A Stranger In My Grave

by Margaret Millar

'A genius of plot twists' LA Review of Books

A nightmare is haunting Daisy Harker.

Night after night she walks a strange cemetery in her dreams, until she comes to a grave that stops her in her tracks. It’s Daisy’s own, and according to the dates on the gravestone she’s been dead for four years.

What can this nightmare mean, and why is Daisy’s husband so insistent that she forget it? Driven to desperation, she hires a private investigator to reconstruct the day of her dream death. But as she pieces her past together, her present begins to fall apart…

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

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

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

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the most convoluted mysteries in which the author Margaret Millar acts like an omnipotent god to confuse and misdirect the fuck out of the reader.

Daisy Harker, a boring middle class woman with a boring rich husband and an irritating and interfering mother has a dream in which she sees her own gravestone and the date on the stone says she was dead four years ago. She hires half Mexican detective Pinata to find out what happened in her life on the date on the gravestone.

A Stranger In My Grave is off to a rollicking start with Daisy having the recurring dream in the first few pages itself. It is all very mysterious and intriguing and I wondered whether Margaret Millar was hinting at the supernatural.

But soon, the story turns into a prolonged drama concerning the rich and the poor pitted against each other, race mixing, alcoholism and the detrimental effects of bad parenting. It is all very far fetched with the stunning revelation in the final page through a letter written to Daisy. But nothing in the remainder of the novel matches the stellar beginning.

It is nowhere as good as Vanish in an Instant which was a lot tighter. The dramatic scenes in A Stranger in my Grave goes on and on. It read less like a thriller and more like an intense drama.

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read several books by this author many years ago and I remember liking them, although the details have faded, and I was looking forward to reading this book. Maybe the other books weren’t as good as I thought, or maybe this one is just a dud. It was promising at the beginning when a sheltered wife started to dream about her grave and became obsessed with trying to track down the source of the dream. When her husband and mother refused to take her concerns seriously she hired a detective. The dream and initial search were spooky and intriguing. Then it all fell apart with a convoluted plot involving a dead man, secret money transfers, an absentee drunken father, a Mexican American woman with 6 children and racial prejudice. Even accepting the fact that the story is set in the 1950s so it might be somewhat dated, the motivations of the characters were very hard to believe. And there is also a completely unconvincing romance.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was introduced to the novels of Margaret Miller through these beautiful Pushkin Vertigo reissues – this is my third now and they have all been brilliant. Anyone thinking that the psychological thriller and unreliable narrator tropes are a recent Gone Girl lead phenomenon might want to delve into these, Margaret Miller is an original master of the art which Gillian Flynn (amongst others) rebooted so beautifully.

What this author did, probably better than anyone else even now, was come up with extraordinarily intriguing inciting events – in this case a dream of death – then manages to follow it up with intensely involving narratives and classically twisted endings. Each of her novels are different from the others but all have that same atmospheric sense to them and all are beautifully written and hugely addictive.

There is a gorgeous old school noir feel to the prose like watching an old black and white movie playing out on the page. Her characters are drawn with a pitch perfect eye and the nuanced changes of direction are cleverly placed.

A Stranger In My Grave is gripping all the way through and has an emotive well imagined solution that is hugely satisfying. One to read in a single sitting.

Recommended.

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

09/2015

I love that it is a mystery without murder. I love the outright gothic nature of it. I did not think the mystery itself was so spectacular.

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new edition of A STRANGER IN MY GRAVE is back in print this year and I'm glad it is because otherwise I may have continued to exist in the world without any clue who Margaret Millar was. I certainly have my blind spots, but now I feel like I've committed a crime for being a noir fan for so long who has just read my first Millar novel. Please forgive me.

Every now and then you'll find something that dates this book (usually the dialogue) but in terms of structure and plot, this is easily the kind of book that could be written today. Feminist noir isn't exactly common, so much focuses on the femme fatale whether one who brings about the gumshoe's downfall directly and powerfully or indirectly and innocently. Here Daisy Harker starts out as the naif model, one we're used to, who's protected and doted upon. But when a troubling dream dominates her thoughts, Daisy refuses to let her mother and husband keep her from investigating the source of her fear.

