Recommended reading - Hell Hath No Fury (1953):

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.