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How Like an Angel
Private detective Joe Quinn gambles. That's how he's lost his job, car, clothes, and girlfriend; it's why he's hitchhiking from Reno to California. At The Tower, a back-country compound housing a religious cult, Quinn gambles again, when Sister Blessing asks him to locate one Patrick O'Gorman. It proves to be no easy task: O'Gorman's dead - and, Quinn wagers, not so accidentally as everyone insists.
278 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
27 people are currently reading
329 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Millar
122 books178 followersMargaret 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
February 7, 2024
06/2021
From 1962
A good example of Millar's brilliance, but also her oddities and repeated themes.
From 1962
A good example of Millar's brilliance, but also her oddities and repeated themes.
February 20, 2017
An immersive read, the gold standard by which every novel is measured. How did Margaret Millar do it?
The usual: story, world building, characterization, prose style and theme.
There is the SoCal PI trope. The PI gets a case he doesn't understand from a mystery client. He presses forward out of a sense of justice. He interviews the kooks, the normal, and the cynical to get his clues and solve all of the mysteries. Maybe it started with Chandler and they still write them today. The SoCal PI trope works because it leaves plenty of scope for innovation. MIllar has cooked up a good story with a religious cult and two cases: one of mysterious motivation and one unsolved.
The action takes place in the early 1960's in the small oil town of Chicote, San Felice (fictionalized Santa Barbara) and the mountains to the east. Millar does not seem to build the urban worlds with much effort, but this is merely because she is so efficient. She does expend a bit more effort on the mountains and the cult with excellent results. We feel the heat and fading boom of Chicote, the refreshing sea air and slow pace of San Felice and the wild desolation of the mountains.
What usually ruins this trope is lack of characterization: the PI cool, slick and cynical; the kooks cartoonish; the normals in the grip of greyness; the cynics with cliched one-liners. Millar has the knack of bringing her characters alive in their situations and in intelligent dialog. They are multidimensional in their humor and pathos. They are intuitive and speak intelligently. She lays the foundations for her characters actions and we understand why they do what they do. (With a single romantic exception which lifted me out of the story with a 'what? did I miss something?')
Millar has an efficient prose style. She doesn't lift you out of the story with clunky prose, obscure vocabulary, or the soaring heights of poetry. Some think it is writerly to use the odd word or blow the reader away with poetic imagery (or bore the reader with unnecessary descriptions and digressions). Some should think again. God how I love a book that I cannot put down.
The writers of the typical SoCal PI trope do not worry much about theme. But theme is important. It makes the novel seem deeper and bit more important than a simple guilty pleasure. Millar gives us a story of redemption: for our PI, his client, the blighted family of a husband and father gone missing/murdered. They travel from cynicism and despair to hope and salvation.
I have read a lot of detective fiction and, on the whole, enjoyed it. This is the first Margaret Millar I have read. I was sadly unaware of her until the last two or three years and then as the wife of Ross MacDonald. I have heard it said that as an author, she may have been the better of the two. I have no reason to doubt this. She was famous in her day and I have no idea why she isn't still today. I am looking forward to more of her novels.
The usual: story, world building, characterization, prose style and theme.
There is the SoCal PI trope. The PI gets a case he doesn't understand from a mystery client. He presses forward out of a sense of justice. He interviews the kooks, the normal, and the cynical to get his clues and solve all of the mysteries. Maybe it started with Chandler and they still write them today. The SoCal PI trope works because it leaves plenty of scope for innovation. MIllar has cooked up a good story with a religious cult and two cases: one of mysterious motivation and one unsolved.
The action takes place in the early 1960's in the small oil town of Chicote, San Felice (fictionalized Santa Barbara) and the mountains to the east. Millar does not seem to build the urban worlds with much effort, but this is merely because she is so efficient. She does expend a bit more effort on the mountains and the cult with excellent results. We feel the heat and fading boom of Chicote, the refreshing sea air and slow pace of San Felice and the wild desolation of the mountains.
What usually ruins this trope is lack of characterization: the PI cool, slick and cynical; the kooks cartoonish; the normals in the grip of greyness; the cynics with cliched one-liners. Millar has the knack of bringing her characters alive in their situations and in intelligent dialog. They are multidimensional in their humor and pathos. They are intuitive and speak intelligently. She lays the foundations for her characters actions and we understand why they do what they do. (With a single romantic exception which lifted me out of the story with a 'what? did I miss something?')
