Vanish in an Instant

by Margaret Millar

In this classic noir tale of blurred guilt and flawed innocence, a cynical lawyer uncovers the desperate lives of a group connected only by a gruesome murder. Eric Meecham is not an optimistic sort. An old-before-his-time lawyer, scratching out a living in courts and jail houses, he is no stranger to desperate cases and has little faith in anything or anyone. But his brand of existential nihilism isn’t without curiosity, and when he gets a chance to represent a local society woman who’s been arrested for murder under very scandalous circumstances, well, even he can’t help but be engaged.  Cold, austere, and used to having her way, Mrs. Hamilton is more than a little upset at having to travel 40 miles west of Detroit, in the dead of winter, to the small city of Arbana. But her careless daughter Virginia has landed herself in trouble again and Mrs. Hamilton will do anything to keep the family name out of a scandal. But she little understands the gravity of her daughter’s arrest. Virginia was found drunk and underclad in the midst of a white-out snow storm. She was also covered in blood. In a cottage not too far away a married man, father of two, lay brutally stabbed to death. Earl Loftus is the definition of a hard luck case. Broke and terminally ill, Earl’s life has been one tragedy after another. But the spark of a thoughtful intellect still gleams in his eyes and when Loftus comes forward to confess to the crime that Virginia is accused of, Eric Meecham is instantly skeptical. Could a man like Loftus actually commit such an act? The more Meecham interviews Loftus, the less he thinks it’s possible.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Classics, American, Thriller

240 pages, Kindle Edition

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

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 4 out of 5]

”He caught her by the shoulders and turned her around so that she had to look at him instead of the ugly girl in the mirror. ‘Where did you get the idea that there are only white saints and black sinners in this world?’

She stared at him, mute and suffering.”

Virginia Barkeley is arrested for the rather brutal murder of a wealthy playboy named Claude Margolis. Eric Meecham is hired by Virginia’s husband to represent her, but when Virginia’s mother, Mrs. Hamilton, comes to town, she is convinced within seconds of meeting him that he is not good enough to represent her daughter. He has not handled enough cases, nor does he charge enough.

How good can he be charging such a reasonable sum?

Mrs. Hamilton would like to believe that her daughter is innocent, but it doesn’t really matter because stacks of money can overcome guilt with ease, especially in a small Michigan town. Virginia was found in an inebriated state with Margolis’s blood on her clothes and doesn’t remember if she killed him or not, but she doesn’t know why she would have. There are blank spaces in her memories, which exasperates Meecham as he tries to piece together what really happened. ””You forget some things you remember some things. The things you’re supposed to remember you forget, and the things you’re supposed to forget you remember.’

‘I can’t help that.””

She can afford to be helpless. Her mother is in town.

To further complicate things a lumpy man named Earl Loftus comes forward to admit that he killed Margolis. He can offer definitive proof that he is the murderer. Meecham smells something fishy, despite the evidence. To add another wrinkle to the plot, Loftus is dying from leukemia. ”No one wants to be near me, people are afraid to be near a man who’s walking a step ahead of death. I make them too conscious of their own fate, and they hate me for it. I’m not blaming them, no, I understand how they feel. I loathe myself more than anyone could loathe me. I loathe this decaying body that I’m trapped inside, hopelessly trapped inside. This isn’t me, this grotesque body, it is my prison. What prison have you to offer that could be half so terrible?”

Even though he isn’t even getting paid, Meecham continues to investigate. There are too many intriguing aspects to the case. The cops just want to take the slam dunk case and move on, but there are too many pieces to this puzzle that are still missing to suit Meecham. What is real, and what has been made to look real? As my mind kept flipping back and forth between the various characters surrounding this crime, I too was waiting for the final clue, and when Margaret Millar reveals the final truth, I react with a long, low whistle of appreciation.

