Books: Shocker in Underwear

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE— James M. Cain—Knopf ($2). Like the Ancient Mariner, who held his unwilling listener by the power of his glittering eye, the awful compulsion of his tale, Author Cain's high-powered shocker will keep many a reader spellbound. The Postman Always Rings Twice, though it gives the impression of a stark naked love-&-murder story, is actually narrative stripped to its underwear. Author Cain's hero is as hard as any cinema villain but he obeys cinema rules, goes sappy at the end.

Frank is a young bum who has done time...