Millar has an efficient prose style. She doesn't lift you out of the story with clunky prose, obscure vocabulary, or the soaring heights of poetry. Some think it is writerly to use the odd word or blow the reader away with poetic imagery (or bore the reader with unnecessary descriptions and digressions). Some should think again. God how I love a book that I cannot put down.
The writers of the typical SoCal PI trope do not worry much about theme. But theme is important. It makes the novel seem deeper and bit more important than a simple guilty pleasure. Millar gives us a story of redemption: for our PI, his client, the blighted family of a husband and father gone missing/murdered. They travel from cynicism and despair to hope and salvation.
I have read a lot of detective fiction and, on the whole, enjoyed it. This is the first Margaret Millar I have read. I was sadly unaware of her until the last two or three years and then as the wife of Ross MacDonald. I have heard it said that as an author, she may have been the better of the two. I have no reason to doubt this. She was famous in her day and I have no idea why she isn't still today. I am looking forward to more of her novels.
April 8, 2010
For the most part, an enjoyable PI yarn set in 1960s California. I had a litte trouble following the odd members' names of the religious cult, and the plot twists at least once threw me. But the prose is first-rate, the characters full-fledged. Many of her characters are a little off-center, but never other-the-top, a vast difference some writers today don't seem to get, or care about. There's something to be said for realistic and credible. This author does it very well.
July 9, 2016
If you like Patricia Highsmith, you'll LOVE Millar. Yes. She is THAT good. That good and with an extra twist she saves for the very, very end.
I have recently discovered her and am in the process of reading very book of hers I can find. Once you read one of her books, you will be, too.
I have recently discovered her and am in the process of reading very book of hers I can find. Once you read one of her books, you will be, too.
June 11, 2021
The more I read the books of Margaret Millar, the more I appreciate and enjoy her writing. How Like an Angel was an excellent mystery. It starts off with Joe Quinn, a private investigator, who has lost his money gambling in Vegas, getting a ride to a town in Southern California, to try and get some money from a friend. He is dropped near a religious commune and, from this point, the mystery begins. Quinn is paid by one of the members, Sister Blessed try and locate Patrick O'Gorman. He doesn't know why and originally he plans to take the money back Vegas to gamble with. But he finds that he likes Sister Blessed and, instead he heads off to O'Gorman's last known location to try and find out about the man. The story involves murder and embezzlement. The mystery deepens as Quinn begins to question more people. This may sound a big convoluted, but actually, Millar writes in such a clear-headed manner, that everything falls into place easily, even with a nice surprising ending. I love how she lays out the plot and I love how each character sounds realistic and how she draws you into their characters. Quinn grows and becomes more and more likeable as the story develops and I liked so many of the characters; from Sister Blessed to Margaret O'Gorman and Willie King. No matter the importance of the role they play, they are fleshed out and interesting. Excellent story and a nicely written mystery.
February 16, 2012
Millar's novel 'Beast In view' is deservedly acclaimed as a mystery classic. This one's not far behind. It's the story of a down-and-out PI with a gambling problem who winds up taking shelter in a community of religious fanatics and accepting an assignment that leads him into a convoluted mystery where the trail seems to have run cold but a little bit of digging around unearth all sorts of possibilities. A well told, complex and engaging mystery with many memorable passages. 'Beast In View' is notable for its immersion in a twisted persona and Millar gives us a sample of this towards the end of the novel making for a most unsettling conclusion.
May 25, 2019
Heard only recently of Margaret Millar, and this is my first book. I really enjoyed it and Millar is, unquestionably a gifted writer. I hate to admit this, but I didn't get the ending. I'll try another soon because she is compelling.
March 23, 2009
I tend not to read too many mysteries. Too often I find the plot and characters merely window dressing, and the central driving force of the plot a mystery or "puzzle" that is largely an intellectual exercise for the reader. I prefer crime fiction in which there is no real mystery, and instead of being a puzzle to be solved, the plot is a labyrinth in which characters struggle to reach the end.
