Dial "M" for Man

Orrie Hitt's Dial "M" for Man is another solid working-class noir — this time about a TV repairman (Hob Sampson) who is hired by a wealthy blonde (Doris Condon) to fix her TV set only be drawn into a scheme to kill her husband. The plot sounds like a Double Indemnity rip-off (and it is in many ways) but Hitt brings more intelligence and depth to his story than is typical for pulp fiction novels. Here is his description of Doris's husband:

Ferris Condon was a tall, heavy man of about sixty, the owner of Condon’s Lumber Company. Ruthless in almost everything he did, he had started driving a horse into the woods to snake out logs and he had lied and cheated his way into the beginning of this firm. He had prospered over the years by building houses that would fall apart halfway through the mortgage. The whole town knew that he had been married for a long time, that his wife had left him for a younger man, that he had then acquired his present wife somewhere out of town. Some said she was young and was sexy enough to keep six men happy. But nobody could prove it by me.

Recommended.