Excellent mystery plotting backed up by even better writing. This mystery was so hardboiled I was cracking teeth on this egg. Millar has been forgotten in recent years, but Syndicate Books is collecting her works into several affordable trade paperback editions, combining several novels in each edition that will provide you with hours and hours of entertainment. Maybe you have heard of Kenneth Millar, her husband, better known as Ross MacDonald, the celebrated writer of Lew Archer mysteries? He is more famous than his wife in the genre, maybe because he was a man. If this book is any indication of the rest of Margaret’s writing, Ross doesn’t hold a candle to her in regards to character development. Even the throwaway characters, the ones that are mere furniture in most books, are deftly sketched, until their breath riffles the pages of the book.

Millar makes poignant observations that had this reader reevaluating my first hasty impressions of some of the characters. Most of us are not white saints or black sinners, but caught somewhere in the grayscale in between. Rarely are we as good as we think we are, or as bad as we think we are. We are just humans caught in a turmoil of lingering despair and fleeting joy, searching for ways to avoid becoming the master of our own self-destruction.

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[Umut · Rating 4 out of 5]

For full review, please visit my blog: https://umutreviews.wordpress.com/201...

There are 3 main things I admired in this book:
1. Millar is really a skilful writer. It was a pleasure to read the book. Her characterisation was really good. None of the characters were perfect, they all had their flaws. Her portrayal of the ‘imperfection’ of human nature was brilliant, and added to the plot making it harder to understand if they were reliable or not.
2. The mystery plot was very well built. It was like a slow cooking dish, that you can’t wait for it to cook. Every piece of information had a reason to exist, all the details fell into their places in the plot. She made her characters reveal just enough, and you beg more more at times 🙂 But, the little puzzle pieces come together slowly, but surely.
3. I couldn’t guess the end, and I very much enjoyed the twist 🙂
My only criticism for the book is the pace got slow a bit around 50% mark, hence the 4 stars instead of 5.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and trying to solve the mystery with an epic fail, LOL! I would highly recommend it.

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Some people seem to jump from emergency to emergency, and other people like me just wait around to be useful after the fall.”

Like her husband Ross Macdonald, Margaret Millar is interested in the wild ways of the old rich and its impact on the people who come into their path or hover around them and are forced to serve them. Rich versus poor. The weak versus the strong. Young and old. All their fates terribly tangled together, so that it makes you wish they would all Vanish in an Instant (from a poem by Yeats). This was an awesome depressing crime thriller with two great twists towards the end. But is it fair to call them twists? These twists were the very opposite of thrilling. Each "twist" makes the book increasingly depressing, painting a picture of a truly hopeless and bleak world.

It seems to be a pretty straightforward case of a rich heiress Virginia Barkeley murdering her lover Claude Margolis' while stone drunk. But when Earl Loftus, a down and out loner comes forward and confesses to murdering Margolis', ageing unmarried lawyer Meecham who represents the Barkeley's and is trying to get to the bottom of the murder, gets more than he bargained for, including a love interest in the Barkeley's disillusioned secretary Alice.

Millar is big on characterization. She has created a couple of truly memorable losers who are married to each other in this one - Earl Loftus and his wife Birdie. Meecham, while cynical is as dedicated to finding the truth as Lew Archer. He even has some great one liners like “Double indemnity has healed a lot of broken hearts.” Millar also bestows the characters with remarkable second names like Cordwink (a tough small town cop).

Millar is not very subtle with the symbols:
During the hour that he’d been in the house the snow-lady had been melting in the soft air like butter in the sun. The icicle was still sticking through her heart, though her nose and her remaining eye had fallen out and the scarf clung moistly to her shrinking head. By morning, if the weather held, she would topple into an indistinguishable mass of gray slush, and no one would remember her exist­ence except two children.

Millar packs it in with some devastating similies and at times does not follow the show don't tell rule of writing. This is a crime thriller in which every single character is miserable but the final lines of the novel offers some hope - "Meecham was conscious of a great surge of energy and power, as if he could go on driv­ing forever without food or sleep." Or does it?

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not just a satisfying murder mystery, told mostly from the perspective of a defense attorney who finds himself digging deeper and investigating the crime. It's a masterpiece of crime fiction writing, with deftly handled yet vibrantly rendered setting, characters, and crime, neatly tied together at the end. Even if you are able to guess the ending prior to the final reveal, you will enjoy getting caught up in the lives of desperate small town characters who are all trying to escape themselves.