Margaret Millar's How Like an Angel was a great reminder that any genre can be good when it is done well. Nearly every page of this book presents questions that the reader can't help but try to answer, but the characters, writing style, and story were all still immensely satisfying. Also, the way the mystery unravels was especially well done, I thought. There is no single "a-ha" moment in which a detective reveals the killer. Rather, the solution to the mystery unfolds in a natural, satisfying fashion. Depending on the reader, the solution might present itself on the first page of the last chapter or the last page of the last chapter (assuming they haven't worked it out sooner).
Millar is a great mystery writer. This is the first of her novels I've read, but it probably won't be the last.
Margaret Millar's How Like an Angel was a great reminder that any genre can be good when it is done well. Nearly every page of this book presents questions that the reader can't help but try to answer, but the characters, writing style, and story were all still immensely satisfying. Also, the way the mystery unravels was especially well done, I thought. There is no single "a-ha" moment in which a detective reveals the killer. Rather, the solution to the mystery unfolds in a natural, satisfying fashion. Depending on the reader, the solution might present itself on the first page of the last chapter or the last page of the last chapter (assuming they haven't worked it out sooner).
Millar is a great mystery writer. This is the first of her novels I've read, but it probably won't be the last.
June 22, 2022
This is an intriguing Margaret Millar book, different than her usual sort, coming off as something like a Ross MacDonald story. It was interesting from the start, though it never became quite as gripping as I wanted it to be. It's in the third person, but told from the perspective of the main character, Joe Quinn, and I was a little put off by the occasional detours in the narrative when we got scenes in which Quinn wasn't present. It struck me as a flaw in the narrative, and a somewhat contrived method of storytelling.
February 10, 2019
Having enjoyed A Stranger in My Grave, I was disappointed here. Despite the 'hook' of an isolated extreme religious sect, the story never really took off.
May 28, 2017
Call it a 3.5. I liked this book a lot, though I probably would have liked it a bit more had the truth turned out to be the near-end false lead rather than the actual conclusion. Joe Quinn, having recently lost his security job to his gambling addiction, finds himself stranded at a Calafornian cult. He hitches a ride into town, but not before making a deal with the cult's Sister Blessing--for $120, he promises to investigate--but not contact--a "Patrick O'Gorman" at the nearby town of San Felice. But when he gets there, Quinn finds that O'Gorman died years ago, leaving a grieving widow and two children. For motives that he doesn't quite understand, he keeps digging, and comes up with a cast of suspicious characters: a sheriff who believes the matter settled, a newspaper man eager for any gossip, the widow herself, a high profile embezzlement that happened at the same time, a woman who's tailing him for information, and a mystery man who wants to figure out his angle.
It's a nice little noir mystery, albeit one that never goes quite as far into the grimness or grittiness of a Hammett or Chandler. I appreciate the immediate mix of locales, with the somewhat sinister cult on one hand, and the seemingly wholesome small town on the other. The Widow O'Gorman is a great character; she's not quite a femme fatale, but has the intelligence and ruthfulness for it, if she had to. Quinn is a bit of a blank slate, given that Millar seems to want the reader to be invested in his own turmoil, but I guess that comes with the genre.
The story has a lot of twists and turns, and it kept me guessing throughout--right up to nearly the end, where I figured out things just far enough ahead of the plot to feel good about myself. I have to say, though, the ending was a bit of a let down. In part, that's because one of the villain's descents into insanity felt like a cop-out. And in part because an earlier red herring--that O'Gorman had been hiding his closet sexuality, and murdered for it--felt like it would have genuinely been a more interesting story. It would have added some tragedy to his character, and I appreciated how (for a 1960s protagonist) Quinn was neutral on the subject. But it turns out to be a false lead, and while there are other twists, the final destination is less satisfying.
At any rate, the book definitely brought Margaret Millar to my radar, and I'm looking forward to trying out more of her work in the future.
It's a nice little noir mystery, albeit one that never goes quite as far into the grimness or grittiness of a Hammett or Chandler. I appreciate the immediate mix of locales, with the somewhat sinister cult on one hand, and the seemingly wholesome small town on the other. The Widow O'Gorman is a great character; she's not quite a femme fatale, but has the intelligence and ruthfulness for it, if she had to. Quinn is a bit of a blank slate, given that Millar seems to want the reader to be invested in his own turmoil, but I guess that comes with the genre.
