The House by the River

The House by the River is a 1921 crime thriller novel by the British writer A.P. Herbert. A young poet on the verge of greatness makes advances to the family maid while his wife is away. She resists and he accidentally kills her. Panicking he persuades his friend to help his dispose of the body in the nearby River Thames. However, when the body is discovered police suspicion falls on his friend.

Film adaptation
In 1950 it was turned into an American film noir House by the River directed by Fritz Lang and starring Louis Hayward, Lee Bowman and Jane Wyatt. This shifted the action from the original setting of Hammersmith to the United States and moved the period back to the Victoria era rather than the post-First World War of the novel.