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toniclark's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 Stars. I read an article about Millar somewhere online and was intrigued. I haven’t read a lot of mysteries (since adolescence) so am probably not a good judge, but I enjoyed this one. I appreciated the introduction in which Millar tells how she came to write the book, how she developed the story from the first premise. There are some far-fetched bits that wouldn’t fly in fiction today and we might now expect more psychological depth. The story reflects the social structure, expectations, and prejudices of the time — though the author is clearly exposing, rather than buying into, them. The details didn’t seem as dated to me as I’d have expected, and the prose quality was higher than I generally expect from genre fiction. (The book was published in 1960, and the story takes place in 1959.) I’m particularly interested in women mystery writers and hope to read more. I'd probably try another one by Millar, especially if the character Steve Pinata were in it, but I think this is the only book in which he appears.
soft_abomination's review
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
4.0
Razor sharp housewife, fed up with being meek and compliant, enlists the help of a private detective, the charmingly named Steve Pinata. She wants to find out what happened on a day four years earlier when she was psychologically murdered. If you don't find that a delightful premise for a mystery, you might as well skip this one. I find the digging up of repressed memories as suspenseful as any police procedural. Some of the plot elements were a tad inprobable, but Millar is so good it didn't bother me. The dialogue is, as always, a thing of beauty. My least favorite so far, which says something about the quality of her work.
jessicakate14's review
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I enjoyed how the novel tried to bring light to both racism and the role of women, especially considering when it was written. I also enjoyed the plot twist at the end. However, I feel like both mysterious plot and the social issues mentioned could have been delivered in a faster, clearer manner.
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
3.0
We've all had those time when we're searching for something lost...car keys, our glasses, etc. But have you ever gone looking for a day? That's what Daisy Harker is doing in Margaret Millar's A Stranger in My Grave. Well. Not literally, of course. But Daisy has had a dream, a very disturbing dream. She dreams that she has died and she is faced with her tombstone. The date of death reads December 2, 1955--four years before the present day. The dream is so vivid and haunting that she almost feels like it (or something equally traumatic) has really happened When she tells her dream to her mother and her husband, they both tell her she's overreacting. That's it's just a dream. Nothing to worry about.
Daisy is determined to find out if anything really did happen four years ago and she hires private detective Steve Pinata to help her reconstruct December 2, 1955. At first, he thinks she's just a bored little housewife with too much time on her hands. And maybe just a little bit crazy. But the deeper they dig the more apparent it becomes that something really did happen...and it was traumatic enough that Daisy has forgotten it. Her estranged father keeps appearing and disappearing. There's a young woman named Juanita whose name keeps popping up. And Daisy's mother and husband both seem to be keeping things from her. They say they're protecting her or keeping her from worrying about things she needn't. But she's not so sure. Whom can she trust? And who will tell her the truth?
I hate to disagree with my friends John (Pretty Sinister Books) and Sergio (Tipping My Fedora), but this one just wasn't quite the knock-it-out-of-the-park that I expected. It was very good, but my favorite is still Beast in View. Millar, as usual, does a really good job building the suspense and keeping us guessing about what's really going on--and pulls a rather nifty twist at the end just keep us thoroughly off-balance. I didn't plug into the themes of "childlessness, orphans, and parenting styles" the way John did when he read this one earlier this year. But I did get a lot of oppressive, smothering vibes from Daisy's mother (and to some extent her husband). Going on about how close she and Daisy always were and "why won't you talk to me now, Daisy?" Wanting to know everything about why Daisy feels the way she does and, yet, trying to keep Daisy from knowing anything that might explain the feelings. Keeping important knowledge about her father from her as well as important information about her childless state.
The suspense builds steadily throughout the book and it's a credit to Millar's skill that she can keep the tension at such a high pitch without feeling the need to break it with unnecessary humor. And she deftly uses the prejudices of the time period to help set up the grand finale. A book about relationships and deceit that makes the reader wonder how well we really know those we think we know the best. Three and a half stars.
This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Daisy is determined to find out if anything really did happen four years ago and she hires private detective Steve Pinata to help her reconstruct December 2, 1955. At first, he thinks she's just a bored little housewife with too much time on her hands. And maybe just a little bit crazy. But the deeper they dig the more apparent it becomes that something really did happen...and it was traumatic enough that Daisy has forgotten it. Her estranged father keeps appearing and disappearing. There's a young woman named Juanita whose name keeps popping up. And Daisy's mother and husband both seem to be keeping things from her. They say they're protecting her or keeping her from worrying about things she needn't. But she's not so sure. Whom can she trust? And who will tell her the truth?
I hate to disagree with my friends John (Pretty Sinister Books) and Sergio (Tipping My Fedora), but this one just wasn't quite the knock-it-out-of-the-park that I expected. It was very good, but my favorite is still Beast in View. Millar, as usual, does a really good job building the suspense and keeping us guessing about what's really going on--and pulls a rather nifty twist at the end just keep us thoroughly off-balance. I didn't plug into the themes of "childlessness, orphans, and parenting styles" the way John did when he read this one earlier this year. But I did get a lot of oppressive, smothering vibes from Daisy's mother (and to some extent her husband). Going on about how close she and Daisy always were and "why won't you talk to me now, Daisy?" Wanting to know everything about why Daisy feels the way she does and, yet, trying to keep Daisy from knowing anything that might explain the feelings. Keeping important knowledge about her father from her as well as important information about her childless state.
The suspense builds steadily throughout the book and it's a credit to Millar's skill that she can keep the tension at such a high pitch without feeling the need to break it with unnecessary humor. And she deftly uses the prejudices of the time period to help set up the grand finale. A book about relationships and deceit that makes the reader wonder how well we really know those we think we know the best. Three and a half stars.
This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
(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.
aniqah_w's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
johannalm's review against another edition
2.0
A Stranger in My Grave, Margaret Millar
First published in 1960, this author was highly thought of in her day as a crime and mystery writer, and her work is having a comeback. I very much enjoyed the first book I read by her. This one, not so much.
The story line of this novel was hard to follow and confusing, and I found myself not knowing what was going on for much of the book. There are several twists at the end, but when you finally get there and everything becomes clear, it’s all foreseeable by then.
Daisy Harker lives a quiet and circumscribed, safe life in San Felice California with her husband Jim. They are well off and even have a small mother-in-law house on their property for Daisy’s mother. Their great sadness is that Daisy can’t have children.
One day Daisy wakes up from a very bad dream where she has seen her own gravestone in the local cemetery with her death date on it from four years earlier.
Completely confused over this seemingly lost day from four years ago when she “died” daisy gets no help from her husband or mother, only pushback and requests to behave and be a good girl and to forget about the dream. But Daisy is determined to figure out what the dream signifies. With the help of a handsome private detective with a dark past of his own, Daisy hopes to recapture this lost day that seems to be so important to her and so disquieting to the rest of her family.
As Daisy gets closer to the truth, her mother and husband work even harder to try and make her give up her quest for the truth, and to save her from a great catastrophe.
Millar is a talented writer, one who wrote well ahead of her time and dealt with controversial topics such as race relations and domestic issues, like a women’s proper role in marriage, issues that were just beginning to be examined generally.
Yet, the flow of the revelations and the mix of many characters in this novel were a little too confusing to follow at times and I really found myself thinking that I had no idea what was going on several times during the course of reading the book. After her fascinating and dark novel, Beast in View, I was hoping this would be just as interesting. It was not. Instead, it was a jumble of people and odd revelations and strange internal musings by the characters.
First published in 1960, this author was highly thought of in her day as a crime and mystery writer, and her work is having a comeback. I very much enjoyed the first book I read by her. This one, not so much.
The story line of this novel was hard to follow and confusing, and I found myself not knowing what was going on for much of the book. There are several twists at the end, but when you finally get there and everything becomes clear, it’s all foreseeable by then.
Daisy Harker lives a quiet and circumscribed, safe life in San Felice California with her husband Jim. They are well off and even have a small mother-in-law house on their property for Daisy’s mother. Their great sadness is that Daisy can’t have children.
One day Daisy wakes up from a very bad dream where she has seen her own gravestone in the local cemetery with her death date on it from four years earlier.
Completely confused over this seemingly lost day from four years ago when she “died” daisy gets no help from her husband or mother, only pushback and requests to behave and be a good girl and to forget about the dream. But Daisy is determined to figure out what the dream signifies. With the help of a handsome private detective with a dark past of his own, Daisy hopes to recapture this lost day that seems to be so important to her and so disquieting to the rest of her family.
As Daisy gets closer to the truth, her mother and husband work even harder to try and make her give up her quest for the truth, and to save her from a great catastrophe.
Millar is a talented writer, one who wrote well ahead of her time and dealt with controversial topics such as race relations and domestic issues, like a women’s proper role in marriage, issues that were just beginning to be examined generally.
Yet, the flow of the revelations and the mix of many characters in this novel were a little too confusing to follow at times and I really found myself thinking that I had no idea what was going on several times during the course of reading the book. After her fascinating and dark novel, Beast in View, I was hoping this would be just as interesting. It was not. Instead, it was a jumble of people and odd revelations and strange internal musings by the characters.