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

07/2019

From 1952
The mystery is low key (not action based), but interesting and the resolution is satisfying and surprised me .

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having so far read 7 novels by her husband (Ross Macdonald), it seemed high time that I got around to reading something by Margaret Millar. This one, from the earlier part of her career, just precedes a work of hers held in particularly high regard, the Edgar Award-winning 'Beast in View'. 

Although I don't have a heightened interest in crime novels, I do like a well-told tale, regardless of genre. And with crime novels in particular, what seems to interest me the least are the actual crimes - in other words, The Big Reveal of the conclusions. 

In that regard, 'VIAI' is no exception. I was less captivated by the final chapter. But that doesn't mean it's ineffective; in its own way, it works. But what will keep me gripped for the bulk of such a novel - if it's done well - is the overall puzzle of it all. 

And, in that - the building of the puzzle - Millar succeeds rather well. She has assembled a group of characters who represent different shades of gray (light, darker, dim, bold). So, for the most part, they're equally suspect and, when it comes to articulating what they're individually responsible for, they're each vague in a plausible way that can keep them off the hook. Barely.

Millar also wrote detective novels at times but this isn't one of them. It's driven by a protagonist who is a lawyer with a conscience. (Interestingly, Millar's Eric Meecham has a sort-of snarkiness that can echo her husband's world-weary Lew Archer, though the latter tends to be... snarkier.) The lawyer finds himself being sucked into something that prompts him into becoming somewhat more proactive than he ever intended. 

He also falls in love in the bargain. ~ not the most necessary aspect of the story; nor the most convincing, the way that that element is handled.

What works best here is the way that the interrelationships (including some peripheral innocents) converge. Connections are forcefully twisted together in the way the material demands. (If a bit of it reads as preposterous, that's not much of a 'flaw'.)

As well, Millar has an arresting way with visuals:

The hat perched on her head like a reluctant raven, the stockings hung in pleats on her legs, and the full skirt of the dress stuck out from her fleshless hips like a ballerina's tutu.

If her dialogue isn't quite as snappy as her husband's, it doesn't necessarily have to be. What Millar lacks in jokes is compensated for by way of the kind of economic, percolating banter on parade in most of the chapters. There's little to no fat here, which makes for breathless reading. 

One of her characters quotes Yeats, which affords the novel its intriguing spine:

'That this pragmatical preposterous pig of a world, its farrow that so solid seem, Must vanish on the instant if the mind but change its theme.'

  

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've said it before and I'll trumpet it again. Since I discovered her mysteries, Margaret Millar has become my favorite of the genre and just a favorite author. Vanish in an Instant, published in 1952, was no exception.

Philanderer Claude Margolis is found murdered and troubled Virginia Barkeley is charged with the murder, Virginia's mother and her assistant, Alice, fly to Michigan from California so Mrs. Hamilton can help her daughter. Lawyer Eric Meecham gets involved in the case. Before it goes too far, Virginia is released as Earl Loftus confesses to the murder.

Although Meecham isn't representing Earl, he finds himself continually involved in the case as he doesn't seem to believe that Earl did commit the murder. So the follow-on investigation and the relations between the various characters is where the story continues to develop.

I love how Millar develops and presents one of her stories. There is a clarity to her writing. Each and every character, no matter how minor, seem real and accessible and add to the richness of the story. Millar presents the setting so you feel you are there, feeling the chill and dampness. You get to know the characters. Meecham and Alice, especially are interesting and their developing relationship grabs you and pulls you in. It's an interesting story and even though the ending was a bit nebulous, it was satisfying and the story was pretty darn good. I've ordered two more of Millar's books. I look forward to trying my next one. (4.5 stars)