This moves slowly at first, and it's easy to wonder how this can possibly pay off. How much does a dream mean, anyway? Why go to so much trouble? But after a little while you realize there is a whole lot below the surface. The web of connections here are revealed just a few at a time, and just a short time before the end I still couldn't quite put my finger on everything. It was a beautifully done series of revelations that I never would have expected going in.

Once I got into the rhythms of this book I devoured it. And now that it's over I would like all the Margaret Millar immediately.

[Kim Fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I decided to go on a bender with female mystery writers from the mid-twentieth century, this book caught my eye for a couple reasons. I read that Ross MacDonald (the Lew Archer mysteries) and Millar were married, and because Millar had already made a reputation for herself as a mystery writer, Ross (in fact, Ken Millar) used a pseudonym so people wouldn't think he was riding his wife's coattails. Secondly, this book was written in 1960 and has a Mexican P.I. for one of the main characters. I was curious to see how a Hispanic character was depicted in mainstream fiction at this time. Little did I know that "A Stranger in My Grave" was going to be anything but a typical P.I. novel, and Stevens (Jesus) Pinata anything but a typical P.I. The book actually opens with a woman named Daisy telling her husband about a dream she had: in this dream she saw a tombstone with her death date on in it. What troubles her is that the date was four years earlier. Daisy suffers from anxiety and panic, and she's certain that something happened to her on this day that caused her psychological breakdown. She hires Pinata to help her reconstruct the day, and as the book progresses Millar weaves a story of family deception that is inextricably tangled with race. With its frank explorations of alcoholism, sex, race and religion, I can only imagine what it might have been like to be a woman in 1960, reading this book in the context of the times. As one dear friend recently told me, "Margaret Millar was too dark for me then--I should try her now." She's still dark, but in an era of Dexter and The Wire, she probably won't cause any sleepless nights.

[João Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Millar (1915-1994)

“Um Estranho no Meu Túmulo” foi editado em 1960, um livro escrito pela canadiana Margaret Millar (1915-1994), casada com o escritor de policiais Ross Macdonald.
O livro nasceu da seguinte ideia: “Uma mulher sonha que visitou um cemitério e que viu uma lápide de granito com o seu nome gravado, assim como a data de nascimento e a data da sua morte quatro anos antes. Agora vê lá o que é que consegues fazer com isto, miúda." "E foi o que fiz. Era um desafio interessante, reconstruir um dia no passado e o acontecimento ou acontecimentos que tinham traumatizado a mulher e a tinham convencido de que fora assassinada ou quase assassinada na data gravada na lápide."
“Um Estranho no Meu Túmulo” apresenta uma narrativa original com contornos misteriosos numa história de emoções.
A originalidade de Margaret Millar reside na conjugação de trechos de uma carta com epígrafes dos capítulos, numa escrita que revela uma profunda ambiguidade na dicotomia sonho/pesadelo.
“Um Estranho no Meu Túmulo” revela um excelente suspense, com resolução apenas no capítulo final – quando a leitura da carta se completa – e Daisy consegue finalmente descobrir a realidade/verdade.
Uma edição irrepreensível da editora Averno.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like her other novels, A Stranger in my Grave is tightly-plotted and based on an intriguing premise: Daisy’s recurring dream about a gravestone with her name inscribed on it along with the date of her death. But she is very much alive. Dismissed by her husband and mother as nothing more than a strange nightmare, Daisy cannot rest until she has discovered the meaning behind the dream. A chance encounter brings her into contact with bondsman and private investigator Stevens Pinata. Grudgingly he agrees to help Daisy try to piece together the events of her ‘deathday’. It sets off a chain of events that means Daisy has to rethink everything she thought she knew and reveals some long-buried secrets.

There’s a strong theme of parentage that runs through the book. For example, Pinata is a foundling given his name by the religious institution that took him in. Whereas Daisy is unable to have children, a source of disappointment to her and her husband, Jim. Similarly, racial identity plays a part in the plot.

