Collected Millar: Legendary Novels of Suspense: A Stranger in My Grave; How Like an Angel; The Fiend; Beyond This Point Are Monsters

by Margaret Millar

Overview

Four legendary novels of suspense from Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster and Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year, Margaret Millar
 
The four novels in this collection straddle one of the most tumultuous decades of the 20th century and display Millar’s uncanny ability to craft truly disturbing suspense fiction while still addressing social issues. Complex discussions of feminism, child abuse, and racism blend seamlessly into four of the most chilling tales ever told.
 
A STRANGER IN MY GRAVE (1960)
A young housewife named Daisy Harker's world is upended when a blank spot in her memory and a reoccurring nightmare link her to an unsolved murder and a decades-old conspiracy.
 
HOW LIKE AN ANGEL (1962)
California cultists, duplicitous damsels in distress, and dangerously high stakes conspire against Joe Quinn, a private eye who is beginning to feel more like a knight-errant.
 
THE FIEND (1964)
A young girl is at risk this tense and disturbing page-turner that reveals a web of domestic abuse among a disparate cast of middle class Americans.
 
BEYOND THIS POINT ARE MONSTERS (1970)
The investigation into the disappearance of a wealthy California rancher brings to light the secrets of a whole community this a haunting and complex masterpiece of suspense.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681990286
Publisher:	Soho Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/08/2016
Series:	Collected Millar
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	437,959
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Margaret Millar (1915-1994) was the author of 27 books and a masterful pioneer of psychological mysteries and thrillers. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she spent most of her life in Santa Barbara, California, with her husband Ken Millar, who is better known by his nom de plume of Ross Macdonald. Her 1956 novel Beast in View won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. In 1965 Millar was the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year Award and in 1983 the Mystery Writers of America awarded her the Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement. Millar's cutting wit and superb plotting have left her an enduring legacy as one of the most important crime writers of both her own and subsequent generations.

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR COLLECTED MILLAR

A Boston Globe Best Book of 2016

"Millar's mysteries are filled with clever twists, yet what makes them special is her surgical approach to her characters' inner lives. She's got an eagle eye for the juicy stuff lots of mystery writers still ignore—questions of class, status, sexual desire and the difficult position of women. This last was something she knew about firsthand. Millar's work was long overshadowed by that of her husband, detective novelist Ross Macdonald. In fact, her best novels — like 1955's Beast in View — have a ferocious edge that make him look rather tame."
—John Powers, NPR's Fresh Air

"One of the greatest this country has ever produced."
—The Globe and Mail

"A writer whose own work is every bit as psychologically bruising and critically acclaimed as that of her husband [Ross Macdonald], if not as well known. But [Syndicate Books] hopes to rectify that with Collected Millar."
—Kevin Burton Smith, Mystery Scene Magazine

"Razor-sharp."
—The Seattle Times

PRAISE FOR MARGARET MILLAR

Mystery Writers of America Grand Master
Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel
Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year

“One of the most original and vital voices in all of American crime fiction.”
—Laura Lippman
 
“I long ago changed my writing name to Ross Macdonald for obvious reasons.”
—Kenneth Millar (Ross Macdonald), in a letter to the Toronto Saturday Night newspaper
 
“Very Original.”
—Agatha Christie

"Stunningly original."
—Val McDermid

“She has few peers, and no superior in the art of bamboozlement.” 
—Julian Symons

“Written with such complete realization of every character that the most bitter antagonist of mystery fiction may be forced to acknowledge it as a work of art.”
—Anthony Boucher reviewing Beast in View for the New York Times

“Margaret Millar can build up the sensation of fear so strongly that at the end it literally hits you like a battering ram.”
—BBC 

“Wonderfully ingenious.”
—The New Yorker

“Brilliantly superlative… One of the most impressive additions to mystery literature—and the word “literature” is used in its fullest sense.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“In the whole of crime fiction’s distinguished sisterhood, there is no one quite like Margaret Millar.”
—The Guardian

“A superb writer.”
—H.R.F. Keating   

“She writes minor classics.”
—Washington Post   

“Mrs. Millar doesn't attract fans she creates addicts.” 
—Dilys Winn, namesake of the Dilys Award

From the Publisher