[Raven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being a huge fan of classic American crime, it is with some shame that I admit to never having read Margaret Millar before. Perhaps slightly overshadowed by her husband, fellow author, Ken Millar aka Ross MacDonald (of whom I’ve read many), on the strength of this one, I think I have a whole new cache of her work to discover…
This is classic American hardboiled crime fiction with a steely feminine edge, that absorbs the reader instantly, and sucks you in to a superbly plotted tale of murder and deception. Millar captures the claustrophobic and suspicious atmosphere of this small town with finesse, where rumour and petty jealousies fuel every interaction. Everyone seems to have an ulterior motive for their actions, and like Meecham you find yourself picking through the evidence, trying to uncover who is the most duplicitous individual in a cast of possibly guilty characters. The plotting is absolutely flawless, and Millar keeps Meecham, and us, in a state of mistrust until the final, and unexpected unmasking of the killer.
The characterisation, particularly in relation to the female characters is just peerless, and I loved the way that each woman Millar introduces are so defined by their difference to the others. We have a femme fatale, a controlling mother, another alcoholic mother, a young doe eyed companion, a strident, though adoring, wife, and so on, each one precisely drawn jumping from the page to our imagination due to the strength of Millar’s characterisation of them. It’s also interesting how she uses her male character, the smart talking and cynical lawyer Meecham, to colour our perception of them further by observing his differing interactions with them, sometimes testy, sometimes flirtatious, or others that reveal a deeper compassionate edge to his character too. All through the book, he is the perfect foil for their particular episodes of scheming, dishonesty or weaknesses of character. In true hardboiled fashion, both his, and their, cadence of speech and dialogue reflects the razor sharp and clipped style of the genre, conjuring up images of the classic old black and white crime movies with the ‘I speak, now you speak’, style of conversation.
I think we can safely say that Vanish In An Instant was a little gem of a discovery for me, and my hunt for further Margaret Millar books starts here. Her writing is just wonderful, with a tightness yet rhythmic fluidity to her prose that is enviable. A superb plot of red herrings and unexpected twists, populated by a vibrant and perfectly realised group of characters, further adds to the overall distinction of her writing. Cannot recommend highly enough.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

On a snowbound night near a small Michigan town, Virginia Barkeley is discovered staggering around, covered in blood and blind drunk. Nearby, in his trysting cottage, wealthy lothario Claude Margolis is found dead, stabbed several times in the neck. Since it's widely assumed -- including by Virginia's husband, Paul -- that she was Margolis's mistress, the case seems open and shut. Even Virginia thinks she probably committed the crime, although she cannot for the life of her think why.

Onto the scene from California comes Virginia's fabulously wealthy mother, Mrs. Hamilton, determined to spend whatever it takes to get her little girl out of jail. But then, as if out of nowhere, a local man, Earl Loftus, comes forward to confess to the murder -- and does so with enough corroborative detail that the police cannot realistically doubt his story. Already facing imminent death from leukemia, Loftus hangs himself in his cell. Case closed.

However, Eric Meecham, the lawyer whom Paul Barkeley called in to represent Virginia, isn't so sure. He begins to dig into Loftus'a background and family circumstances, and a far more complicated pattern begins to emerge . . .

Millar was a consummate writer, and she brings many of her skills to bear here. The narrative's done using multiple viewpoint, which isn't an easy trick to pull off; so great is Millar's artistry that I was several chapters into the text before I noticed she was doing it. I also liked very much the way that Meecham appears at first almost as a peripheral character, moving only gradually to take center stage. His relationship with Mrs. Hamilton's companion, Alice Dwyer, is neatly handled too; it's at best ancillary to the plot, but helps considerably in rounding out Meecham as a person: he comes across as a sort of vaguely Lew Archer-like character (and, yes, I know who Millar's husband was), but Lew Archer as played by Fred MacMurray -- every bit as sharp but a deal more amiable.

The lesser characters aren't neglected; the one who proves in the final act to be the guilty party is a superbly sympathetic creation, while Meecham's ambivalence toward that person's culpability is very realistic.

Another aspect that I found appealing was Millar's lack of any timidity about deploying lyricism. For example, the chapters tend to close with a piece of particularly poignant observation -- about characters, about the social setup, about the wintry night. And, throughout, there's the beautifully deployed backdrop of a snowy Michigan winter.

