Employers can be insensitive to those who work for them, and servants may be overlooked, like furniture. Wealth may bring with it ignorance of how other people live and what they dream. In A Crime of Passion, the misinterpretation of a rich man's words and his subsequent misreading of a servant's response lead to one murder and nearly to a second. A Crime of Passion does not lean on this point very hard, but it nonetheless draws it out clearly. Lillian West has felt neglected and unappreciated all of her life, finding teaching college unfulfilling. Without a man in her life, she becomes a housekeeper to wealthy men to prove her worth and win a man's devotion. Thomas Shipman, statesman and man of importance, fails to recognize in Lillian her motives for working for him. He much prefers his former housekeeper, who knew her place and...