''Cloud Nine'' is a

hard-boiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

detective novel by James M. Cain published in 1984 by

Mysterious Press The Mysterious Press is an American publishing company specializing in mystery fiction based in New York City. The company has been associated with various publishing companies, most recently with Grove Atlantic, where it was an imprint from 2011 ...

Plot

Graham Kirby, raised since adolescence by his foster mother, the elderly yet attractive Jane Silbert, expects to inherit her property and make a fortune in real estate development. When Kirby’s younger half-brother Burl makes pregnant the sixteen-year-old Sonya Lang, Kirby marries the teenage girl to avoid a local scandal and to arrange for an abortion. Sonya miscarries, and Kirby discovers he is falling in love with her. Unbeknownst to Kirby, his foster mother Jane is secretly attracted to him, and resents his marriage to Sonya. When Jane allows herself to be seduced by Burl, Sonya reveals to her mother-in-law Burl’s history of brutal and predatory sexual behavior, including suspicions that he is responsible for the death of a former lover. Burl retaliates, assaulting Kirby and threatening to rape Sonya; she kills him in self-defense. Kirby and Sonya bond through adversity, and embark upon a rosy future reconciled with the now doting Jane.

Publication history

Editor William Koshland at

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

, in rejecting the manuscript for ''Cloud Nine'', wrote to Cain: “...I’m sorry, but I just can’t warm up to the book, the characters who people it, or the shenanigans through which you put them. It would make no sense for me to go into detail, Jim. I hate like hell to turn you down, but it’s gotta be.” Mysterious Press published the novel in 1984.Skenazy, 1984 p. 188

Critical assessment

Literary critic Paul Skenazy comments on ''Cloud Nine'':

Footnotes

Sources

* Hoopes, Roy. 1982. ''Cain.'' Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. New York. * Skenazy, Paul. 1989. James M. Cain. Continuum Publishing Company. New York. {{James M. Cain 1984 American novels Novels by James M. Cain American detective novels Hardboiled crime novels Mysterious Press books