What do you think?
Rate this book
Beyond This Point Are Monsters
The investigation into the disappearance of a wealthy California rancher brings to light the secrets of a whole community in this haunting masterpiece of suspense On a small family ranch outside Boca de Rio, a California city just across the Mexican border from Tijuana, time has stood still for the last year, since the day Robert Osborne, the 24-year-old ranch owner, went out for a walk with his dog and never came home. A large amount of two types of blood was found on the floor of the canteen used by the Mexican viseros, day-laborers hired to work the fields, but Robert's body was never recovered--if he was killed. The sheriff investigating the case pursued the case so tirelessly he couldn't cope with his failure to solve it and quit his job. In the year that has passed, the ranch has languished. Until Robert is declared dead, the ranch's executorship cannot be passed to someone else. His widow, Devon, yearns to move on with her life. But Robert's mother can't accept that her son is dead. Now, at last, the case to have Robert Osborne declared dead in absentia is being heard before the County of San Diego Court. It should be a cut-and-dry ruling--all evidence points to murder. But as witnesses come forward to testify before the judge, secrets of the ranch's past are exposed--secrets of a salacious love affair and a suspicious suicide, of anti-Mexican racism and illegal border-crossing, of alcoholism, indigence, adultery, unwanted pregnancy, even older rumors of murder. Will learning the truth about Robert Osborne allow these wounds to finally heal, or will it only rip open new ones?
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1970
16 people are currently reading
309 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
February 3, 2024
11/2018
From 1970. Another of Millar's strange, not obvious, mysteries. The title refers to archaic maps, which do (along with a new map made for a trial) appear in the story. This is really about very Southern California and the connections between Anglos and Mexicans, There is a disappearance later revealed as a murder.
From 1970. Another of Millar's strange, not obvious, mysteries. The title refers to archaic maps, which do (along with a new map made for a trial) appear in the story. This is really about very Southern California and the connections between Anglos and Mexicans, There is a disappearance later revealed as a murder.
December 20, 2013
“The rest of us have monsters too, but we must call them by other names, or pretend they don't exist...”
Margaret Millar's second entry in HRF Keating's list of 100 Best Crime and Mystery Novels is both a Simenon-esque courtroom rehash of the events that led to the court case and a darker study of the depths of the human psyche, thought of so highly by Keating that he was brought to write of her "Jesus, how well she writes!"
Devon Osborne's husband Robert is about to be officially declared dead, he's been missing for a year after vanishing in suspicious and bloody circumstances but before the local judge can rubber stamp the declaration he must hear the sworn testimony of the small town's many gossiping witnesses.
The intrigue slowly builds, something clearly isn't right with the story being presented but is it possible to ever really know the truth of events? And what is the psychological toll on all involved? Millar tells her intriguing tale with beautiful prose throughout but it is the portrait of Robert's mother who refuses to accept the death of her son that is most remarkable about this particular novel, to share more would be to spoil. It's a small entertaining novel that reads with ease and just another example of why Margaret Millar was thought of so highly that her husband Kenneth Millar had to change his name when he started writing.
“The world of maps is nice and flat and simple. It has areas for people and areas for monsters. What a shock it is to discover the world is round and the areas merge and nothing separates the monsters and ourselves; that we are all whirling around in space together and there isn't even a graceful way of falling off.”
Margaret Millar's second entry in HRF Keating's list of 100 Best Crime and Mystery Novels is both a Simenon-esque courtroom rehash of the events that led to the court case and a darker study of the depths of the human psyche, thought of so highly by Keating that he was brought to write of her "Jesus, how well she writes!"
Devon Osborne's husband Robert is about to be officially declared dead, he's been missing for a year after vanishing in suspicious and bloody circumstances but before the local judge can rubber stamp the declaration he must hear the sworn testimony of the small town's many gossiping witnesses.
The intrigue slowly builds, something clearly isn't right with the story being presented but is it possible to ever really know the truth of events? And what is the psychological toll on all involved? Millar tells her intriguing tale with beautiful prose throughout but it is the portrait of Robert's mother who refuses to accept the death of her son that is most remarkable about this particular novel, to share more would be to spoil. It's a small entertaining novel that reads with ease and just another example of why Margaret Millar was thought of so highly that her husband Kenneth Millar had to change his name when he started writing.
“The world of maps is nice and flat and simple. It has areas for people and areas for monsters. What a shock it is to discover the world is round and the areas merge and nothing separates the monsters and ourselves; that we are all whirling around in space together and there isn't even a graceful way of falling off.”
