Recommended reading - Hell Hath No Fury

 

Hell Hath No Fury

by Charles Williams.

 

Filmed as The Hot Spot (1990), directed by Dennis Hopper.
 
Paperback.
First published 1953.
Published by Vintage.
ISBN 13: 9780679733294
ISBN 10: 0679733299
ASIN: 0679733299
 
Description:
 
A dark, brooding masterpiece of guilt, greed, and lust in a town ripe for felony.
 

Madox wasn't all bad.  He was just half-bad.  But trap a man like Madox in a dead-end job in a stultifying small town, introduce him to a femme fatale like the Harshaw woman, and give him a shot at a fast fifteen thousand dollars--in a bank just begging to be knocked over--and his better nature doesn't stand a chance.

 

Merciless in its suspense, flawless in its grasp of the ways in which ordinary people hurtle over the edge, The Hot Spot is a superb example of fifties roman noir.