1. (law) A clause in an insurance policy in which the insurance company agrees to pay out double the normal coverage in certain specified circumstances, most often in case of accidental death. Courtesy of en.wiktionary.org

A classic crime novel, Double Indemnity was written by James M. Cain in an eight-part serial for Liberty magazine in 1936. The plot came from a real murder that made headlines while Cain was a journalist in New York. The story is of an insurance agent who goes to the home of a client in hopes of renewing an automobile policy. He meets the beautiful wife of the client and a flirtation turns into a romance which results in a plot to do away with the husband after taking out a policy on his life. The agent who has seen enough fishy claims to know what works and what doesn’t believes he has the perfect murder scheme. The wife has her own agenda which involves much scheming on her part. I enjoyed this detailed, fast moving classic. It is a well-crafted mystery with twists and turns on every page and a surprise ending, of course.