I really liked Pinata as a character perhaps because, alongside the reader, he’s trying to piece together the bits of the puzzle. And the occasional allusions to some things about his life make him a sympathetic figure. Unlike most of the other characters, he comes across as trustworthy although sometimes his instincts let him down and, as the author warns us, he has failed to see he’s being taken in or has missed something important.

Margaret Millar has been described as ‘a genius of plot twists’ and in the other two books I’ve read I could see the evidence for that accolade. Unfortunately, in this case, less so. Although A Stranger in My Grave is a taut, well-crafted mystery and there a number of surprises along the way I was disappointed in the motive when it was eventually divulged and although there is the final page reveal that is the author’s trademark, I had already worked it out.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not too be too snarky about this—but here’s a plot that deserves spoiling.
Daisy dreams of her own grave with the date of her death December, 1955) five years ago. She hires a private detective while her husband and her mother demand she leave well enough alone. On the fateful day five years earlier, Daisy, who can’t have children, discovered that her husband was going to have a child with another woman. This event was so traumatic that Daisy promptly developed amnesia about the event (hence the detective). EXCEPT it was all a set-up. Daisy’s husband was actually sterile AND Daisy’s mother didn’t want Daisy to have children because Daisy’s father was actually a Mexican and therefore Daisy’s children might (God forbid) have dark skins. I guess the reasoning here was that if Daisy found out her husband was at fault in the child-producing department, she’d leave him to breed with someone else. Unless you’re doing research on the 50s, skip this book.

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Millar’s novel begins powerfully, when Daisy Harker, a troubled and morose young woman is suffering from a recurring nightmare in which she is chasing her dog through a cemetery when she comes upon a grave with her name on it, and the date and her death, four years earlier. She decides to reconstruct that day of her life employing a bail bondsman/private detective to help her.
After a promising beginning the novel pursues threads of less interest, and doesn’t fulfil its early potential. The racial undertone becomes the theme of the book, centring around the PI Of Hispanic descent, and is integral to Millar’s twist. The suggestion is that it’s a major component of one's humanity, and that ‘racial fate’ ultimately awaits. It’s a theme that doesn’t hold up well in the modern day. Millar’s writing is captivating, putting one in mind of those black and white noir films of the 1950s, but this story doesn’t age so well.

[Đorđe Bajić · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margaret Milar nam u svom romanu prikazuje naličje američkog sna: ljupke kućice u predgrađu ispred kojih su u belo obojene ograde kriju mračne tajne i ništa nije onako kako na prvi pogled izlgeda. Neznanac u mom grobu je takođe i psihološki triler veoma nategnutog zapleta i neujednačenog ritma. Centralna misterija je zanimljiva i potentna, ali spisateljica na momente (što je naročitao primetno u drugoj polovini romana) kao da nije sigurna šta sa njom da uradi.

Full review: https://citymagazine.danas.rs/kultura...

[LECTOR OLVIDADO ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

En realidad tenía muchas expectativas porque la premisa era muy interesante, pero fueron más cosas las que no me gustaron que las que si, empezando porque no te contextualizaban de quién estaba hablando entonces era difícil entender que pasaba en la investigación, también como que habían muchos personajes que no aportaban a la trama ni nada, entonces como que hubo mucho relleno y el final como que tampoco fue algo concreto, o interesante de resaltar.

[Joshua Buhs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Butter on ice: it's that slick.

I haven't read any Millar before (or, for that matter, much of her husband, Ross MacDonald). Her work, though, unlike his (I think) is mostly out-of-print, which is surprising, if this book is any indication of its quality. This is an excellent example of the mid-century mystery genre.

The book details the intertwined lives of Daisy Harker and Stevens Pinata, with brief glimpses into the lives of other characters. Daisy is a well-tended wife in San Felice (A stand-in for Santa Barbara) who is pushing against those people constraining her--her mother, her husband, a lawyer that knows both of them--and intent on uncovering the dark underbelly of her situation. (This is noir, of a sort, after all.) Pinata is a bail bondsman and detective who first becomes involved with Daisy because of her ne'er-do-well father, but becomes more intimately involved when she hires him to hunt solve a mystery for her.

