James M Cain

Following her husband's death in a suspicious car accident, beautiful young widow Joan Medford is forced to take a job serving drinks in a cocktail lounge to make ends meet and to have a chance of regaining custody of her young son.
At the job she encounters two men who take an interest in her, a handsome young schemer
who makes her blood race and a wealthy but unwell older man who rewards her for her attentions with a $50,000...

In Mildred Pierce, noir master James M. Cain creates a novel of acute social observation and devasting emotional violence, with a heroine whose ambitions and sufferings are never less than recognizable.
Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses:...

An insurance salesman and an unhappy wife conspire to murder her husband and collect his insurance policy.