Letzter Auftritt von Rose

by Margaret Millar

Rose French – das Paradebeispiel eines Stummfilmstars, dessen Stern sank, als der Tonfilm aufkam. Sie selbst sieht das nicht so, schwelgt in alten Erinnerungen und wartet seit Jahren auf die große Filmrolle. Natürlich glaubt ihr niemand – bis sie eines Tages verkündet, sie sei engagiert, und Hals über Kopf aus ihrer mittelmäßigen Pension auszieht. Frank Clyde, ein Freund von Rose, telefoniert am selben Tag noch mit ihr – und steht kurz darauf vor ihrer Leiche. Der Totenschein konstatiert einen natürlichen Tod, aber Frank will das nicht glauben.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Carla Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

From 1952
A woman (Rose) is found dead on a stranger’s lawn. This book goes into depth on the life of that family, their relatives and a doll factory they own, also Rose’s ex husbands. Margaret Millar is brilliant but this one is rather boring.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in 1952, this is my first reading of a novel by Margaret Millar, the highly-respected mystery writer who was married to another highly-respected mystery writer, Ross MacDonald. I was inspired to seek this one out by the recent release of the 1960s TV series THRILLER on DVD - a number of the series' episodes were based on novels by popular writers of the 1950s such as Millar and Charlotte Armstrong - ROSE'S LAST SUMMER was one of the earliest episodes, a rather interesting mystery about a faded actress on this skids (excellently played by Mary Astor, a favorite of mine) who takes on her most challenging role . . . I suspected that due to the constraints of time (episodes ran about 49/50 minutes without commercials) the plot had probably been streamlined, and I was right - there are several characters (and a subplot) that fell by the wayside - the character of Rose was much more sympathetic in the TV adaptation.

Millar seemed to have a darkly humorous touch, even when writing about a funeral service:
". . . Mrs. Cushman, who had arrived late and taken a seat in the back row, assumed she had somehow come to the wrong funeral and she immediately rustled out again to look for the right one.
"Malgradi could stand the agony no longer. He slipped out into the corridor. Here he met Mrs. Cushman who had been wandering in and out of rooms finding out a good deal about the embalming business. The experience had unnerved her and left her quite unprepared to cope with this sudden meeting.
“'Eeeee,' Mrs. Cushman said, and made a frantic beeline for the nearest door, which happened to be that of the chapel. So she didn’t miss Rose’s funeral after all."

I enjoyed this first experience reading a Millar novel, and will definitely be on the lookout for some of her others.

[The Honest Book Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first random bookshelf read for this year. I've set myself a target to clear books from my own shelves and then move them out of my house. Margaret Millar is considered one of the most important crime writers of the mid-20th century, and I've come to understand is known for her psychological approach to crime fiction. Having now finished this book, I agree.

This reads like a classic mystery. It does feel somewhat dated, but I let the narrative drag me into the period and just accepted what may come. And that approach helped.

What I enjoyed in this book is the focus on character motivation and psychology. There's a sense of the author understanding deeply how every character is constructed and keeping it consistent. And this is not a lengthy book, so creating deep characters in a short book I think takes great skill. Many times, I forgot about the mystery because I was so focused on the characters. The book contemplates aging, isolation, and the human desire for relevance and recognition. It also takes a shot at the Hollywood notion that aging women can be ignored and cast aside - something that I think may still happen now in that industry.

A clever and tight mystery. Characters that hooked me. I'm glad I read this and it won't be the last Margaret Millar book I read. Not bad for a book that I probably paid less than $1 for.

[Brett Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great dark book, with lots of interesting excavations of human psychology, and a fairly obvious mystery that goes on too long in the last third but otherwise makes for an entertaining, enjoyable, and contemplative read. Almost every assessment of this author says that she is a mixed bag, and this book bears that out, since the mystery portion is not quite interesting enough for the drama around it, but the protagonists -- a nurturing psychologist and nihilist hardboiled policeman -- are convincing and the characters true to form for their moral and intellectual makeup. Darkly cynical about human motivations, this book might be described as "Nietzschean noir" for its depiction of the vast void of meaning at the center of modern human life and the desperate, vainglorious, and self-destructive attempts that people sally forth with in order to address it.