The story has a lot of twists and turns, and it kept me guessing throughout--right up to nearly the end, where I figured out things just far enough ahead of the plot to feel good about myself. I have to say, though, the ending was a bit of a let down. In part, that's because one of the villain's descents into insanity felt like a cop-out. And in part because an earlier red herring--that O'Gorman had been hiding his closet sexuality, and murdered for it--felt like it would have genuinely been a more interesting story. It would have added some tragedy to his character, and I appreciated how (for a 1960s protagonist) Quinn was neutral on the subject. But it turns out to be a false lead, and while there are other twists, the final destination is less satisfying.
At any rate, the book definitely brought Margaret Millar to my radar, and I'm looking forward to trying out more of her work in the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 22, 2012
Margaret Millar is one of my new finds. Unfortunately nearly all of her work is out of print and she is not available as an e-book, making her a little obscure. She shouldn't be. She was one of the most famous mystery writers of the 1940s & 1950s (mainly) & very well known for her surprise endings. And that's all I can say! no, really! I can't say any more! She is fun. She writes a great nice descriptive depth to her characters.
March 5, 2016
A superb mystery from Margaret Millar, better known for Beast In View. I liked this one even better. It has a perfectly constructed plot, believable characters and plenty of suspense. Need more specifics? There's a shabby but honest ex PI, a creepy cult in a creepy cult tower, a snappy widow whose husband may or may not have been murdered, and dames who disguise themselves in turbans and glasses when they go sleuthing.
March 30, 2013
Another excellent novel of psychological suspense and mystery from the under-appreciated Margaret Millar. This is the one with the religious cult. Plot, character, dialogue, setting...everything working together to add up to a fine piece of 60's genre fiction.
June 26, 2015
This one does NOT disappoint. A must-read for any reader of detective or hardboiled fiction.
June 28, 2016
Closer to four and a half. The gay blackmail macguffin was very dated but I like how it diverted into a really interesting climax.
July 18, 2018
How Like an Angel might have suffered a little for being left at home while I went on a half-month vacation, but overall another solid entry in the Margaret Millar canon. The theme of utopian yearning, of striving for something else is a thread connecting the otherwise scattered players. SoCal is the land of dreams, and these characters are dreamers: a PI who's washed out of the casinos, a teenage girl who dreams of glamour, a cult follower trying to live up to the tenet of poverty and self-sacrifice.
I like how Millar doesn't come down on either side of the divide, ultimately, of whether the Dream itself is good or bad. Neither does she particularly judge the worthiness of their aspirations. Her interest is more in the price the Dream exacts, the compromises and dilemmas it poses, and the way people ultimately make or unmake their characters by how they react to such.
On a more critical note, the more standard set-up of the down-on-his-luck PI taking on a case of How Like an Angel compared to Millar's other works ultimately left me a little more cold and more distanced from the usually more psychologically haunting aspects of her work. I found Quinn to be a bit of a bland "outsider" character , and wished we had gotten some more passages from Martha's, or Sister Blessing's PoVs to flesh out the more twisted and interesting parts of, respectively, 1960s working single-mom and uber-Christian commune life.
I like how Millar doesn't come down on either side of the divide, ultimately, of whether the Dream itself is good or bad. Neither does she particularly judge the worthiness of their aspirations. Her interest is more in the price the Dream exacts, the compromises and dilemmas it poses, and the way people ultimately make or unmake their characters by how they react to such.
On a more critical note, the more standard set-up of the down-on-his-luck PI taking on a case of How Like an Angel compared to Millar's other works ultimately left me a little more cold and more distanced from the usually more psychologically haunting aspects of her work. I found Quinn to be a bit of a bland "outsider" character , and wished we had gotten some more passages from Martha's, or Sister Blessing's PoVs to flesh out the more twisted and interesting parts of, respectively, 1960s working single-mom and uber-Christian commune life.
October 11, 2020
Well plotted if somewhat confusing story. I wasn't very engaged with the cast of characters, but I continued reading because I am reading through the works of Margaret Millar, a mid-century author whom I recently discovered. Part of the book takes place in a religious cult and this part seems somewhat tongue in cheek. While the plot makes sense, so much sense that before the book was over I figured out the situation (a big twist that I saw coming, as there are some crumbs to follow). However, mid-book, an implausible romance is thrown into the mix. Not only do these characters seem unlikely to fall in love, they go from 0 to 100 in the course of a few pages.
