In the book Double Indenmity written by James M. Cain, the detective role isn’t quite prominent or does it stick like a sore thumb, at least to me it doesn’t. In the novel you have a few characters that assume the position as the detective, three to be exact. They all go in search for the truth and they all find the answer they were looking for or at least the truth. Both Keyes and Huff play male roles in the book and they both got answers, even if they liked the outcome or not. Another character that I look to as being a detective is Lola, Phyllis step daughter. She is the best investigator out of all of them; she actually goes out on the field to find the truth she was looking for.
The first man that undertakes the detective position is Keyes; he is a big time insurance agent that runs the show over at his business. After the murder of Mr. Nirdlinger, Keyes tries to put every fact and figure in his head together about what really happened. Keyes knows there is more truth behind the man being found in the train tracks. In the book Keyes starts to get close to cracking the case when he and Huff are talking in his office about the murder. “What do you mean, Keyes?” “He was never on the train”… “Somebody took his crutches and went on the train for him?” (66). through this whole scene Keyes is piecing the whole murder together and he is getting very close to the truth and Huff knows that. Norton and Huff also have people out watching Phyllis. Keyes was always there trying to find out more and more of the story, even though in the end the murder was revealed to him. ‘Keyes?”… “I’m listening boy.” “I killed Nirdlinger” (101). Keyes tried to get down to the bottom of the case and all and all he did, he received the answers he was looking for.
In Huffs case he was a detective too. After Lola told him more information about Phyllis, he started to investigate who this woman really was. He knew that Phyllis was sneaking out with Lola’s ex-lover. He also took notice that Phyllis didn’t seem the slightest upset when her Husband was murdered; she showed no emotion at all. In the end he found out she was a snake and she had been playing him this whole time. Ultimately, he tried to put an end to her before she did him.
Lastly Lola, She really didn’t start playing a big role in the novel until the second half of the book, but after her father died she had a lot to say. She admitted to following Phyllis everywhere and she would even talk to the same people that Phyllis talked too. Lola went to the extent of listening in a conversation between her ex-lover Sachetti, and knowing that Phyllis went looking for dresses to wear to the funeral a week before he actually died. Lola is ready to expose all Phyllis secrets when she says, “ I’ll tell them to ask her why she was down in a boulevard store, a week before my father dies, pricing black dresses” (84).  Lola truly had the inside scoop on Phyllis and everything she did, and in the end she knew that Phyllis killed her father and it was confirmed when Huff gave his confession.
In this novel it was tough for me to figure out whom the detective figure really was and if that figure always has to be a guy. Keyes searched for answers and found them within Huff. Huff searched for answers and found them by getting shot by Phyllis. In conclusion, Lola looked for the answers too. So all and all I don’t know who the main detective was, but I’m sure it has to be one of the three.