Serenade: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare September 15, 2007

A new tour dedicated to the work of James M. Cain, the great hard-boiled author whose portrait of Southern California life ("Double Indemnity," "Mildred Pierce," "The Postman Always Rings Twice") is as jaundiced as it is revealing.

About the tour: It all plays out against the bulldozed orange groves packed with new urban sprawl and under the desiccating sun: thwarted dreams and double crossing lovers, mothers, daughters, husbands and speculators. When it goes south, it goes fast. The gun smoking, the bodies piled up, the house foreclosed, and the bitter truth sinks in: you can't eat the sunshine.

Official Website: http://www.esotouric.com