At thirty, Helen Clarvoe is alone: her only visitors are the staff at the hotel where she lives, and her only phone calls come from a stranger. Until that stranger, with a quiet, compelling voice, lures the aloof and financially secure Miss Clarvoe into a world of extortion, pornography, vengeance, madness and murder. But who is the hunter and who is the victim...? A gothic chiller which still feels incredibly modern, BEAST IN VIEW is a true classic of the crime fiction genre.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'Millar was the mast of the surprise ending (exemplified in Beast in View)' -- Christopher Fowler INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Superb ... Beast in View is cunningly plotted and has an ingenious final twist' -- Simon Shaw MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A wonderfully crepy and terrifying slice of noir' CATHOLIC HERALD
About the Author
Margaret Millar (1915-1994) was born in Ontario, Canada and was educated at Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate Institute and the University of Toronto, majoring in Classics. In 1938 she married Kenneth Millar (who wrote under the name Ross Macdonald). She published her first novel, THE INVISIBLE WORM, in 1941 and she worked as a screenwriter for Warner Brothers. She was active in the conservation movement in California in the 1960s and was named a Woman of the Year by the LOS ANGELES TIMES in 1965, and in 1982 she became a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
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.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By Paige Turner
Format:Mass Market Paperback
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.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By X.L.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
psychological, not a puzzle
Beast in View was well written, but I was disappointed because it turned out to be more of a psychological thriller than a murder mystery puzzle.
Published 1 month ago by Stacy Joura
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good
Conceptually dark and complex - reminding me of Ruth Rendell. Not sure what else the author could have done to make me feel it a 5 star read... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Janine Kilty
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genius at Work
Margaret Millar's Beast in View won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1956 and it took only 5 pages for me to understand why. Read more
Published 8 months ago by MJS
5.0 out of 5 stars
Short and chilling
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... Read more
Published on March 27, 2005 by Beverley Strong