October 1, 2023
El titulo de esta novela, hace referencia al texto que en algunos mapas del Medioevo señalaban los territorios desconocidos del planeta aun no explorados por el hombre y donde no era aconsejable llegar por temor a caer en el vacío o ser devorados por bestias marinas.
Pero detrás de lo conocido siempre hay algo oculto, algo con lo que se puede especular, sembrar dudas, temores y alimentar también nuestro miedo… a veces lo desconocido puede estar dentro de nosotros…y es que el ser humano suele ser muy hábil a la hora de ocultar los monstruos y demonios que lleva dentro.
En Mas Allá Hay Monstruos no hay un detective carismático buscando hacer justicia dentro o fuera de la ley, ni tampoco un anti héroe sumergido en una espiral de violencia, sino una historia realista narrada de forma sencilla y compacta, bien hilvanada, y me sorprende gratamente también encontrar en ella una prosa elegante pero sin resultar rebuscada y pretenciosa, con descripciones minuciosas tanto del entorno como de la psicología de los personajes.
Se trata de una thriller distinto alejado de los tópicos y argumentos efectistas o retorcidos pero de profundo matiz psicológico que habla de oscuridad. Esa oscuridad que todo ser humano lleva oculta dentro de sí y que aflora convertida en mentiras, mezquindad y obsesiones. Buen final, nada previsible pero si perturbador.
Pero detrás de lo conocido siempre hay algo oculto, algo con lo que se puede especular, sembrar dudas, temores y alimentar también nuestro miedo… a veces lo desconocido puede estar dentro de nosotros…y es que el ser humano suele ser muy hábil a la hora de ocultar los monstruos y demonios que lleva dentro.
En Mas Allá Hay Monstruos no hay un detective carismático buscando hacer justicia dentro o fuera de la ley, ni tampoco un anti héroe sumergido en una espiral de violencia, sino una historia realista narrada de forma sencilla y compacta, bien hilvanada, y me sorprende gratamente también encontrar en ella una prosa elegante pero sin resultar rebuscada y pretenciosa, con descripciones minuciosas tanto del entorno como de la psicología de los personajes.
Se trata de una thriller distinto alejado de los tópicos y argumentos efectistas o retorcidos pero de profundo matiz psicológico que habla de oscuridad. Esa oscuridad que todo ser humano lleva oculta dentro de sí y que aflora convertida en mentiras, mezquindad y obsesiones. Buen final, nada previsible pero si perturbador.
May 1, 2020
Noir in the California desert.
This was spectacular, a sort of poetry of a dry and sunny darkness. I've also read the author's novel Beast in View, and the main character of Beast seems to have crept into this novel as a side character as well.
From first twist to last, the only thing you can be sure of is that it didn't happen like that, for any given values of "it" and "that."
Recommended for noir fans.
This was spectacular, a sort of poetry of a dry and sunny darkness. I've also read the author's novel Beast in View, and the main character of Beast seems to have crept into this novel as a side character as well.
From first twist to last, the only thing you can be sure of is that it didn't happen like that, for any given values of "it" and "that."
Recommended for noir fans.
September 27, 2018
Wow. Wowowowowowow!
Terrific mystery thriller, told with such a sure hand--and I felt that hand grip my heart tight when I was reading the last few pages. Closest contemporary comparison would be Gone Girl, but this is better, faster, realer, harsher (even). And more beautiful: the conversation between Devon and Jaime near the river; the story that Leo tells about Ruth and the cake; even the line about the grillwork on Mrs. Osborne's windows. Wow. Great title. Great writer.
Terrific mystery thriller, told with such a sure hand--and I felt that hand grip my heart tight when I was reading the last few pages. Closest contemporary comparison would be Gone Girl, but this is better, faster, realer, harsher (even). And more beautiful: the conversation between Devon and Jaime near the river; the story that Leo tells about Ruth and the cake; even the line about the grillwork on Mrs. Osborne's windows. Wow. Great title. Great writer.
September 28, 2024
I have yet to finish a Margaret Miller novel without being completely mind-blown.
Beyond This Point of Monsters has a slower pace than most thrillers, crime novels, and many of Miller's other works. In a slow-paced courtroom setting, your impatience grows with no hope for resolution; despite hearing testimonies, there's no promise of satisfying revelations beyond a legal confirmation of Robert's death. This creates a sense of hopelessness within the narrative— you're left with the impression that the underlying motives and full extent of the crime may remain perpetually uncovered. Yet, Miller masterfully weaves cryptic and mysterious passages that keep the intrigue alive.
Though the story's structure and pacing require some patience, Miller's prose makes the journey rewarding. While the book is framed more as a crime novel, the ending takes a horrifying turn. Initially, I found the final lines frustrating due to their cryptic and open-ended nature. They left me re-reading key passages, trying to make sense of them. However, this re-examination completely altered my interpretation of the story's tone, revealing a truly chilling narrative. Miller's ability to shift utter confusion to profound revelations with just a few lines is incredible.
Beyond the plot, Miller consistently demonstrates remarkable depth in her treatment of broader social themes, all within the concise format of an 189-page book. She elegantly addresses complex issues such as alcohol difficulties, racial prejudice against Mexicans in the American Southwest, poverty and classism, and the complexities of women's identities, expectations and roles.
Miller's ability to combine a slow-burning crime mystery with profound thematic exploration is extraordinary. Her subtle yet powerful prose, coupled with the intricate psychological depth of her characters, creates an engaging and deeply resonant experience.
Beyond This Point of Monsters has a slower pace than most thrillers, crime novels, and many of Miller's other works. In a slow-paced courtroom setting, your impatience grows with no hope for resolution; despite hearing testimonies, there's no promise of satisfying revelations beyond a legal confirmation of Robert's death. This creates a sense of hopelessness within the narrative— you're left with the impression that the underlying motives and full extent of the crime may remain perpetually uncovered. Yet, Miller masterfully weaves cryptic and mysterious passages that keep the intrigue alive.
Though the story's structure and pacing require some patience, Miller's prose makes the journey rewarding. While the book is framed more as a crime novel, the ending takes a horrifying turn. Initially, I found the final lines frustrating due to their cryptic and open-ended nature. They left me re-reading key passages, trying to make sense of them. However, this re-examination completely altered my interpretation of the story's tone, revealing a truly chilling narrative. Miller's ability to shift utter confusion to profound revelations with just a few lines is incredible.
Beyond the plot, Miller consistently demonstrates remarkable depth in her treatment of broader social themes, all within the concise format of an 189-page book. She elegantly addresses complex issues such as alcohol difficulties, racial prejudice against Mexicans in the American Southwest, poverty and classism, and the complexities of women's identities, expectations and roles.
Miller's ability to combine a slow-burning crime mystery with profound thematic exploration is extraordinary. Her subtle yet powerful prose, coupled with the intricate psychological depth of her characters, creates an engaging and deeply resonant experience.
August 25, 2024
3'75
Primera incursión con esta autora
Me ha gustado mucho la ambientación y la serie de personajes.
Un hombre desaparecido y muchas incógnitas.
Muy recomendable
Primera incursión con esta autora
Me ha gustado mucho la ambientación y la serie de personajes.
Un hombre desaparecido y muchas incógnitas.
Muy recomendable
March 8, 2016
El libro tiene una temática sencilla y es de fácil lectura en general. si bien es policíaco no puedo decir que sea un libro emocionante, más que nada resalta el cuadro de una zona rural donde todas las personas tienen algo que ocultar o de que arrepentirse mezclado con la negación sobre los propios problemas y el énfasis en los problemas de los demás.
Si bien esta escrito de forma clara el resultado del libro es algo predecible y me resultó aburrido.
Si bien esta escrito de forma clara el resultado del libro es algo predecible y me resultó aburrido.
August 19, 2016
I say this on every Millar book I read--this woman is fantastic. If you enjoy suspense that keeps you spinning this way and that until the final page (or many times, the final sentence), then why aren't you reading Millar?
September 20, 2019
Una novela negra con juicio incorporado en entorno rural narrada de forma sencilla, con personajes bien definidos pero cuyo final se ve venir de lejos. Disfrutable pero mucho me temo que en 6 meses no la recordaré.
May 3, 2013
Atmospheric. An under-rated writer, she wrote some good stuff. Look out for her.
© Koplowitz 2010
© Koplowitz 2010
November 18, 2015
interesting social commentary. excellent story despite somewhat 2 dimensional characters. most solid character is the story's victim. very cool manipulation of the genre as usual from Ms. Millar
February 23, 2020
Beyond This Point Are Monsters by Margaret Millar was originally published in 1970. I've been focusing on her work for a little while, having now finished 4 of her books over the past month. This one, while interesting, was my least favorite.
The concept was excellent. Basically it's been a year since Robert Osborne disappeared one night, suspicion being that he was murdered. But Robert's body was never recovered, just lots of evidence (blood for example) that something bad happened. His mother doesn't believe he is dead, thinking that he will still turn up. His young wife, Devon, isn't sure but is ready to move on.
The story is told via the means of a hearing, organized by the family lawyer, who is trying to get Robert declared dead so that Devon can be listed as executrix of the estate. The estate is farmland in southern California. The suspects of the purported murder are / were itinerant farm workers from Mexico hired to pick the tomato crop. After Osborne disappeared, the workers did as well.
The lawyer, Franklin Ford, presents his case, calling a variety of witnesses to describe Robert Osborne's last day, the day he disappeared. It's an interesting way to do this and we get to know the various people involved, Devon, her neighbour Leo Bishop, the farm employees. We also find out about other incidents in the past, the death of Bishop's wife, who may at one time have had relations with young Robert and also the death of Robert's father. It makes for a rich story, an interesting combination of fact and emotion. Millar's story - telling is often sparse but she packs an awful lot into the story at the same time.
I had some issues with the ending as I don't always like it when the author leaves the result to your imagination; did this happen or that? So that satisfaction of a firm resolution wasn't the case in this story, at least to me anyway. But still there is something intelligent about Millar's stories that keep you thinking and also generally surprises you as things come to a conclusion. (3.5 stars)
The concept was excellent. Basically it's been a year since Robert Osborne disappeared one night, suspicion being that he was murdered. But Robert's body was never recovered, just lots of evidence (blood for example) that something bad happened. His mother doesn't believe he is dead, thinking that he will still turn up. His young wife, Devon, isn't sure but is ready to move on.
The story is told via the means of a hearing, organized by the family lawyer, who is trying to get Robert declared dead so that Devon can be listed as executrix of the estate. The estate is farmland in southern California. The suspects of the purported murder are / were itinerant farm workers from Mexico hired to pick the tomato crop. After Osborne disappeared, the workers did as well.
The lawyer, Franklin Ford, presents his case, calling a variety of witnesses to describe Robert Osborne's last day, the day he disappeared. It's an interesting way to do this and we get to know the various people involved, Devon, her neighbour Leo Bishop, the farm employees. We also find out about other incidents in the past, the death of Bishop's wife, who may at one time have had relations with young Robert and also the death of Robert's father. It makes for a rich story, an interesting combination of fact and emotion. Millar's story - telling is often sparse but she packs an awful lot into the story at the same time.
I had some issues with the ending as I don't always like it when the author leaves the result to your imagination; did this happen or that? So that satisfaction of a firm resolution wasn't the case in this story, at least to me anyway. But still there is something intelligent about Millar's stories that keep you thinking and also generally surprises you as things come to a conclusion. (3.5 stars)
March 28, 2024
Este libro es un gran rompecabezas de misterio. Una extraña desaparición, un grupo de personajes que a simple vista no saben mucho pero que esconden muchos enigmas relacionados al desaparecido y sus allegados...
Aquí, Margaret Millar elabora una historia que se engrana pieza por pieza, mientras se conoce a cada uno de sus personajes en su día a día y también en el juicio relacionado al hecho principal (muy al estilo de lo que haría luego John Grisham).
Es un noir efectivo y sin pretenciones, en el que no existe la figura del héroe que aparece a salvar la historia, sino que gracias a una pluma simple y efectiva, serán los hechos los que se encargarán de brindar justicia a todos los involucrados.
El final es espectacular y más que nada porque es la parte en la que el lector se puede imaginar con gran nitidez todo lo que se sucede en ese tobogán de locura en el que se sumerge uno de los personajes destacados de la historia cuando conoce la verdad.
Es un libro que gracias a su simpleza se lee muy rápido, y que presenta también personajes gratamente elaborados (sobre todo los femeninos). Recomendado para todos aquellos que deseen disfrutar de un noir alejado de las recetas convencionales del circuito comercial.
November 5, 2023
Robert Osborne, the young owner of a Southern California farm, situated across the border from Tijuana, has vanished, and though traces of two types of blood were found in his day laborers' mess hall, his body was never found. After a year's absence, a county court hears arguments to have him declared legally dead, a declaration that is sought by his young wife, and opposed by his possessive mother. In the course of the hearing, and in its aftermath, secrets begin to surface, rumors of romantic rivalry, clandestine affairs, suicide and the suspicious death of Osborne's father.
As with many writers of the mid century (the book was published in 1970) this is a slow burn - some readers may find it too slow - but I think that Millar's insightful take on Mexican/Anglo relations and the psychology of her characters, her well crafted plot with its deftly embedded clues, and a deeply unsettling finale should appeal to serious readers of American mystery fiction.
October 9, 2021
Esta es una novela que cuenta con una premisa inicial realmente interesante, la desaparición de un joven terrateniente de una granja cerca de la frontera entre México y Estados Unidos pero si bien eso es cierto también lo es que nunca acaba de sacarle todo el jugo a la trama y a sus personajes.
Una trama con un alto contenido judicial que cuenta con un buen y elegante uso del lenguaje parcialmente lastrada por su falta de ambición en el desarrollo y que además puede pecar de resultar bastante light para los amantes del género negro.
Aún así al ser una novela corta merece la pena darle una oportunidad y por ende darle también esa oportunidad a una autora que siempre estuvo y sigue estando a la sombra de su marido Ross Macdonald al ser él una de las mayores estrellas de la novela negra clásica.
Una trama con un alto contenido judicial que cuenta con un buen y elegante uso del lenguaje parcialmente lastrada por su falta de ambición en el desarrollo y que además puede pecar de resultar bastante light para los amantes del género negro.
Aún así al ser una novela corta merece la pena darle una oportunidad y por ende darle también esa oportunidad a una autora que siempre estuvo y sigue estando a la sombra de su marido Ross Macdonald al ser él una de las mayores estrellas de la novela negra clásica.
December 28, 2020
Disappointing, especially given the terrific title. The vast majority of the book is a court trial, but not even an adversarial one. It’s a formal hearing to establish the death of a man whose body has not been found. I knew from the start that I wouldn’t learn the true facts of the murder until the trial was over, so I began to get impatient. Actually, Millar manages to make the testimony interesting, so I didn’t give up on it, but overall it isn’t one of her greatest efforts.
May 12, 2024
It's a perfectly straight-forward judicial procedural abt a woman having her husband declared officially dead w/out having found his body 1 1/2 years after his disappearance. Until the last page and then all bets are off and I'll be hornswoggled if I know how to interpret the ending. Millar was a real talent. Too bad she's fallen off all our radars and isn't easily found in most libraries or in print at all.
August 2, 2021
I'm so rarely surprised by a book that I do recommend this one even though I found it hard to get started on it. Set in the late 1960s, it is almost like reading a historical novel. I really enjoyed the total lack of big cities and fabulously handsome cops. It all seems so straight forward, and then the twists come one after another. Really good fun.
October 20, 2023
Can someone please explain the last paragraph to me! I enjoyed the story but totally lost at the end. Was she going crazy and thought he was her son? Was she pretending that he is and going to keep him as some kind of prisoner? Was he actually her son and not felipe? Maybe I’m a bit thick and it’s obvious. So frustrating when a book ends like this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 4, 2020
The owner of a commercial farm near the Tijuana border has been missing for a year. The story is told through the legal proceedings brought by his wife to have him declared dead. Lots of secrets are revealed, many flawed people and an odd twist at the end.
Read
January 13, 2025Not bad, not great, definitely dated with some parts that haven't aged well. I was hoping for more tension and intrigue but at least it was short. My brain has felt kind of fried lately so it was nice to read something simple.
March 24, 2025
E-book.
Classic mystery. I enjoyed the details and the descriptions. The ending was a nice surprise.
Margaret Millar wrote one of the books I read years ago and still think about often, the memoir of she and her husband, Ross MacDonald, "The birds and the beasts were there."
Classic mystery. I enjoyed the details and the descriptions. The ending was a nice surprise.
Margaret Millar wrote one of the books I read years ago and still think about often, the memoir of she and her husband, Ross MacDonald, "The birds and the beasts were there."
July 12, 2018
En audiolibro.
Nota real: 3.75.
Nota real: 3.75.
July 23, 2018
Six months into their impulsive marriage, Devon lost her new husband after he went for a walk around the ranch one night and never came back. One year on, a hearing has been convened to declare Robert Osborne dead, and Devon is determined to get through it, and move on ... Except as the testimonies unfurl, it seems there may have been more to Robert's life, and death, than she thought.
*Also: Can I just say I am loving the 1970s Avon Books cover art for their Margaret Millar reprints? So gothic and psychedelic, with just the right dash of lurid pulpiness -- they capture both that peculiarly twisted and offbeat psychological quality that Millar brought to the crime genre
*Also: Can I just say I am loving the 1970s Avon Books cover art for their Margaret Millar reprints? So gothic and psychedelic, with just the right dash of lurid pulpiness -- they capture both that peculiarly twisted and offbeat psychological quality that Millar brought to the crime genre
May 5, 2019
Well written but I felt… nothing. It was somehow flat and a bit predictable and what on earth was that ending? I have no idea what that was supposed to mean…
July 10, 2019
Read this one with my wife. I liked the trip back into a different era, but the end of it really didn't seem to connect to the rest of the story.
July 9, 2023
No entendí el final..
January 7, 2024
I just discovered this writer and love her. There are inevitable comparisons to Agatha Christie but she does have her own style, especially her methodical reveal at the end. Good quick read!
May 20, 2024
Starts off a bit slow; ends with quite a twist. Excellent and sinister.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews