Beast in View

A reclusive heiress, Miss Clarvoe, who lives in a residential hotel in Hollywood and rarely ventures out, begins to receive threatening and malicious phone calls from someone who claims to be her old school friend, Evelyn Merrick. Evelyn was briefly married to Dougie, Miss Clarvoes' brother, before their marriage was annulled after a few days. The caller is someone who enjoys preying on peoples' weaknesses and who gets a thrill by terrifying them with vile, sexually oriented scenarios. Miss Clarvoes' mother asks an old family friend to investigate the calls and, in doing so, he stumbles on a set of circumstances that are so out of character with the people who are receiving the calls, that he is really alarmed. This is a story written in the sixties so perhaps the denouement isn't quite so shocking as it would have been back then but...she kept me guessing up to the last page!

Everybody knows (or I hope so) that Margaret Millar was the wife of Kenneth Millar (a.k. Ross Mc Donald). The husband is well-known, but the wife deserves reading, as evidenced by this book, one of her best. Mrs Millar, aside of incredible twist-endings, offers a deep psychological insight of amazing characters haunted by their past - a reccurent theme of her works. If you like it (how could you not?) hurry up reading such masterpieces like "How Like An Angel", "Rose's Last Summer" or "A Stranger in My Grave". Millar is one of the genre's best plotters.

Margaret Millar writes like an angel. I am so glad to have discovered her and that the publishing world is "rediscovering" such a great talent. Her plotting and characterizations hold their own with the well known British writers. The denouement will not shock readers in the year 2000 as it did readers in 1962. Apart from that quibble, this is a perfect novel of suspense.

More than a mystery this is a gothic chiller with a modern twist. Even more than 40 years after it was written, it still holds its spell. Helen Clarvoe is being stalked by a female psycho, who might or might-not be a childhood friend. Meanwhile Evelyn Merrick (or someone who claims to be her) is closing in on Helen, a wealthy heiress absconded in a hotel in L.A. Who's the hunter? Who's the prey? This horrifying story will grab you and won't let go till the gory, devastating and haunting conclusion... but do not peek! The narrative will take you there.