Superb writing, a gripping narrative, characters you care about, a very clever exercise in mystery plotting -- hard to think what more one could want from a piece of crime fiction. Millar at the top of her game was second to none; here she's pretty close to it.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. Loved the atmosphere and the old school storytelling, the fact of when it was written and set meaning that the usual crime cliches such as out of juice mobile phones and sudden lack of signal cannot be a driving force.

Instead Meecham, lawyer and thinker, follows the clues laid out with the benefit of only his wit and his own two feet. Drawn into a murder case, even when his part is done, still he goes after the truth.

This is a slow burn mystery that felt like watching a black and white movie, the dialogue, the background, the characters, all quirky and quietly observant. A twisty path to a Poirot worthy conclusion, Margaret Millar, like Christie, is masterful at misdirection.

They really don't write them like they used to.

Recommended.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An older woman and her companion arrived in a small airport in the upper midwest. Mrs. Hamilton expected her son-in-law to meet them, but he was nowhere to be seen. Another man, who introduced himself as Meecham, was there to take them to the Barkeley home. Mrs. Hamilton wanted to see her daughter Virginia that night. No, you can't, she's in jail, not in a hotel.

Virginia was in jail suspected of murdering her lover. She had been picked up within a 1/4 mile of the cottage with blood all over her, blood that was determined to be that of the dead man. But she was too drunk to remember anything.

This is dark, but not hold on to your seat dark. This is my third by Millar and I think I prefer these standalones to her series novels, though I won't turn my nose up at those. She is of the same generation as Raymond Chandler. Her writing style is decidedly different, but I think she comes as close to the creepiness as almost anyone I've read. That said, this is as close to 5-stars as you can get without actually earning that 5th star.

[Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

More and more I find that what I really love and care about in my favourite crime fiction, especially at the more hardboiled end, is atmosphere; it's what I love about Georges Simenon, it's what I love about Ross Macdonald (Mr Margaret Millar, of course), and it's what I loved about this.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drink and death...

When Claude Margolis is found stabbed to death, suspicion falls not unnaturally on a woman who has been spending time with him recently, Virginia Barkeley, who is found wandering the streets nearby in a drunken state and covered in blood. Virginia’s husband hires lawyer Eric Meecham to defend her. However his lawyerly skills aren’t needed for too long, since although Virginia can’t remember the events of the evening, another witness has come forward whose evidence seems to clear her. But something doesn’t feel quite right about the whole thing to Meecham, and he finds himself trying to find out exactly what did happen to Margolis…

This is billed as noir, but although it has some noir elements I don’t think it sits fully in that genre. It’s closer to a traditional mystery in style with Meecham playing the role of the unofficial detective. None of the various women fulfils the requirements of the femme fatale, being considerably more realistic and well-rounded than those usually are. Meecham is a little cynical about human nature, but he’s not completely world-weary, he works within the law, and he treats women like real people even if he does display the occasional “me Tarzan, you Jane” mentality typical of the time.

However, there are undoubtedly bleak aspects to the story that may be why some consider it noir. Drink plays a large part – not just Virginia’s blackout, but there’s another character, an elderly woman who, late in life, has become an alcoholic after a lifetime of not drinking. As her son says of her “One drink, and she was a drunk. She’d been a drunk for maybe thirty years and didn’t find it out until then. For her the world vanished in that instant.” It’s a really excellent portrayal of the shame of alcoholism for an elderly, respectable woman – hiding and lying, trying to keep up appearances, and always desperately trying to find the money to buy the next bottle.

Her son, Earl Loftus, is another interesting characterisation. Still a young man, he is dying of a then incurable condition – leukaemia – and Millar shows how this affects his thoughts and actions, and the people around him. I am deliberately avoiding saying how Earl fits into the story, since the plot is revealed slowly and steadily as the book progresses and almost any information about it could count as a spoiler. But I found the depiction of him as a dying man credible and quite moving, and his actions seemed to arise naturally out of his situation.