Daisy wants to reconstruct a particular day in her life, 2 December 1955, some four years earlier. She is having anxiety attacks, and a dream of finding a grave with her name on it, the death listed as that late fall day. Pinata is skeptical--as are most people--but eventually won over by Daisy's steadfastness. She has more steel than any one credits her with.

The story is told quickly, the mystery solved in a few days. The narrative is clear-eyed about class differences and the constraints under which women lived. It also has a quality I associate with mid-century genre stories: a straightforwardness about racial relations that borders on the blunt. Racial animosity is a motive force in the book--certainly the impetus behind the mystery that Daisy sets out to solve--and the characters merely acknowledge such tensions as a fact of life. They do not try to explain them or justify them, and neither does the author, even if it is clear she does not truck with them. A more contemporary novel would spend a great deal setting up the racial strife, rather than glossing it, as is done here. That doesn't mean either way os better--just different, in characteristic ways.

Given the limited number of characters, it is not particularly difficult to suss the the solution, if only in outline. And that is the biggest problem with the book--the solution. Although I suppose that is usually the case with mysteries: the answer is never as satisfying as the anticipation.

The book grinds to a halt at the end as the relevant characters assemble in a single place and explain their contributions to the puzzle. Fortunately, Millar set up what would happen to Daisy and Pinata after the explanations were made, so the book does have some space for the exposition, but it still comes off a bit clumsy.

Millar manages to tie together all the various plot strands--it is an excellent example of the genre--but a few of the knots feel a little loose. There really shouldn't need to be spoiler warnings for a book written more than half-a-century before, especially one with a fairly obvious solution, but I'll avoid spoiling the ending while saying that the relationship between Daisy's husband and mother--on which so much of the mystery turns--is never explained enough to make sense of their actions, especially Jim, her husband, who violates her terribly, but also must be understood as desperately in love and a man of upstanding character to make the story hold together. That's not an impossible assemblage, but it needs to be described a bit more to fully make sense.

Peccadilloes, though, these criticisms. The book flows, it engages, it offers a depth of characterization in a few careful sketches: excellent.

[JacquiWine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t quite as satisfying for me, so I’ll aim to keep this summary reasonably brief.

The novel’s premise is an interesting one. Daisy Harker is tormented by a recurring nightmare, a dream in which she comes across a gravestone bearing her name and date of birth. According to the inscription, thirty-year-old Daisy died four years earlier in December 1955. Convinced that something highly significant must have happened on that date, she employs a private detective, Steve Pinata, to help her reconstruct the day as fully as possible. Maybe then she can deal with whatever consequences it throws up and hopefully move on.

Daisy is married, but her relationship with husband Jim is not a happy one. Jim and his controlling mother-in-law, Mrs Fielding (who lives in a cottage 200 yards from the Harkers’ house), treat Daisy like a child, casting her in the role of ‘happy innocent’ – a fact Daisy finds very frustrating. While Jim is somewhat sceptical about the wisdom of Daisy trying to uncover the meaning of her dreams, he plays along with it, just to keep her occupied.

As Pinata begins to investigate Daisy’s movements on the day in question, more information comes to light, bringing other characters into the mix. Perhaps the most notable of these is Daisy’s father, Mr Fielding, something of a drifter and alcoholic who been absent for the last three years.

For the most part, the central characters are well drawn, particularly Pinata, an orphan whose parentage and family history are largely unknown. (Millar has a longstanding interest in issues of race and gender inequality.) Daisy, however, seems more lightly sketched. She is never much more than a cypher for me – someone to hang the narrative around as opposed to an individual with a real sense of depth. The plot too is rather convoluted. At 300 pp. this mystery could have benefited from a bit of filleting here and there to help keep things pacey and tight.