May 23, 2023
Another solid mystery from Millar. The religious cult (partial) setting brings a different edge to the PI novel. The small town secrets and personalities, which Millar does so well, are well represented here. The romance between two characters seemed to blossom a little suddenly; Millar’s used that in other novels effectively, but this time it felt abrupt and off key. As usual Millar pulls us through a convoluted plot in a series of partial revelations and twists. Effective and readable. It felt as if it could be a little shorter, but it wasn’t seriously overlong by any stretch. Not as completely engaging as some of her other titles, but well worth reading.
May 6, 2018
I remain surprised that I am still plowing through the Margaret Millar series, but there is an element of mystery that keeps me reading. Typically there are a few dated techniques: a major character as a helpless women who will fall in love with the flawed detective (in this case a gambler), a myriad of subplots that will eventually link together, dialogue filled with italicized mind wanderings of the narrative detective, a surprising unwinding at the end. I was taken aback that Patrick O'Gorman was a member of the cult in love with Hayword's sister Alberta.
August 3, 2023
Down on his luck, Joe Quinn arrives at the home of the weirdest of cults and is given the job of finding the whereabouts of a Patrick O’Gorman. What follows is a constant to-ing and fro-ing between the cult headquarters and a small town where everyone seems to be ‘respectable’. It’s a mystery with a good heap of gentle humor and it’s just an enjoyable read. Unfortunately, the mystery itself turns out to be less than enthralling and its resolution leaves you with a ‘meh’ feeling. My second Margaret Millar. Enjoyable read that had me smiling.
May 11, 2024
Another good mystery set in the early 1960s but with the gritty feel of the good mysteries from the 1940s. A free-falling casino security officer/detective finds new life (and love) through the investigation of seemingly unrelated people & events - an imprisoned "lady" embezzler, a gay accountant missing and presumed dead by his wife, and a poisoned woman in her late 40s who found her place in a dwindling religious cult. BEST OF ALL -- an ending I never saw coming that ties them all together!!! LOVE those and they're mighty rare!!
February 3, 2021
کارآگاه «کویین» از «ریتو» به سمت «سن فلیس» حرکت میکند و در آنجا به طور اتفاقی به برجی میرسد که در آن بیست و هفت نفر ساکناند. از جملهی این افراد، «خواهر مرحمت»، پرستاری پنجاه ساله و قدیسانی چون «خواهر ندامت» و فرزندش «کارما» و برادر «لسان الغیب» هستند. کویین با ورود به این برج، با مراحل سلوک و زندگی مشقتبار این افراد آشنا شده و به طور ناخودآگاه در جریان حوادثی مرموز قرار میگیرد.
May 27, 2021
This was a superb mystery, dialogue engrossing, plot builds with the twists and turns and the reveal doesn't fail to surprise. Ms. Millar's writing seems to get better the more I read her books. She picks a topic, this case a secluded cult, thoroughly researches and develops a psychological mystery around the characters. Well done!
March 1, 2022
An off-beat mystery with characters that will not fit into pre-conceived molds, How Like An Angel starts out feeling like a John D. MacDonald adventure (think Green Ripper) and ends up somewhere else. It’s an excellent mystery with a flawed and likable PI called Joe Quinn.
The characters are not stereotypes and the plot is not predictable. I would give it 4 1/2 stars if that were an option.
The characters are not stereotypes and the plot is not predictable. I would give it 4 1/2 stars if that were an option.
January 20, 2025
That Margaret Millar's novels are mostly out of print and difficult to find/purchase is a shame. She's a tremendous talent - this one is similar in theme and plot to The Moving Target - an novel written thirteen years earlier by her husband, Ross MacDonald. This one is better, though, even as the twist ending is not really a shock.
June 3, 2023
Entertaining mystery set around a religious cult in the mountains between Reno and California. Joe Quinn is our, down on his luck, detective hero sent, by a member of said cult, to find a man named O'Gorman. Twisty and full of surprises although the final surprise was telegraphed.
Want to read
February 17, 2020Synopsis: PI Joe Quinn is a gambler. That's why he's hitchhiking when he meets Sister Blessing. Can he locate Pat O'Gorman? He turns out to be dead.
October 9, 2022
The mystery provides enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. But I really enjoy the observations by the narrator, and the dialogue that borders on banter, but is more straightforward.
October 15, 2022
Although this book is fairly well written, it does not live up to its own hype.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews