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A Stranger In My Grave

Margaret Millar

3.68 · Rating details · 564 ratings · 101 reviews

A nightmare becomes a terrifying reality in this rediscovered classic of American noir from one of crime writing's greatest talents

A nightmare is haunting Daisy Harker. Night after night she walks a strange cemetery in her dreams, until she comes to a grave that stops her in her tracks. It's Daisy's own, and according to the dates on the gravestone she's been dead for

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Paperback, 312 pages

Published by Allison & Busby (first published 1960)

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Dec 28, 2020 Faith rated it liked it

Shelves: audio

I read several books by this author many years ago and I remember liking them, although the details have faded, and I was looking forward to reading this book. Maybe the other books weren’t as good as I thought, or maybe this one is just a dud. It was promising at the beginning when a sheltered wife started to dream about her grave and became obsessed with trying to track down the source of the dream. When her husband and mother refused to take her concerns seriously she hired a detective. The d ...more

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Sep 07, 2019 Liz Barnsley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was introduced to the novels of Margaret Miller through these beautiful Pushkin Vertigo reissues – this is my third now and they have all been brilliant. Anyone thinking that the psychological thriller and unreliable narrator tropes are a recent Gone Girl lead phenomenon might want to delve into these, Margaret Miller is an original master of the art which Gillian Flynn (amongst others) rebooted so beautifully.

What this author did, probably better than anyone else even now, was come up with ex ...more

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Nov 24, 2013 Kim Fay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

When I decided to go on a bender with female mystery writers from the mid-twentieth century, this book caught my eye for a couple reasons. I read that Ross MacDonald (the Lew Archer mysteries) and Millar were married, and because Millar had already made a reputation for herself as a mystery writer, Ross (in fact, Ken Millar) used a pseudonym so people wouldn't think he was riding his wife's coattails. Secondly, this book was written in 1960 and has a Mexican P.I. for one of the main characters. ...more

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Mar 07, 2013 João Carlos rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: l2014, thriller-policial-suspense, thriller-policial-suspense-l2014

Margaret Millar (1915-1994)

“Um Estranho no Meu Túmulo” foi editado em 1960, um livro escrito pela canadiana Margaret Millar (1915-1994), casada com o escritor de policiais Ross Macdonald.
O livro nasceu da seguinte ideia: “Uma mulher sonha que visitou um cemitério e que viu uma lápide de granito com o seu nome gravado, assim como a data de nascimento e a data da sua morte quatro anos antes. Agora vê lá o que é que consegues fazer com isto, miúda." "E foi o que fiz. Era um desafio interessante, re ...more

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Feb 24, 2018 Jessica Woodbury rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc-provided-by-publisher, crime-mystery

A new edition of A STRANGER IN MY GRAVE is back in print this year and I'm glad it is because otherwise I may have continued to exist in the world without any clue who Margaret Millar was. I certainly have my blind spots, but now I feel like I've committed a crime for being a noir fan for so long who has just read my first Millar novel. Please forgive me.

Every now and then you'll find something that dates this book (usually the dialogue) but in terms of structure and plot, this is easily the kin ...more

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Oct 16, 2019 Andy Weston rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, noir

Millar’s novel begins powerfully, when Daisy Harker, a troubled and morose young woman is suffering from a recurring nightmare in which she is chasing her dog through a cemetery when she comes upon a grave with her name on it, and the date and her death, four years earlier. She decides to reconstruct that day of her life employing a bail bondsman/private detective to help her.
After a promising beginning the novel pursues threads of less interest, and doesn’t fulfil its early potential. The raci ...more

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Sep 29, 2015 Carla Remy rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror-and-gothic

I love that it is a mystery without murder. I love the outright gothic nature of it. I did not think the mystery itself was so spectacular.

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Sep 27, 2021 Đorđe Bajić rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, mystery, romance

Margaret Milar nam u svom romanu prikazuje naličje američkog sna: ljupke kućice u predgrađu ispred kojih su u belo obojene ograde kriju mračne tajne i ništa nije onako kako na prvi pogled izlgeda. Neznanac u mom grobu je takođe i psihološki triler veoma nategnutog zapleta i neujednačenog ritma. Centralna misterija je zanimljiva i potentna, ali spisateljica na momente (što je naročitao primetno u drugoj polovini romana) kao da nije sigurna šta sa njom da uradi.

