ROSS MACDONALD and MARGARET MILLAR
Ross Macdonald was the pseudonym of Kenneth Millar (December 13, 1915 - July 11, 1983), California-born, Canada-raised, eventually returning to California to work hard and slowly to become a preeminent mystery/detective novelist so good, so accomplished that he is now considered a significant voice in 20th Century American literature. Although influenced by the great detective writers in the generation before him, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Macdonald forged a style of his own out of the postwar pulps. His awareness and sophisticated understanding of literary history and tropes (he had a doctorate in literature) and his interest in psychology provided a firm foundation for his use of the detective form to investigate human relationships, conflicts, and tragedies. He wrote stand-alone novels (we have three here), but his great and lasting creation was Lew Archer, a man whose perspective and voice sustains the reader through 18 novels and many short stories. Macdonald is also a keen observer of Californian (and American) culture, documenting in good style a time and place and people.
His wife, Margaret Millar (1915-1994), wrote many fine novels of psychological suspense, and I include her work here as a measure of their marriage, their partnership, and their mutual influence. Of interest also is Macdonald’s deep friendship with Eudora Welty, another master of a region and a people. A volume of their letters is included here.
Collected Millar: Legendary Novels of Suspense: A Stranger in My Grave; How Like An Angel; The Fiend; Beyond This Point Are Monsters
Collected Millar: Legendary Novels of Suspense: A Stranger in My Grave; How Like An Angel; The Fiend; Beyond This Point Are Monsters
Four legendary novels of suspense from Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster and Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year, Margaret Millar
The four novels in this collection straddle one of the most tumultuous decades of the 20th century and display Millar’s uncanny ability to craft truly disturbing suspense fiction while still addressing social issues. Complex discussions of feminism, child abuse, and racism blend seamlessly into four of the most chilling tales ever told.
A STRANGER IN MY GRAVE (1960)
A young housewife named Daisy Harker's world is upended when a blank spot in her memory and a reoccurring nightmare link her to an unsolved murder and a decades-old conspiracy.
HOW LIKE AN ANGEL (1962)
California cultists, duplicitous damsels in distress, and dangerously high stakes conspire against Joe Quinn, a private eye who is beginning to feel more like a knight-errant.
THE FIEND (1964)
A young girl is at risk this tense and disturbing page-turner that reveals a web of domestic abuse among a disparate cast of middle class Americans.
BEYOND THIS POINT ARE MONSTERS (1970)
The investigation into the disappearance of a wealthy California rancher brings to light the secrets of a whole community this a haunting and complex masterpiece of suspense.