Many of Margaret Millar's characters have had an escape, often in the face of difficulty. Robert has achieved the ultimate escape - he has disappeared - and readers wonder whether that was deliberate or accidental, malicious or ambitious. "The world of Robert’s maps was nice and flat and simple. It
From the outset, The Fiend has a creepy element which readers hadn't yet experienced in the fiction Margaret Millar had published theretofore. "She was about nine. Having watched them all impartially now for two weeks, Charlie had come to like her the best." You're afraid to ask, aren't you: why
When I began to read this series, I worried - needlessly - about keeping the characters straight: actually, the main character is Jalna itself. "Everything about the house had been put in perfect order. Workmen had been there to mend the roof, tighten the supports of the shutters, and give
Of all the Mavis Gallant stories which I've read this year, this one I yearn to discuss. With many of the others, company would be nice, not only to see what other readers might unearth in the layers, but simply for the company because the characters' loneliness and sadness is
In which there is talk of novels which were read too quickly to allow for extensive note-taking and snapshots: good reading. Yewande Omotoso's The Woman Next Door (2017) Longlisted for the Women's Fiction Prize this year, this story about two women in their eighties, neighbours in South Africa, is quietly
