''Cain was not just a great hard-boiled novelist but a great novelist, period ... To read MILDRED PIERCE now is to experience a double vision, in which we confront both how much and how little things have changed'' LA TIMES''Vivid, gritty, real...this is crime writing at its very best'' MY WEEKLYMildred Pierce is the story of a determined and ambitious woman who, after her feckless husband abandons her, by hard work and sacrifice builds a successful business to ensure the future of her pampered and selfish daughter. But she isn''t prepared for the intrigues and devastating betrayals of those closest to her. This is James M. Cain''s most substantial novel and a classic of the Depression years.