The pace is slow and steady throughout, perhaps a little too slow in the middle section where I found my interest dipping for a while. But Meecham is a likeable lead character who shows a lot of empathy and understanding for the weakness and frailties that lead the other characters to act as they do. I could have done without the instant “true love” he finds with a character with whom he has exchanged all of about six sentences, especially since I found the girl annoyingly keen to become his adoring, submissive slave. (Is it just me, or are female authors of this era often more sexist than their male counterparts? Seems to me male crime writers of the ‘50s and ‘60s like their female love interests to be strong and sexy, while female authors make them clingy and pathetic. Maybe I just notice it more when it’s a female author who annoys me in this way.)

Some aspects of the plot are fairly easy to work out, but enough is held back to allow for a surprise at the end – a surprise that in truth seemed to me to lessen the general credibility up to that point, although not enough to lose me completely. It’s very well written, with the strength lying more in the characterisation than the plot. Overall, I preferred the only other Millar I’ve read to date, The Listening Walls, but I enjoyed this one enough to cement her in her place as an author I’d like to investigate further.

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[Cullen Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Deeply sympathetic" isn't something one usually says about a mystery novel, but that is exactly how I would describe Margaret Millar's writing. Whereas most mystery novels are highly cynical (or hardboiled) or satirical, Millar's novel expresses a profound concern for all her characters. Even the eccentric odd-ball that provides comic relief is given a sincere moment of sympathy. The wintry setting is highly evocative, and Millar's plotting is engrossing and engaging. Best of all, however, is her poetic sensibility: "It was noon, but there was no sun. The sky hung close over the smoky city like a sagging tent top that would some day blow away, exposing the vast blackness of space." A line like that is indicative not only of the quality and craft of Millar's writing, but also the deep sense of desolation that underscores the entire novel.

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a small town in Michigan in the midst of a snowy winter, Vanish in an Instant (1952) is a tightly plotted murder mystery in the classic hardboiled style. Its author, Margaret Millar, was a Canadian-American crime writer, best known for her 1955 novel Beast in View, winner of the Edgar Allen Poe award for best novel. If Vanish is anything to go by then that award was fully justified; it’s a very compelling mystery, full of twists and turns with plenty to keep the reader guessing right up to the very end.

To read my review, please click here:

https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2019...

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

With its dialogue-heavy prose, this has the feel of an old black and white movie - women are especially boxed in by their social roles all of which relate them to men: wives, mothers, mistresses. But the plot is nicely thought out with all the pieces falling into place. Did we really need the romance of the lawyer getting engaged to the companion? Apart from that, an interesting period piece that is also a slice of social history.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs Hamilton, Virginia’s redoubtable mother, is convinced Virginia is innocent of the murder of Claude Margolis but not so sure about the abilities of Eric Meecham, the lawyer hired to defend her daughter. On the other hand, the view the reader gets of Virginia via Meecham isn’t quite the ‘butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth’ opinion held of her by her mother.

A late night encounter draws Meecham into the investigation of the circumstances of the murder with the picture becoming more of a puzzle by the moment as a web of tangled relationships is revealed. As he observes, ‘Another equation to be solved… and each new equation led to still another, and on and on into the infinity of the human mind’.

Alongside the murder mystery, the book also charts the beginning of a relationship that is intense from the outset, as if the two people involved were somehow fated to meet, and to be together.

Vanish In An Instant is a taut, well-crafted crime mystery sprinkled with red herrings but also with a few clues for the (very) observant reader to pick up on. As an author, Margaret Millar was renowned for her clever plotting and last few page reveals and Vanish In An Instant definitely lives up to both those accolades.

[Hannah - The BookSirens Babe · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded to 4
Recently, I have been reading through the new Pushkin Vertigo releases, a collection of crime novels from around the world. This was my first ever read of a book by Margaret Millar. I found the story quite refreshing due to its intensity and because it focuses more on the characters. Millar’s writing is to the point. I love how she weaves the plot in small-town America, a setting that, even to this day, makes for an excellent background for a noir or a mystery book. I look forward to reading more of Millar’s works.

[Hitesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice 'Good Old Days Mystery'

Virginia Barkeley is accused and arrested for brutally killing her friend Claude Margolis. All circumstantial evidences points to her and screams murderer at her.

Just before a charge-sheet is filed, another man claims the responsibility of killing Margolis. And the plot takes the twist.

-There is a Killer.
-There is an Accused.
-There is a Lawyer.
-There is Money.
-There is Disgruntled Husband.
-And a Disgruntled Wife.
-A Mother protecting her Child.
-And Man protecting his Mother.
-the Real Killer

A good story ! Only thing that amused me was the romance between Meecham( the lawyer) and Alice. Absurd and that part was just needless.

4 Stars, because, it was a simple plot, strong story, no forensic, no phone records, no GPS location and JUST BECAUSE IT WAS PURE MYSTERY.

[Lawrence FitzGerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well plotted, well written, a joy to read. Millar has an eye for the trenchant detail. She used all the words she needed to tell her story, sketch her characters and adumbrate the settings and no more. Budding authors could do well by her example.

[Rosemarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good atmosphere.

[Jackie Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vanish in an Instant, by Margaret Millar, is an old time crime thriller set in small town America’s mid west. First published in 1952 it needs to be read with an awareness of attitudes at the time. The women all appear to be looking for a husband, the men for a woman who takes care of her appearance. A new romance that blossoms was the one aspect I couldn’t make sense of in what is otherwise a carefully crafted tale.

The story opens with a concerned mother, Mrs Hamilton, flying into town to help her married daughter, Virginia, who is being held at the county jail following a murder. Virginia, was picked up by local police, seriously drunk and covered in the blood of the victim. They had been out together the night before. Virginia cannot remember anything about what happened at the cottage where the body of the married man was found.

A local lawyer, Eric Meecham, has been called in by Virginia’s husband, Paul. Mrs Hamilton takes an instant dislike to Eric. The mother is resentful that her son-in-law hasn’t managed to prevent the possibility of such a situation occurring. She appears overbearing but not entirely surprised at developments.

Before Eric can make progress with uncovering what happened, a witness appears whose evidence allows Virginia to walk free. Late night meetings and a series of unhappy marriages bring with them the whiff of dodgy deals. A further death takes Eric out of town where he becomes embroiled in the well being of an elderly alcoholic who the second victim was trying to help.

There are the requisite twists and blind alleys as the affected families and those associated with them reveal their links to both victims. Eric appears content to work without payment, despite it being offered on numerous occasions, as he follows leads and tries to uncover the truth of a sorry situation.

The writing flows and the plot is well structured. The denouement provides answers to the puzzle with the scattered clues now making sense. The era evoked brings to the fore the dissatisfaction and frustrations of, particularly, the female characters. This may be old time crime – lacking forensic analysis and effective, dogged police work – but it offers a window into sociological aspects that are still not as distant as many of us desire.

[Shivam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my very first novel by the author!

A clean and sophisticated murder mystery! Wastes no time in getting started with the storyline, and gets you 'there' in no time!

Rating - 3.5/5

[Liz Mc2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read an appealing review of this on a blog I follow and then found the ebook was under $5.

This is a noir-ish mystery from the 50s, but set in a Michigan college town rather than the big, corrupt, city. (I assumed the fictional Arbana is a play on Ann Arbor). A man has been murdered and his maybe-mistress arrested. But she was drunk and has no memory of whether she actually did it. Eric Meecham, the world-weary lawyer who serves as the book’s detective figure, is hired to represent her and then drawn into the complicated web of deception surrounding the crime.

The plot twists kept me guessing, but what was most appealing was Millar’s psychologically astute chronicling of the sad, messed-up lives of her characters (there are some bright spots for Meecham, though, who banters with the attractive companion of the maybe-killer’s mother). Great sharp descriptions. This was terrific and I will read more.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I randomly picked up an anthology of work by Margaret Millar at my local library, knowing nothing about her personal life or career. It turns out she was married to one of my favorite noir authors of all time, Ross MacDonald. There were definitely similarities between their subject matter and writing styles. The protagonist here isn't a detective, but rather a small town defense attorney who feels compelled to get to the bottom of a murder. The beats are a little different than I'm used to in a noir, but it was still a tight story with great writing and a lot of twists and turns. I plan to check out the rest of the books in the anthology.

[Jack Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Millar is someone who I've wanted to read for a long time now -- and not just because she happened to be married to one of my favourite writers of all time, but so I could finally get a sense of her as an author in her own right and of her own renown.

My sense from the opening chapters was that this would be a straightforward little mystery novel, and in a certain overall sense it is. But then we get to chapter four, which is where Millar throws a wrench into the reader's expectations and spins us completely off the course of the mystery we thought we were going to be following.

From that point on, this book totally had me. It tells a fine story stylishly and engagingly, has a roster of great, well-drawn characters, and a neat twist at the end. And even if the book does feel a little too insular and unambitious at times, it benefits from a steady narrative momentum that, even as its central mystery begins to ramp up in detail, always remains ordered and logical (unlike her husband's books, the complexities of which usually have a tendency to spin out into the cosmos).

One thing Millar shares with her husband that I absolutely love is an approach to the murder mystery based on psychology and humanity rather than artificiality. There aren't a load of "clues" in the traditional sense, but rather a construction of character and that leads to the pieces of the puzzle falling ultimately together. Maybe it's a same that these two never collaborated Sjöwall & Wahlöö-style on a series, since even just from one book I can get such a sense of their symbiotic literary connection.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat 1950s mystery. Lawyer Ed Meecham is hired by Mrs Hamilton to defend her daughter Virginia on a murder charge. Virginia had been in a relationship with the victim, Claude Margolis, and is found helplessly drunk and covered in Margolis’ blood. Then a young man, Earl Loftus, confesses to the murder and Meecham is troubled - who is Loftus, how is he connected to the victim and suspect, and why does his story not ring true?

I enjoyed this sharp noir mystery with its snappy dialogue and its feel of a black and white. The characters are recognisable as ‘types’ from this genre, and this is definitely a world where women are governed by male expectations, but an unusual depth of characterisation and a number of perceptive observations about human behaviour lift it above the run of the mill thriller. The plot is cleverly assembled, with subtle misdirection and a few twists and turns.

Less satisfying was the appearance of a rather incongruous romance for Meecham which sprang out of nowhere and added little to the plot. Perhaps it was there to meet the expectations of the time? Overall an excellent book and I would be curious to read more from this forgotten author.

[Tina Tamman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Millar is one of those writers whose name should be much more widely known. Having just finished this novel, I have turned back to the beginning and am rereading it because it is so cleverly constructed and elegantly written - it's such a pleasure. Not something I would say of many crime writers. And is she a crime writer? I'd rather put her in the category of murder mystery. In this novel there is no detective, just a lawyer who's been asked to represent the accused. And he is not really investigating; more often than not he is merely a witness to situations in which people talk to each other as if he were not there.
Interesting way to write a novel - even refreshing at the time when we are used to lonely and unhappy detectives who occupy the centre stage. And what an array of people! And what an interesting title (comes from Yeats and is explained on p 106 ff).
Recommended.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A violent murder of a small time moneyed playboy has a woman in jail and her rich mother flying in from the coast. Meecham, the lawyer, isn't at all charmed by these two and thinks his defense is going to be hopeless until a mysterious man comes forward and provides evidence that he did the murder. However, this man's life isn't at all as simple as it would seem on the surface and Meecham finds himself swinging blindly from one lead to another, hoping the net hasn't disappeared beneath him.

Margaret Millar has one of the best ears for dialogue and not only that, can write excellent characters to speak that dialogue. Characters that act and sound human that do unpredictable human things. She is particularly good at capturing people at their worst and most desperate. I've heard of, read and admired many crime novelists before, but I am completely stunned I've never heard of Millar before. She is one of the greats.