Three Minutes to Midnight

by Mildred Davis

YOUR NAME IS BLAIR PROCTER, YOU ARE AFRAID, AND IT'S THREE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT....

Yesterday you were a lovely, unspoiled girl of twenty-one, with a future as unclouded as your past. That was before you saw your mother killed and your father mentally destroyed in a weird, inexplicable accident. That was before you had to become guardian to your three younger sisters in your once-happy home. That was before you started getting looks of pity from your neighbors, and unwelcome attentions from a brutal yet disturbingly fascinating young man.

That was before you realized that someone in this cheerful, comfortable suburban community - someone perhaps very close to you - wanted you and your sisters dead....

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Mildred B. Davis, an american teacher, published her first novel, The Room Upstairs, in 1948. It was awarded an Edgar for best first novel of the year by the Mystery Writers of America. A rich novel with subtle strains of gothic horror and hard-boiled private eye, this book lifted her into the limelight as an author of promise.

Reviews

[Kathryn Flatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this one so long ago, but that's been part of the fun of joining Goodreads--it's bringing back memories of books I have read over many years.

I remember being deeply impressed with the plotting of this book, how Ms. Davis "played fair" by giving out the clues yet in a way that you don't see how they fit together until the very end. (I may have said before in a review that if I figure it out early, there's a good chance I won't finish reading.) Memories of "Three Minutes to Midnight" keep popping into my head whenever I hear news items abou the Tea Party.

So why not five stars? I think my only objection was the occasional drop out on the POV character. There were spots where I no longer felt I was in that character's head but observing from outside. It's a minor flaw that maybe not everyone would notice. This is still a good mystery yarn, certainly worth a try.

[Circa Girl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so weird and it's not too often that I get to read a story that doesn't fit any one mold or market. I think prior to the 2000s', smaller publishing houses were more numerous and the economy allowed publishing agents to take more risks on manuscripts that defied categorization or formula. A lot of the out of print work I read on open library or perusing the used books stores are more literary and reflective, even when they fall under genre lines like pulp, romance, mystery, etc.

Three Minutes to Midnight is advertised as a horrifying thriller, and it is, but it really takes its time with the protagonist and the supporting characters to a degree that I don't think would fly nowadays. The dialogue is clever and snappy, yet there are interruptions, non sequiturs, stream of thought, and banalities that give it a realistic touch that grounds you into the life of Blair and her sisters. There is civilian terrorist mystery, but it almost feels like a minor subplot to the grief and grind of daily life for a family living from paycheck to paycheck without proper guardians.

My only complaint is that the revealed villains don't get directly confronted and the author completely dismisses exploring why they did what they did. For how much they impacted and led on, this felt very irresolute to me and like she was avoiding addressing the very issues of anti-capitalism, black rights, anti-Vietnam movements she had highlighted in earlier chapters for fear of taking any one side or getting too political. A bit wishy-washy there.

Overall though, Mildred Davis is a phenomenal writer and I will be looking into her other work soon.

[David J. McRae · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good mystery/suspense story... Like many of Mildred Davis' books, the ending was a well-done surprise... The Procter siblings could be annoying here and there but in actuality, they were simply acting like siblings and three out of four of them are were under eighteen... I was also conflicted about Blair's initial response to the bomb but again, the girl is young, her sister was in danger, and it's not like anyone knows the proper way to respond in that type of situation...

[Franziska Self Fisken · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast-paced, easy to read, exciting, engaging, unputdownable story.

[Babete · Rating 3 out of 5]

( Três Minutos Para a Meia-Noite )