Helen Clarvoe has a lonely life. She sits in her hotel room, where she lives, and her only visitors are the hotel staff. Until one day, a caller starts making unsettling threats towards her for no apparent reason. The caller claims to be an old friend, Evelyn Merrick, but something doesn’t seem quite right
She turns to the one person who seems to understand her, Paul Blackshear, the family attorney to get to the bottom of the danger she seems to be in, but Blackshear ahs no idea of the danger that lies in wait…
And welcome to another episode of “The Classic That Everyone Seems To Love But Puzzle Doctor Just Doesn’t Get”. See also Cat Of Many Tails by Ellery Queen (also coming soon to my Book Club based on my suggestion – and there were so many Brian Flynn books that I could have chosen…
I don’t know, I just didn’t get this at all. First of all, I thought that the allegedly stunning twist was obvious from the start. The book is hardly riveting, so that combined with basically waiting to be told what I was 95% sure about was tedious in the extreme.
The first chapter is pretty intriguing but it lost interest for me very quickly – it’s just not my sort of book. Like the Ellery Queen book, there is an obvious suspect and only one real alternative – hence, as I say, predictable. Maybe it was a revolutionary idea at the time, but first and foremost it’s the plot that I’m looking at when I read a book, no matter how good the prose is, and this is just lacking anything that
Ah, you know what. I didn’t like this, others will – and, indeed do – but I can’t be bothered to write much more about a book that never held my interest. Take a look at what Brad over at Ah Sweet Mystery or Kate at Crossexamining Crime as they seem to like it…
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
Well, yes Steve, you are very wrong … 😆. This book was a bit of a game changer in its day but after 70 years it has been copied so often that it us very hard to replicate its impact. (And yes, there is a campus mystery from the 1940s that looks forward to the trick pulled here – be wrong to mention it out loud, though.) But Millar was a superior writer and for me it’s nit just about the plot – sorry you didn’t find it more involving. STRANGER IN MY GRAVE and HOW LIKE AN ANGEL are two big favourites with endings you really shouldn’t see coming, honest …
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think part of it depends on mood. No matter what mood I’m in, then Till Death Us Do Part is still a great read, but some days I’d probably have viewed this a little more favourably.
It’s still glaringly obvious though – I stand by that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really don’t think someone as massively well-read in the genre is a good judge of what is obvious, surely? And, you know, back in the mid 1950s …
LikeLike
Well, quite. So many times in a book, one sees something and just can’t quite grasp why it doesn’t stand out as marking them as the killer. You read to much and you start getting meta about these things, especially when reading a “classic” for the first time.
So are you saying I’ve reviewed too many books and should stop? 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
🤣
LikeLike
As you say chum, it is always tough to replicate the effect of a historic “first” if you have seen too many of its offspring … I mean, how awful to just find ABC MURDERS predictable, or Nev Fountain’s OMEGA disappointing because you’ve seen, heard or read something a bit similar to them several times before … Have you read any of her later (post BEAST IN VIEW) books though? Genuine thrills and big surprises to be found, cross my heart …
LikeLike
Listened to Omega again the other day. When you know what’s coming, there are so many little hints… So clever.
And I take your word for it. When I have time, I will return…
LikeLiked by 1 person