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book very characteristic of Margaret Millar, though not up to her best work. The characters are interesting, flawed humans and the plot is intriguing. And, as usual, there is the unexpected twist (that all Margaret Millar readers have come to expect) in the last chapter. It is Margaret Millar at the height of her powers and, well, if those powers did not produce one of her GREAT novels, at least we were given another Millar, and that's never a bad thing.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Millar and another winner. As I have said before, she is what you’d get if you combined the best of Jim Thompson with all that’s good about Patricia Highsmith. The bad thing is that she has been all but forgotten. The good thing is that her work is being released as e-books.

[Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

A silent film star is found dead in a garden and only one person believes that it was a murder.

[Jane]

I will not rate this because I could not finish it. After heroic efforts, I finally realized I could not summon up enough interest to continue. I read about one half of it.

[J. Rubino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aging actress Rose French lives out her twilight years in a boarding house, drinking too much, chronically short of cash, hoping that the next big role will turn up. She tells her landlady and her social worker and closest friend, Frank Clyde that she has found a job as a housekeeper, packs her bags and shortly afterward is found dead in front of the house of a young couple who live with their inept young maid and the husband's invalid mother. Although the death is ruled to be a heart attack, there is just enough of a question to involve the police, the social worker, the first of Rose's several ex-husbands - who is also hunting for their daughter, who had vanished weeks before - the invalid's other son and widowed daughter.
Unfortunately, the plot twist is so easy to spot so early on that the rest of the book is simply putting up with the series of encounters among the characters, and then it ends. Like "Fire Will Freeze" (though not quite as bad) "Rose's Last Summer" is a wonderful premise, wasted.

[Maryanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a witty and entertaining book with a a few obvious twists and turns as who the imposture characters really were pretending to be throughout the novel. The prose and dialogues were entertaining, especially from Rose in the final role of her acting career. Captain Greer figured the conspiracy out in the cat and mouse game, revealing it in the parlor confrontation with all the characters. An easy and charming tale of death and taxes!

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat slow

Margaret Millar's books are usually among my favorites. But this one was a shade bit slow and not as engaging as some of her others. Oddly enough, being a former trust officer, I guessed at the motivation and was correct. So that may have affected my feelings about the book.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Muddled mystery aims for quirky charm, misses.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

My entry for ugly book cover. Lo!

Rose is a broke former actress living in LA in the 1950's. She turns up dead by a lily pond of a wealthy couple and a detective takes on the case. It was tongue in cheek and much better than its ugly cover.

[Victoria & David Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Margaret Millar. This, however, is not one of her better books. Too slow to become engaging and then too convoluted to suspend disbelief.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Millar's prose kept me very entertained for the length of the book. There were one or two "twists" I could see from a mile away, and a few that I could not. It isn't as spectacular as Beyond This Point Are Monsters or How Like An Angel but worth your time just the same.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Often irritating for the same reasons it's comforting --- no surprises, dated dialog (full of 40s wisecracks that were racy at the time but rather flat today) and a weak plot with an amusing twist at the end. Rose, an ex-B-grade star is found dead in someone's garden. Is it murder?

[Karschtl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trotz des 'Alters' des Buches, und obwohl es zudem eine Übersetzung ist, hat mir der Sprachstil doch recht gut gefallen. Es war zudem eine nette kleine Detektivstory, mit überraschenden Wendungen.
Hat mich ein wenig an P. Highsmith erinnert, die ja zu ähnlicher Zeit aktiv war wie Millar.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crazy and fun.
Did I mention crazy?

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different type of mystery. I enjoyed Margaret Millar's style and enjoyed the story

[Barbie H · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Margaret Millar book and I greatly enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to reading more of her work.