Full review: https://citymagazine.d ...more

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Jun 30, 2016 Joshua Buhs rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime

Butter on ice: it's that slick.

I haven't read any Millar before (or, for that matter, much of her husband, Ross MacDonald). Her work, though, unlike his (I think) is mostly out-of-print, which is surprising, if this book is any indication of its quality. This is an excellent example of the mid-century mystery genre.

The book details the intertwined lives of Daisy Harker and Stevens Pinata, with brief glimpses into the lives of other characters. Daisy is a well-tended wife in San Felice (A stand-i Butter on ice: it's that slick.

I haven't read any Millar before (or, for that matter, much of her husband, Ross MacDonald). Her work, though, unlike his (I think) is mostly out-of-print, which is surprising, if this book is any indication of its quality. This is an excellent example of the mid-century mystery genre.

The book details the intertwined lives of Daisy Harker and Stevens Pinata, with brief glimpses into the lives of other characters. Daisy is a well-tended wife in San Felice (A stand-in for Santa Barbara) who is pushing against those people constraining her--her mother, her husband, a lawyer that knows both of them--and intent on uncovering the dark underbelly of her situation. (This is noir, of a sort, after all.) Pinata is a bail bondsman and detective who first becomes involved with Daisy because of her ne'er-do-well father, but becomes more intimately involved when she hires him to hunt solve a mystery for her.

Daisy wants to reconstruct a particular day in her life, 2 December 1955, some four years earlier. She is having anxiety attacks, and a dream of finding a grave with her name on it, the death listed as that late fall day. Pinata is skeptical--as are most people--but eventually won over by Daisy's steadfastness. She has more steel than any one credits her with.

The story is told quickly, the mystery solved in a few days. The narrative is clear-eyed about class differences and the constraints under which women lived. It also has a quality I associate with mid-century genre stories: a straightforwardness about racial relations that borders on the blunt. Racial animosity is a motive force in the book--certainly the impetus behind the mystery that Daisy sets out to solve--and the characters merely acknowledge such tensions as a fact of life. They do not try to explain them or justify them, and neither does the author, even if it is clear she does not truck with them. A more contemporary novel would spend a great deal setting up the racial strife, rather than glossing it, as is done here. That doesn't mean either way os better--just different, in characteristic ways.

Given the limited number of characters, it is not particularly difficult to suss the the solution, if only in outline. And that is the biggest problem with the book--the solution. Although I suppose that is usually the case with mysteries: the answer is never as satisfying as the anticipation.

The book grinds to a halt at the end as the relevant characters assemble in a single place and explain their contributions to the puzzle. Fortunately, Millar set up what would happen to Daisy and Pinata after the explanations were made, so the book does have some space for the exposition, but it still comes off a bit clumsy.

Millar manages to tie together all the various plot strands--it is an excellent example of the genre--but a few of the knots feel a little loose. There really shouldn't need to be spoiler warnings for a book written more than half-a-century before, especially one with a fairly obvious solution, but I'll avoid spoiling the ending while saying that the relationship between Daisy's husband and mother--on which so much of the mystery turns--is never explained enough to make sense of their actions, especially Jim, her husband, who violates her terribly, but also must be understood as desperately in love and a man of upstanding character to make the story hold together. That's not an impossible assemblage, but it needs to be described a bit more to fully make sense.

Peccadilloes, though, these criticisms. The book flows, it engages, it offers a depth of characterization in a few careful sketches: excellent.

...more

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Jun 23, 2020 JacquiWine rated it liked it · review of another edition

This wasn’t quite as satisfying for me, so I’ll aim to keep this summary reasonably brief.

The novel’s premise is an interesting one. Daisy Harker is tormented by a recurring nightmare, a dream in which she comes across a gravestone bearing her name and date of birth. According to the inscription, thirty-year-old Daisy died four years earlier in December 1955. Convinced that something highly significant must have happened on that date, she employs a private detective, Steve Pinata, to help her re This wasn’t quite as satisfying for me, so I’ll aim to keep this summary reasonably brief.

The novel’s premise is an interesting one. Daisy Harker is tormented by a recurring nightmare, a dream in which she comes across a gravestone bearing her name and date of birth. According to the inscription, thirty-year-old Daisy died four years earlier in December 1955. Convinced that something highly significant must have happened on that date, she employs a private detective, Steve Pinata, to help her reconstruct the day as fully as possible. Maybe then she can deal with whatever consequences it throws up and hopefully move on.

Daisy is married, but her relationship with husband Jim is not a happy one. Jim and his controlling mother-in-law, Mrs Fielding (who lives in a cottage 200 yards from the Harkers’ house), treat Daisy like a child, casting her in the role of ‘happy innocent’ – a fact Daisy finds very frustrating. While Jim is somewhat sceptical about the wisdom of Daisy trying to uncover the meaning of her dreams, he plays along with it, just to keep her occupied.

As Pinata begins to investigate Daisy’s movements on the day in question, more information comes to light, bringing other characters into the mix. Perhaps the most notable of these is Daisy’s father, Mr Fielding, something of a drifter and alcoholic who been absent for the last three years.

For the most part, the central characters are well drawn, particularly Pinata, an orphan whose parentage and family history are largely unknown. (Millar has a longstanding interest in issues of race and gender inequality.) Daisy, however, seems more lightly sketched. She is never much more than a cypher for me – someone to hang the narrative around as opposed to an individual with a real sense of depth. The plot too is rather convoluted. At 300 pp. this mystery could have benefited from a bit of filleting here and there to help keep things pacey and tight.

Millar’s prose, however, is very good. This author can write! Her dialogue is excellent; it’s well-crafted and naturalistic. There are some nice sinister touches along the way too, indications that Jim may be controlling the situation, effectively keeping certain information hidden from Daisy’s view.

I should play along with her, Jim thought. That was Adam’s advice. God knows, my own approach doesn’t work. (p. 74)

If you’re interested in reading Margaret Millar, then I’d suggest you try either Vanish in an Instant or The Listening Walls – both very good. They’re tighter than Stranger, and more satisfying as a result. ...more

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Jan 14, 2021 Didu - reading in the mountains rated it liked it · review of another edition

I’ve liked the first book I’ve read from Margaret Millar and yesterday night I’ve found another one that spiked my curiosity. The thing with her novels is that they are pretty chill, comforting in a way and really put together. Mysterious too.

This one was no exception. This book happens in winter time but there’s no snow… so it’s not that fantastic weather wise but outside just started snowing which is amazing. Nevermind, there will be snow.

The plot is highly interesting, although I’ve read a bo ...more

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May 14, 2018 Bill rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-canada, canlit, suspense, top-ten-mysteries-2018

I discovered Canadian mystery writer Margaret Millar a few years ago and since that tie I've been hunting down her books. She is such a great writer. A Stranger In My Grave was originally published in 1980. While it wasn't necessarily my favorite of her books so far, I still enjoyed it immensely.

Daisy Harker has been having dreams where she is looking at her grave stone showing Dec 2nd 1955 as the day she died. Of course, she is still alive, or she wouldn't be having the dreams. ;0) The dreams h ...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Beth rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 15, 2020 Tabuyo rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, negra, misterio, lecturas-2020

Una novela negra bastante entretenida sobre una mujer que sueña con una tumba con su nombre.
La historia engancha porque quieres saber si esa tumba existe pero además de ese misterio la novela también habla de las relaciones familiares de la protagonista.
Hay cosas que chirrían un poco porque parecen demasiada casualidad pero bueno, se deja leer.

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May 29, 2019 Wyckliffe Howland rated it really liked it

Millar wrote mostly in the 40s-60s. I've been enjoying her books - this is my second. The ambient details, the mannerisms, the voice of the characters, all reflect a time long gone. Millar writes compelling stories, complex plots. I recommend this novel. ...more

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May 26, 2021 Watt rated it liked it · review of another edition

—Un matrimoni ben avingut implica una bona part de dissimulació.

La sanitat mental és una qüestió de cultura i de convenció. Quan es viu en una cultura insana cal que hom sigui irracional per a avenir-s'hi. Una persona totalment racional reconeixeria que aquella cultura és de boigs i no voldria conformar-s'hi. Però el fet de no conformar-s'hi el convertiria en boig als ulls d'aquella societat particular.

A la premissa de saber què va passar un dia qualsevol de cinc anys enrera, m’he preguntat ...more

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Dec 31, 2020 tortoise dreams rated it liked it · review of another edition

Most "lost classics" aren't. But just because they're not another Rebecca doesn't mean they deserve to be forgotten. This is a clever, intricately plotted mystery with all the characters interesting (or psychologically troubled) in their own way and with enough of a puzzle to keep the reader turning the pages. At its core is a sharp edge of racial prejudice. At the same time there are moments when it's awkward, disjointed, self-conscious, and inconsistent. The reader will most likely figure out ...more

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Aug 10, 2017 Jake rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-thriller-crime

(3.5) I don't know how I feel about this one. I mostly liked it, even if large parts of it seemed convoluted. It took an interesting path to get to Point B from Point A. A unique structure that I'm not sure entirely worked...but I also appreciate the uniqueness and would recommend. It kept me hooked til nearly the end. ...more

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Feb 17, 2019 Theunis Snyman rated it it was amazing

A psychological detective story with an interesting situation. The suspense and the mystery increases as the story unfolds until the final bombshell sentence.

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Mar 30, 2013 Kaion rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller, modern, reviewed

Once the event was recalled to her, she would remember her reactions to it; it would become the peg on which she could hang the rest of the day, hat and coat and dress and sweater and finally, the woman who fitted into them.

A young housewife hires a lawyer to investigate a seemingly ordinary date four years earlier — one she's seen from a recurring dream of her grave.

A book with an odd little premise, Margaret Millar's A Stranger in My Grave (1960) is not much of a crime novel in the sens ...more

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May 09, 2018 Sophie rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018, open_library

This book has an intriguing premise, and I liked how the author slowly unwound the story and the psychological insights included along the way, but I couldn't help feeling a bit let down by it. The bombshell reveals at the end felt a bit like duds—and even after re-reading it, I'm not sure I understand exactly what happened or the motivation behind some of the characters' actions. Maybe it's the distance of years that makes it hard to understand why Daisy's mother does what she does. Her prejudi This book has an intriguing premise, and I liked how the author slowly unwound the story and the psychological insights included along the way, but I couldn't help feeling a bit let down by it. The bombshell reveals at the end felt a bit like duds—and even after re-reading it, I'm not sure I understand exactly what happened or the motivation behind some of the characters' actions. Maybe it's the distance of years that makes it hard to understand why Daisy's mother does what she does. Her prejudice does not seem like quite enough of a reason, even though the pervasive prejudice the book reveals about California in the mid-twentieth century is shocking. For instance, this conversation between Daisy's mother and her luncheon companion:

"Thursday, it was. Thursday afternoon, walking along Piedra Street with a young man. I knew it couldn't be Jim, Jim's so blond and fair-skinned and this man was quite—well, dark."

"Daisy is acquainted with a great many men," Mrs. Fielding said casually. "Dark and fair."

"I meant dark in the you-know-what sense."

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Of course you're not a native Californian . . ." Mrs. Weldon stopped and shook her head helplessly; these non-native Californians could be very dense. "I meant, this man wasn't one of us."

Or when another character is searching for a Mexican girl and immediately eliminates looking for her in restaurants because most "would be closed to Juanita because of her race, either obviously, with a quick brushoff at the door, or subtly, with small printed signs stating the proprietor's right to refuse service to anyone." Happily, such casual and accepted prejudice is unthinkable now, but I still don't find it a convincing motivation for the tortured path that Daisy's mother and husband take to hide the truth from her.

Regardless of my problem with the plot (including the thoroughly implausible love story) I enjoyed the author's style and the overall atmosphere of the book. I had never heard of Margaret Millar before reading a newspaper article about the publication of a Collected Millar omnibus, but I'm very glad to have discovered her and am look forward to delving into more of her works. ...more

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Jan 06, 2016 Brucifer rated it liked it

I'd heard great things about Margaret Millar, who has been compared to Patricia Highsmith as one of the great psychological mystery writers of the mid-20th century. Since few of her novels have been reprinted in the last 20 years (and most of those are hard to obtain), I thought I'd start off with this intriguingly-titled novel from the early 60s that was relatively easy to find. Unfortunately, the novel didn't live up to my perhaps unfair expectations. The plot concerns a young woman's desire t I'd heard great things about Margaret Millar, who has been compared to Patricia Highsmith as one of the great psychological mystery writers of the mid-20th century. Since few of her novels have been reprinted in the last 20 years (and most of those are hard to obtain), I thought I'd start off with this intriguingly-titled novel from the early 60s that was relatively easy to find. Unfortunately, the novel didn't live up to my perhaps unfair expectations. The plot concerns a young woman's desire to explore the meaning behind a recurring dream she's been having, in which while walking through the town cemetery she stumbles upon her own grave, on which her death date is engraved as several years earlier, December 2, 1955 to be exact. She hires a private detective Steve Pinata (the story behind his name is interesting), who is given the unusual task of investigating a day rather than a specific event, while she is constantly dissuaded by her husband and mother to go any further with what they tell her is just a silly waste of time and money. Millar is a good writer, if a bit heavy-handed with the metaphors at times, and she explores some interesting topics as the story moves along, such as paternal abandonment, small town gossip, racism, and the ethics of keeping someone in the dark "for their own good." But the novel just didn't fully do it for me. It read a bit like a dialogue-heavy and somewhat dated episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents rather than the type of richly nuanced psychological exploration Highsmith is famous for. But again, perhaps I went into the novel with unfair expectations. All in all, it's a decent mystery with a good surprise ending, but I found myself putting off finishing it rather than eagerly racing toward the finale. I haven't written Millar off (I think I should have started with her Edgar-award winning The Beast in View, which is the only one of her novels to be frequently and recently reprinted), but I think this one is probably better for Millar fans rather than for casual mystery readers. ...more

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Mar 22, 2016 Antonia rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2016, kindle

3.5 Stars. I read an article about Millar somewhere online and was intrigued. I haven’t read a lot of mysteries (since adolescence) so am probably not a good judge, but I enjoyed this one. I appreciated the introduction in which Millar tells how she came to write the book, how she developed the story from the first premise. There are some far-fetched bits that wouldn’t fly in fiction today and we might now expect more psychological depth. The story reflects the social structure, expectations, an ...more

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Jan 12, 2018 Brandi rated it it was amazing

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have stumbled across the works of Margaret Millar. I purchased one collection last summer and found myself completely absorbed by her writing. Every story is so tense, strangely unsettling, and yet so small and domestic seeming. It’s like watching an episode of The Twilight Zone that has no supernatural elements, but you keep waiting for something otherworldly to happen. Almost Hitchcock in feel. After I read that first collection I immediately sought out mo ...more

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Mar 20, 2016 Bibliophile rated it really liked it

Razor sharp housewife, fed up with being meek and compliant, enlists the help of a private detective, the charmingly named Steve Pinata. She wants to find out what happened on a day four years earlier when she was psychologically murdered. If you don't find that a delightful premise for a mystery, you might as well skip this one. I find the digging up of repressed memories as suspenseful as any police procedural. Some of the plot elements were a tad inprobable, but Millar is so good it didn't bo ...more

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Apr 29, 2017 E M rated it it was amazing

Almost tied with "The Fiend" as my favorite Millar, "A Stranger In My Grave" is even more notable for secondary characters who stick in your mind long after the book is finished, and metaphors so apt and insightful that they become a part of your own mental vocabulary. "Stranger" is so cleverly-constructed that you enjoy re-reading it just to enjoy the elegantly-plotted drawing of all the various strings together. Like her other books it is influenced by a psychoanalytic (as opposed to the curre ...more

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Dec 22, 2018 Arthur Pierce rated it liked it · review of another edition

This one really started off with a bang which, perhaps, is why the second half seemed to loose steam as it became more and more convoluted. It's STILL a Margaret Millar, meaning the characters are well-drawn and interesting, but I found A STRANGER IN MY GRAVE to be ultimately less compelling than normal for a Margaret Millar work ...more

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Jul 09, 2016 Pamela rated it really liked it

One of the weaker Millar's I've read recently, but still head and shoulders (and two stars) over 90% of the tripe masquerading as "suspense" being published today. ...more

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Mar 15, 2022 Samruddhi rated it liked it

Shelves: breezy-boring-too-perfect-romances, colourism, convoluted-structure, deceptively-surprisingly-incredible, feminist, great-potential-not-realized, has-its-moments, interesting-premise-at-core, psychological, racism

Agatha Christie has been my unshakeable psychological mystery favourite since teenage. Since then I have had trouble discovering new authors in similar genres. I think I can get into it again with Miller.
'A Stranger in my Grave' is a deceptive novel- it was intended to be. It's a mix of psychological, social, mystery and thriller genres with explorations in feminism and racism, hardly fitting in any one theme. There's romance too like the author intended to be cheeky and typical for the same rea Agatha Christie has been my unshakeable psychological mystery favourite since teenage. Since then I have had trouble discovering new authors in similar genres. I think I can get into it again with Miller.
'A Stranger in my Grave' is a deceptive novel- it was intended to be. It's a mix of psychological, social, mystery and thriller genres with explorations in feminism and racism, hardly fitting in any one theme. There's romance too like the author intended to be cheeky and typical for the same reason. Daisy's world is much more than the synopsis and Miller changes perspectives throughout the novel to her father, the Bail bondsman/Detective Steve Piñata and Daisy's husband Jim. This shuffle is supposed to give the reader the story from all angles so that they may come to their own conclusion before the climax. Because this is set in the 50s and written in the decade as well, there's a lot of casual sexism in the form of the assumptions and thought process of almost all male characters which patronise Daisy, her doubts portrayed as female 'hysterics', etc but Miller lays all the condescension out for the reader. The racist tendencies in characters have also been neatly threaded through the narrative. Miller meant it to be a social commentary of the times and also as a subversive intention.
The descriptions and construction of imagery is not particularly purposeful to the plot or the characters. Only a handful of the sentences evoke any sense of spookiness and even though Miller shows the characters always in action, the plot is a bit dragging in pace. Very unusual in a mystery/suspense novel because most authors would go for keeping their readers on their toes but Miller's concepts tie in with psychology and she's never in any hurry to entertain a reader. Ultimately, we have to give in to her vision and the climax is slightly more satisfying.
Miller is not a run-of-the-mill mystery author. She is assured, knows where she wants to go and if the reader is willing, they may join her as well. Her concept doesn't fit in the psychological thriller niche pitch perfect but when you remember the story, it kind of ends up fitting anyway. Miller is unique in her ideas and she effortlessly paves her own path in her chosen niche- there's no hint of struggle or conflict in her writing though the characters may be plagued by these notions.
'A Stranger in my Grave' didn't feel like Miller's best work and instead of any mind-blowing climaxes or eerie settings, I learnt more about her style and the sort of themes she explores in an unassuming way through her novels. Throughout the read, it didn't particularly linger or impress me much but afterwards, I felt it had been a refreshing read. I can't wait to get to her other works, especially Vanish in an Instant.
If you like psychological thriller in older settings, stylistically noir and the ordinary psychology shown from a different perspective, Miller would be right up your alley, as she was for me. Happy Reading! ...more

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Aug 28, 2019 Johanna Markson rated it it was ok

A Stranger in My Grave, Margaret Millar
First published in 1960, this author was highly thought of in her day as a crime and mystery writer, and her work is having a comeback. I very much enjoyed the first book I read by her. This one, not so much.
The story line of this novel was hard to follow and confusing, and I found myself not knowing what was going on for much of the book. There are several twists at the end, but when you finally get there and everything becomes clear, it’s all foreseeable A Stranger in My Grave, Margaret Millar
First published in 1960, this author was highly thought of in her day as a crime and mystery writer, and her work is having a comeback. I very much enjoyed the first book I read by her. This one, not so much.
The story line of this novel was hard to follow and confusing, and I found myself not knowing what was going on for much of the book. There are several twists at the end, but when you finally get there and everything becomes clear, it’s all foreseeable by then.
Daisy Harker lives a quiet and circumscribed, safe life in San Felice California with her husband Jim. They are well off and even have a small mother-in-law house on their property for Daisy’s mother. Their great sadness is that Daisy can’t have children.
One day Daisy wakes up from a very bad dream where she has seen her own gravestone in the local cemetery with her death date on it from four years earlier.
Completely confused over this seemingly lost day from four years ago when she “died” daisy gets no help from her husband or mother, only pushback and requests to behave and be a good girl and to forget about the dream. But Daisy is determined to figure out what the dream signifies. With the help of a handsome private detective with a dark past of his own, Daisy hopes to recapture this lost day that seems to be so important to her and so disquieting to the rest of her family.
As Daisy gets closer to the truth, her mother and husband work even harder to try and make her give up her quest for the truth, and to save her from a great catastrophe.
Millar is a talented writer, one who wrote well ahead of her time and dealt with controversial topics such as race relations and domestic issues, like a women’s proper role in marriage, issues that were just beginning to be examined generally.
Yet, the flow of the revelations and the mix of many characters in this novel were a little too confusing to follow at times and I really found myself thinking that I had no idea what was going on several times during the course of reading the book. After her fascinating and dark novel, Beast in View, I was hoping this would be just as interesting. It was not. Instead, it was a jumble of people and odd revelations and strange internal musings by the characters. ...more

