Every Saturday evening, travelling salesman Ferdinand Ravinel returns to his wife, Mireille, who waits patiently for him at home. But Ferdinand has another lover, Lucienne, an ambitious doctor, and together the adulterers have devised a murderous plan. Drugging Mireille, the pair drown her in a bathtub, but in the morning, before the "accidental" death can be discovered, the corpse is gone—so begins the unraveling of Ferdinand's plot, and his sanity... This classic of French noir fiction was adapted for the screen by Henri-Georges Clouzot as Les Diaboliques (The Devils), starring Simone Signoret and Véra Clouzot, the film which in turn inspired Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. A second movie version, Diabolique, followed in 1996, starring Sharon Stone.From the Trade Paperback edition.

The story could have happened to any of us, but it happened to a man named Flavieres. His days as a detective were over, and everyone knew he had his reasons. But when an old friend appeared out of nowhere with concerns about his withdrawn and mysterious wife, Flavieres didn't have the heart to refuse. And soon he would be scouring the streets of Paris in search of an answer - in search of a girl who belonged to no one, not even to herself. Soon intrigue would be replaced by obsession, and dreams replaced by nightmares. This is the story of a desperate man. A man who ended up compromising his own morality beyond all measure, while World War Two raged outside his front door. A man tormented - and destroyed - by a dark, terrible secret.This sinister, mindbending roman noir was turned into a 1958 Hollywood classic, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, directed by the great Alfred Hitchcock.From the Trade Paperback edition.