Millar’s prose, however, is very good. This author can write! Her dialogue is excellent; it’s well-crafted and naturalistic. There are some nice sinister touches along the way too, indications that Jim may be controlling the situation, effectively keeping certain information hidden from Daisy’s view.

I should play along with her, Jim thought. That was Adam’s advice. God knows, my own approach doesn’t work. (p. 74)

If you’re interested in reading Margaret Millar, then I’d suggest you try either Vanish in an Instant or The Listening Walls – both very good. They’re tighter than Stranger, and more satisfying as a result.

[Dianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve liked the first book I’ve read from Margaret Millar and yesterday night I’ve found another one that spiked my curiosity. The thing with her novels is that they are pretty chill, comforting in a way and really put together. Mysterious too.

This one was no exception. This book happens in winter time but there’s no snow… so it’s not that fantastic weather wise but outside just started snowing which is amazing. Nevermind, there will be snow.

The plot is highly interesting, although I’ve read a book similar to this, it’s called Cosmar by Rodica Ojog Brasoveanu, the proclaimed Romanian Agatha Christie. If you are Romanian, give this author a try. I’ve read all her books and they are awesome! Except the war ones with spies, they were good books but I’m sick of war related anything.

Liked it a lot!!!

[Ivan Jovanovic (Valahiru) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dejzi i Džim su u skladnom braku već par godina, bar ga tako vidi Džim u svom idealnom planu o životu. Sve se menja kada jednog dana Dejzi počne da sanja o svojoj smrti. Jezivi san ponavlja se iz noći u noć, a Dejzi mora da istraži pozadinu svega.

Unajmljuje privatnog istražitelja i počinje da istražuje o danu od pre pet godina kog se ne seća. Kako saznaje više detalja, Dejzi shvata da je pozadina sve mračnija. Shvata da mnogima ne može da veruje. Shvata da je živela u laži, okružena ljudima koji je lažu, ali naravno "za njeno dobro". Dejzin život okrenuo se naopako, a sada je jedino bitno saznati istinu. Po cenu propasti, po cenu da se nikad ne oporavi nakon što sazna istinu, Dejzi je odlučna u svojoj nameri.

Najbitnije kod ovog žanra mi je da me priča zgrabi i ne pušta. Ovde je upravo tako. Autorka je održavala napetost i nesigurnost po pitanju svega. Imala je i par zaista jezivih scena, gde sam očekivao da će priča preći u paranormalni triler, ali se to nije desilo. Rešenje je zapravo bilo vrlo zamršeno, ali ništa paranormalno. Pored svega, ovo je jedan psihološki triler. Da li je moguće da čovek zaboravi neki stresan detalj, ako se dovoljno potrudi? Dokle poseže naša psiha, u nameri samoočuvanja? Da li je moguće potpuno izbrisati jedan dan života iz sećanja, ako tako odlučimo?

Neke detalje normalno možete nagađati već u drugoj polovini knjige, ali pravu sliku shvatite na samom kraju. Pomalo kao kod Agate Kristi, ali je ovo daleko bolje. Bar je takav moj utisak bio. Uprkos tome što je ovo old school predstavnik žanra, zaista mislim da se može dopasti i ljubiteljima današnjih, modernijih trilera.

Za moj ukus, pomalo mlak kraj. Nekako se oseti da je autorka zbrzala završnicu ili da nije znala kako da efektno završi roman. I pored toga, veoma sam zadovoljan ovim naslovom. Očekivao sam malo, a dobio dosta. Definitivno nameravam da pročitam i ostale naslove iz ove edicije, pošto su neki veoma hvaljeni. Vama ovaj preporučujem.

