Spider Webs [Paperback]

Margaret Millar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1988

323 pp.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's sad to realize that this ingenious novel is a posthumous publication by the author whose prize mysteries transcend the genre. The murder trial of Cully Paul King, handsome black skipper of the yacht Bewitched, takes place in a California coastal town. Events prove King had strangled Madeline Pherson aboard the yacht, after hiring her as a cook. The prosecutor claims that the victim's jewel casewhich can't be found was King's motive for murder. The contents of the case mark one of the startling disclosures in the proceedings, most shedding merciless light on the people involved with the defendant. The judge, the opposing attorneys, the amorous court clerkeveryone has more at stake in the verdict than the defendant. All, for different reasons, want to control King's future. Only one realizes that ambition, making the final shocker in Millar's tautly constructed story.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A yacht captain is on trial for murdering a woman he hired with more than the boat's cooking in mind. Circumstantial evidence abounds, so the slick defense attorney coaches his client in ways to influence the jury. Millar is more interested in developing engaging, three-dimensional characters than in solving the crime here. The judge, the lawyers, the clerk, and several witnesses all have different reasons for being concerned with the outcome, and the reader gets to see that justice can be very fragile in a realistic courtroom setting. A neat surprise ending concludes this skillfully told story, one of the author's wittiest. Highly recommended. Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Intl Polygonics Ltd (May 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930330765
• ISBN-13: 978-0930330767
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,968,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life's Quirky Turns, June 28, 2001

By 

Charlotte Pen (Providence, RI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spider Webs (Paperback)

If you like following a trial, with simple explanations, much dry humor, and true suspense, then Margaret Millar's "Spider Webs" fills the bill. We get a close look at the judge, at the prosecutor, the defense lawyer, the court clerk, and the accused murderer, who seems to be a magnet for all the others.

He is a copper-colored black man, from the Islands, a skipper of a million dollar yacht, who has sailed to Santa Felicia County, California from the Islands, with two crew members, in preparatiion for their next big race to Hawaii. But Cully, that's his name, gets taken in by a middle-aged lady, brings her aboard the ship and what follows, the good Lord only knows, for the lady disappears, and is eventually found in a forest of kelp, off-shore, lifeless. That is what the trial is all about.

The book has a surprise ending. There is something for the young, the middle-aged and the old, to mull over in this tightly plotted book - for the best laid plans of "mice and men" are easily toppled by life's quirky turns.