joan Didion calls it, or a reiteration of the Robert Burns view that the best laid plans of mice and men do not work out as intended. This can be seen in the novels of James M. Cain, and the mood that Cain maintains throughout these works is one that suggests that plans always go awry and that there is indeed a certain justice in that when referring to the criminal element. Cain's stories are naturalistic, with characters encountering the accidental and failing in the face of arbitrary but not divine justice. The universe does not appear to care about these characters or their victims, but there is still a sense of doom that pervades this world and that leads nearly everyone to a sorry end.
The arbitrary nature of this world is evident in the title to one of Cain's most important books, The Postman Always Rings Twice, though the title is not explained in the book itself. The use of this title in the story suggests a certain arbitrariness to the universe, emphasizing the importance of accident and how that reverses human plans. The image is of the inescapable--the postman rings twice, so escaping the first time is only a temporary act. A reverse is certain as the postman rings again. This is what takes place in the novel. Frank and Cora get away with the murder of the Greek, but Frank does not get away with the murder of Cora, even though it is not truly a murder. The universe always gets a second shot, as it were, and yet there is a certain arbitrariness even in that. Frank and Cora might have escaped together, and indeed it had seemed as if that was not only their intention but that they would be able to do so given that there was no evidence to prove them guilty. What they could not escape was each other, and this is what leads to the reversal.
Cain's novel contains a sense of doom from the first. Frank is intr...