The mystery of the missing wife…
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Amy Kellogg and her friend Wilma are on holiday in Mexico City but it’s turning out to be a fraught time. Wilma, always moody and overbearing, is behaving even worse than usual following her second divorce. She’s drinking to excess and arguing with Amy on the slightest provocation. Then, following a drinking session, Wilma dies in a fall from the hotel balcony. Her depressed and emotional state leads the authorities to rule it as a suicide. Amy’s husband, Rupert, rushes to his shocked wife’s side, but when he returns home to San Francisco a week later, he returns alone. Amy, he tells her family, needed time to herself and has gone off to New York. But Amy’s brother Gill doesn’t believe his adored little sister would have gone off without telling him herself, and as time passes with no word from her, his suspicions grow…
Well, this is a little gem! Told in the third person, Millar lets us glimpse inside the heads of all the characters in turn but only giving us enough to tantalise our suspicions. We know that Rupert isn’t telling all he knows but we don’t know what he’s hiding. Is he a wife murderer as Gill suspects? If so, why would he have killed the woman he apparently loved? Gill suspects the age-old story of another woman and has his suspicions of who that woman might be. But if Rupert hasn’t killed her, where is Amy? It’s entirely out of character for her to have gone off on her own, this woman who has always seemed so dependant on others and so meekly subservient to the stronger characters she is surrounded by – her brother, her husband, Wilma. Increasingly desperate, Gill turns to a private detective, Elmer Dodd, and we follow him as he tries to find the truth.
The plotting is great, full of little twists that kept me puzzling over what had happened until the very last page. It’s more of a psychological mystery than a whodunit – the clues are all in the personalities and the things they do that seem out of character. The characterisation is brilliant – done with a light touch but no less astute for that. There’s Rupert’s secretary, nursing a crush for Rupert so secret she’s not even fully aware of it herself. Gill’s wife, long tired of Gill’s almost obsessively over-protective love for his little sister, is trying hard not to be glad that Amy has gone and is fighting against her instinctive hope that she never returns. The maid in the hotel in Mexico, she who listens through the walls of the title, might be a little stereotyped, but her greed and petty criminality are believable, her contempt for the rich Americans who stay in the hotel adds a good deal of humour, and her superstitions are used to give an air of real unease to some parts of the story. Elmer Dodd is excellent too. He’s a man who wants to know the truth but he’s not ruthless about it. He has sympathy for the weaknesses of human nature, and has a kind of warmth that makes people trust him.

This was my introduction to Margaret Millar after having seen her praised by various vintage crime fans around the blogosphere, and I’m very glad to have met her. A darkly twisted story, tightly plotted and lifted by some affectionately humorous character portraits and observations of society, not a word is wasted as Millar leads the reader through a labyrinth of suspicion and doubt. Great fun, and highly recommended – another author to add to my growing list of vintage crime favourites!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Pushkin Vertigo.
I was certain I could pass this one by – until I read your review! Sounds like a mystery I can get into and the psychological twists seem intriguing.
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It was such an enjoyable read – not rushed but no unnecessary padding either, and a lovely blend of darkness and humour. I shall be seeking out more of he work for sure!
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Another interesting sounding book…please stop 😂
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Hahaha! I’ll stop if you stop! 😉
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I guess the TBR will keep growing….😂
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😂
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Sold! I was attracted by Millar’s novels when I saw them in Pushkin’s catalogue but not being a huge crime fan I wonderd if they’d work for me – you’ve convinced me
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I’m not going to pretend this one is “literary” but it is very well written and a great mix of darkness and humour – well worth your time! I must check and see what other ones Pushkin has published…
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I really enjoyed this review! I need to read this! I like the mystery and I want to explore those characters’ personalities!
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Thank you – I’m glad you enjoyed it! 😀 I do love vintage crime – it’s different from the modern stuff but this one has quite a modern approach to the psychology of the characters.
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This sounds great! What a fab review, I really want to check this out now!
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Thank you! 😀 This one really is a gem – so well written and both enjoyable and intriguing. Hope you enjoy it if you get to it some time!
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I do like the way Millar could tell a story, FictionFan. She did know how to weave psychological suspense, no doubt about that. And I like the fact her work doesn’t rely on a great deal of gore or violence. Happy to hear that you enjoyed your first introduction to her work, and I hope you’ll read more. She wrote plenty of standalones, so it’s easy to keep sampling without getting caught up in a series if you’d rather not do that.
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I loved that it all rested on the psychology of the characters – that works so much better for me than the physical clue or alibi type of mystery. And the characters felt quite modern considering how long ago it was written. Oh good! I’m all for standalones – series are good, but I’m not good at sticking with them! So great that so many publishers are bringing back these older books. 😀
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Wow! I’d never heard of her before! This sounds like a must read!
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Nor me till the last few months when there’s been a sudden spate of reviews, probably because Pushkin have been republishing some of them. I suspect she’s going to become a firm favourite of mine if this one’s anything to go by… 😀
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I’ve never read Margaret Millar, but this sounds really good! (You do know my TBR is growing by leaps and bounds, don’t you?!?)
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Haha – these vintage crime books are crippling my TBR! Every time I find a new favourite author I then discover they write a million books. 😂
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Well, gee…. thanks to your review, another I’ll have to add to my wish list! It sounds wonderful!
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I loved it, as you’ll have gathered! I’ll be looking to see what other books of hers are available now… that TBR never goes down! 😉
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I’ve noticed quite a few bloggers reading Margaret Millar recently, but this is the first review I’ve read that has made me think I might enjoy her books. I’ll have to give one a try soon and find out!
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Given that you’ve been enjoying vintage crime recently too, I do think you’d enjoy this! It’s such a great mix of darkness and humour and the psychological aspects make it interesting. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for more of her stuff! 😀
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I read Vanish in an Instant a few months ago, and definitely want to read more Millar. This sounds really good.
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Oh, I must look out for that one then! I’m so glad so many publishers are bringing these older books to our attention – I can see Millar is going to become a firm favourite. 😀
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Oh, you’ve got me again! I’ve never heard of Margaret Millar before either.
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She’s suddenly been appearing around the vintage crime blogs, probably because Pushkin have reissued some of her books. I’ll be looking for more, for sure!
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This sounds fab! I’ve never read Millar but its great to hear your first encounter with her was such a positive one. I need to retire – there’s so many books and so little time…
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It’s delightfully short though! Just right for a lazy Sunday afternoon! I’m frightened to look and see how many more of her books are available – I get the feeling she might have been prolific…
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Well this seems like a quirky little read! If it wasn’t vintage, I could have sworn it’s a recent release, it seems so contemporary! And it just occurred to me, I find ‘older’ humour, i.e. in older books and movies, way funnier than what I read nowadays. I’m not sure why, it just seems more clever and less crass…
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I thought it felt very modern considering when it was written, especially the psychological aspects. And yes! Older humour is much more fun – they didn’t seem to feel they needed to shock or offend to be funny!
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[…] 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 […]
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