[olgasololibros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoy os presento a la grandiosa Margaret Millar. Obtuvo el Premio Edgar y fue presidenta de la Mistery Writers of America. Autora de más de veinticinco títulos de novela negra.
Daisy vive una vida tranquila, aunque aburrida, con su marido. Empieza a tener un sueño inquietante y recurrente sobre una tumba con su nombre y fechas de nacimiento y muerte, hasta que descubre que esa tumba existe de verdad.
Millar nos relata la aparente tranquilidad de una pequeña comunidad, donde se esconde todo un mundo lleno de odio y de racismo. De celos, frustración, vergüenza, alcohol. La intriga es constante hasta el final. Nos describe a la protagonista como a una mujer ingenua y débil, aunque acaba cogiendo las riendas de su vida. Me ha gustado la pluma de la autora que te va absorbiendo y envolviendo poco a poco.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Canadian mystery writer Margaret Millar a few years ago and since that tie I've been hunting down her books. She is such a great writer. A Stranger In My Grave was originally published in 1980. While it wasn't necessarily my favorite of her books so far, I still enjoyed it immensely.

Daisy Harker has been having dreams where she is looking at her grave stone showing Dec 2nd 1955 as the day she died. Of course, she is still alive, or she wouldn't be having the dreams. ;0) The dreams have disconcerted her very much and she is not given any real support by her husband, Jim or by her mother Ada. A chance occurrence, the arrest of her absent father provides Daisy with the opportunity to find out the significance of what might have happened on Dec 2, 1955. Her father, while visiting San Felice, is arrested in a bar fight and the detective / bail bondsman who gets him out of jail, contacts Daisy to pay the bail.

Daisy hires Steve Pinata to check into events of Dec 2 to see what it might signify to Daisy's dreams. This begins a somewhat meandering detective investigation into Daisy's life. It turns out that the headstone she sees in her dream does exist but there is a different name on it, that of a man Carlos Camilla, who supposedly committed suicide on the same day. Daisy doesn't know him but does he have some relationship to her?

As I mentioned, it's a slow paced story but as it progresses we begin to find out secrets, connections that keep your interest up as you wait to see how everything will tie together. Margaret Millar has a sparse, at times unemotional style, but she gathers in your interest and attracts you to her characters. I enjoy her story-telling so very much and she has so far not disappointed in any way. I recommend you explore this fantastic writer and also the stories of her husband, Ross MacDonald. (4 stars)

[Brucifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd heard great things about Margaret Millar, who has been compared to Patricia Highsmith as one of the great psychological mystery writers of the mid-20th century. Since few of her novels have been reprinted in the last 20 years (and most of those are hard to obtain), I thought I'd start off with this intriguingly-titled novel from the early 60s that was relatively easy to find. Unfortunately, the novel didn't live up to my perhaps unfair expectations. The plot concerns a young woman's desire to explore the meaning behind a recurring dream she's been having, in which while walking through the town cemetery she stumbles upon her own grave, on which her death date is engraved as several years earlier, December 2, 1955 to be exact. She hires a private detective Steve Pinata (the story behind his name is interesting), who is given the unusual task of investigating a day rather than a specific event, while she is constantly dissuaded by her husband and mother to go any further with what they tell her is just a silly waste of time and money. Millar is a good writer, if a bit heavy-handed with the metaphors at times, and she explores some interesting topics as the story moves along, such as paternal abandonment, small town gossip, racism, and the ethics of keeping someone in the dark "for their own good." But the novel just didn't fully do it for me. It read a bit like a dialogue-heavy and somewhat dated episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents rather than the type of richly nuanced psychological exploration Highsmith is famous for. But again, perhaps I went into the novel with unfair expectations. All in all, it's a decent mystery with a good surprise ending, but I found myself putting off finishing it rather than eagerly racing toward the finale. I haven't written Millar off (I think I should have started with her Edgar-award winning The Beast in View, which is the only one of her novels to be frequently and recently reprinted), but I think this one is probably better for Millar fans rather than for casual mystery readers.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most "lost classics" aren't. But just because they're not another Rebecca doesn't mean they deserve to be forgotten. This is a clever, intricately plotted mystery with all the characters interesting (or psychologically troubled) in their own way and with enough of a puzzle to keep the reader turning the pages. At its core is a sharp edge of racial prejudice. At the same time there are moments when it's awkward, disjointed, self-conscious, and inconsistent. The reader will most likely figure out the shocking secret well before the end. Good, solid, well worth reading, but not another Ripley. Still makes me want to read more from Margaret Millar who wrote 20 other mysteries.

[Tabuyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una novela negra bastante entretenida sobre una mujer que sueña con una tumba con su nombre.
La historia engancha porque quieres saber si esa tumba existe pero además de ese misterio la novela también habla de las relaciones familiares de la protagonista.
Hay cosas que chirrían un poco porque parecen demasiada casualidad pero bueno, se deja leer.

[Wyckliffe Howland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Millar wrote mostly in the 40s-60s. I've been enjoying her books - this is my second. The ambient details, the mannerisms, the voice of the characters, all reflect a time long gone. Millar writes compelling stories, complex plots. I recommend this novel.

[Paco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me encanta haber leído esta historia de una escritora que para mí ha sido todo un descubrimiento. Una novela negra que se enreda desde el primer momento con un atrayente argumento, para ir discurriendo la historia hasta que se
desvela al principal personaje del libro.

[Watt ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

—Un matrimoni ben avingut implica una bona part de dissimulació.

La sanitat mental és una qüestió de cultura i de convenció. Quan es viu en una cultura insana cal que hom sigui irracional per a avenir-s'hi. Una persona totalment racional reconeixeria que aquella cultura és de boigs i no voldria conformar-s'hi. Però el fet de no conformar-s'hi el convertiria en boig als ulls d'aquella societat particular.

A la premissa de saber què va passar un dia qualsevol de cinc anys enrera, m’he preguntat com s’ho faria l’autora per desenvolupar aquest tema, com es poden omplir quasi dos-centes pàgines donant forma a una investigació impossible. Doncs bé, la trama proposada és l’excusa per anar desgranant una sèrie de personatges sòlids amb complexes relacions familiars. La investigació avança mentre es desenvolupen llargs diàlegs, les situacions es perllonguen (potser innecessàriament), coneixem a poc a poc les relaciones que uneixen els personatges i finalment es desdibuixa el somni de la protagonista per endinsar-nos a un passat obscur, els personatges son girats com un mitjó i res sembla el que és.
El final s’intueix i sovint m’ha avorrit com s’estiren les situacions i la trama que podria estar explicada en cent planes. (6/10)

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

This book surprised me. Not because I didn't think it would be good, Millar knows how to spin a compelling tale. It surprised me because it starts as a strange, almost supernatural premise, with a woman who dreams of her own gravestone, then turns into a layered, psychological mystery about guilt and memory. And thank goodness for that because that is what Millar is known for. When I thought supernatural, it had me worried.

One of the best things about this book is you’re never sure what’s real. Is the protagonist paranoid, or did something truly happen a few years ago? This keeps you guessing. And as usual, the writing’s tight, the characters feel real, and the story never drags.

It’s suspenseful without needing to shout. Smart, unsettling, and quietly gripping. It's a reminder that psychological tension can be more powerful than any chase scene.

I think this is the third Millar book I've read this year. And I need to read more. I just need to find more!

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) I don't know how I feel about this one. I mostly liked it, even if large parts of it seemed convoluted. It took an interesting path to get to Point B from Point A. A unique structure that I'm not sure entirely worked...but I also appreciate the uniqueness and would recommend. It kept me hooked til nearly the end.

[Mark Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing and well below the quality of Beast In View. The idea of someone acting so firmly based on a dream, is hard to take. The father figure is the most convincing character in the book. This is the sort of book where it feels like paragraphs or chapters have gone missing. It contains a number of thinly drawn caricatures rather than substantial characters.
Characters speak out theories for why the main character had the dream, but this doesn’t feel like a closing of the mystery.

[Carmen Grandamartino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha gustado. La primera mitad la he seguido con interés. La ultima parte sin embargo es un poco culebrón

[Jknodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

High pace old school mystery novel, the synopsis really interested me and then the book turns into a lot more. Really enjoyed it and definitely want to read her other mystery novels as well