Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Reviews of Beast in View

Beast in View
Beast in View
Author: Margaret Millar
ISBN-13: 9780739406854
ISBN-10: 073940685X
Publication Date: 1990
Pages: 157
Edition: Unabridged
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 1

3.5 stars, based on 1 rating
Publisher: Mystery Guild
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

3 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed Beast in View on + 27 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
A lonely, wealthy woman subjected to harassing phone calls hires a retired policeman to investigate the matter. Suffers a bit from an ending that, while it may have been a shock at the time, isn't much of a surprise now. Still as gracefully written as one would expect from Millar, one of the most underrated mystery writers.
maura853 avatar reviewed Beast in View on + 542 more book reviews
Interesting example of 1950s psychological thriller. If you enjoy Hitchcock movies such as Vertigo, Marnie, or Spellbound, you might enjoy this.

Sadly, I've never warmed to Vertigo, and I had the same problem with this: its psychology seemed wild-eyed and over-heated, but at the same time, somehow, very innocent; its thrills were rendered obvious by 60+ years of similar "big twists."

As an unsettling glance back at life in mid-1950s America, it is the literary equivalent of a rather nasty fly caught in amber -- be prepared for casual racism, sexism, homophobia ... But it's clear that Millar was a talented writer, and captured the world just as it was.
tchstroo avatar reviewed Beast in View on + 74 more book reviews
A psychological suspense story. It won Millar an Edgar in 1955. Reprinted in the 1990s.