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About Margaret Millar

Margaret Millar

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Margaret Ellis Millar (née Sturm) was an American-Canadian mystery and suspense writer. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto. She moved to the United States after marrying Kenneth Millar (better known under the pen name Ross Macdonald). They resided for decades in the city of Santa Barbara, which was often utilized as a locale in her later novels under the pseudonyms o Margaret Ellis Millar (née Sturm) was an American-Canadian mystery and suspense writer. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto. She moved to the United States after marrying Kenneth Millar (better known under the pen name Ross Macdonald). They resided for decades in the city of Santa Barbara, which was often utilized as a locale in her later novels under the pseudonyms of San Felice or Santa Felicia.

Millar's books are distinguished by sophistication of characterization. Often we are shown the rather complex interior lives of the people in her books, with issues of class, insecurity, failed ambitions, loneliness or existential isolation or paranoia often being explored with an almost literary quality that transcends the mystery genre. Unusual people, mild societal misfits or people who don't quite fit into their surroundings are given much interior detail. In some of the books we are given chilling and fascinating insight into what it feels like to be losing touch with reality and evolving into madness. In general, she is a writer of both expressive description and yet admirable economy, often ambitious in the sociological underpinnings of the stories and the quality of the writing.

Millar often delivers effective and ingenious "surprise endings," but the details that would allow the solution of the surprise have usually been subtly included, in the best genre tradition. One of the distinctions of her books, however, is that they would be interesting, even if you knew how they were going to end, because they are every bit as much about subtleties of human interaction and rich psychological detail of individual characters as they are about the plot.

Millar was a pioneer in writing intelligently about the psychology of women. Even as early as the '40s and '50s, her books have a very mature and matter-of-fact view of class distinctions, sexual freedom and frustration, and the ambivalence of moral codes depending on a character's economic circumstances. Her earliest novels seem unusually frank. Read against the backdrop of Production Code-era movies of the time, they remind us that life as lived in the '40s and '50s was not as black-and-white morally as Hollywood would have us believe.

While she was not known for any one recurring detective (unlike her husband, whose constant gumshoe was Lew Archer), she occasionally used a detective character for more than one novel. Among her occasional ongoing sleuths were Canadians Dr. Paul Prye (her first invention, in the earliest books) and Inspector Sands (a quiet, unassuming Canadian police inspector who might be the most endearing of her recurring inventions). In the California years, a few books featured either Joe Quinn, a rather down-on-his-luck private eye, or Tom Aragorn, a young, Hispanic lawyer.
Sadly, most of Millar's books are out of print in America, with the exception of the short story collection The Couple Next Door and two novels, An Air That Kills and Do Evil In Return, that have been re-issued as classics by Stark House Press in California.

In 1956 Millar won the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, Best Novel award for Beast in View. In 1965 she was awarded the Woman of the Year Award by the Los Angeles Times. In 1983 she was awarded the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America in recognition of her lifetime achievements. ...more

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“It didn’t even seem ironic to him that he should be planning remarks about truth and justice when, in fact, his whole life had been a marathon race, with truth a few jumps ahead of him and justice a few jumps behind. He had never caught up with the one, and the other had never caught up with him.” — 0 likes

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