In this complex and psychologically acute critique of the post-war family a husband’s paranoia concerning his young wife’s fidelity escalates just as she struggles to survive while surrounded by his oppressive insecurity.
Martha and Charles Pearson have been married for four years when Charles becomes convinced she is trying to poison him. Charles is desperately in love with his young, beautiful, and coolly removed wife, but he knows in his heart that she married him for his money. Martha, meanwhile, is miserable in the cage of her husband's psychotic paranoia. She struggles through her bland, textureless days, doing her best to care for him and to keep up appearances. When an embittered ex-boyfriend returns from four years away at war, a confrontation with him is all Martha needs to turn her life upside down. Experiment in Springtime is the poignantly observed story of an unfortunately entered marriage, a novel that scrapes away the veneer of domestic bliss to reveal the heartbreaks, neuroses, and dissatisfactions of the mythical post-WWII nuclear family.
PRAISE FOR MARGARET MILLAR
Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year
“One of the most original and vital voices in all of American crime fiction.” —Laura Lippman
“I long ago changed my writing name to Ross Macdonald for obvious reasons.” —Kenneth Millar (Ross Macdonald), in a letter to the Toronto Saturday Night newspaper
“Very Original.” —Agatha Christie
"Stunningly original." —Val McDermid
“She has few peers, and no superior in the art of bamboozlement.” —Julian Symons
“Written with such complete realization of every character that the most bitter antagonist of mystery fiction may be forced to acknowledge it as a work of art.” —Anthony Boucher reviewing Beast in View for the New York Times
“Margaret Millar can build up the sensation of fear so strongly that at the end it literally hits you like a battering ram.” —BBC
“Wonderfully ingenious.” —The New Yorker
“Brilliantly superlative… One of the most impressive additions to mystery literature—and the word “literature” is used in its fullest sense.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“In the whole of crime fiction’s distinguished sisterhood, there is no one quite like Margaret Millar.” —The Guardian
“A superb writer.” —H.R.F. Keating
“She writes minor classics.” —Washington Post
“Mrs. Millar doesn't attract fans she creates addicts.” —Dilys Winn, namesake of the Dilys Award
Margaret Millar (1915-1994) was the author of 27 books and a masterful pioneer of psychological mysteries and thrillers. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she spent most of her life in Santa Barbara, California, with her husband Ken Millar, who is better known by his nom de plume of Ross Macdonald. Her 1956 novel Beast in View won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. In 1965 Millar was the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year Award and in 1983 the Mystery Writers of America awarded her the Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement. Millar's cutting wit and superb plotting have left her an enduring legacy as one of the most important crime writers of both her own and subsequent generations.
In this complex and psychologically acute critique of the post-war family a husband’s paranoia concerning his young wife’s fidelity escalates just as she struggles to survive while surrounded by his oppressive insecurity.
Martha and Charles Pearson have been married for four years when Charles becomes convinced she is trying to poison him. Charles is desperately in love with his young, beautiful, and coolly removed wife, but he knows in his heart that she married him for his money. Martha, meanwhile, is miserable in the cage of her husband's psychotic paranoia. She struggles through her bland, textureless days, doing her best to care for him and to keep up appearances. When an embittered ex-boyfriend returns from four years away at war, a confrontation with him is all Martha needs to turn her life upside down. Experiment in Springtime is the poignantly observed story of an unfortunately entered marriage, a novel that scrapes away the veneer of domestic bliss to reveal the heartbreaks, neuroses, and dissatisfactions of the mythical post-WWII nuclear family.
Reviews
PRAISE FOR MARGARET MILLAR
Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year
“One of the most original and vital voices in all of American crime fiction.” —Laura Lippman
“I long ago changed my writing name to Ross Macdonald for obvious reasons.” —Kenneth Millar (Ross Macdonald), in a letter to the Toronto Saturday Night newspaper
“Very Original.” —Agatha Christie
"Stunningly original." —Val McDermid
“She has few peers, and no superior in the art of bamboozlement.” —Julian Symons
“Written with such complete realization of every character that the most bitter antagonist of mystery fiction may be forced to acknowledge it as a work of art.” —Anthony Boucher reviewing Beast in View for the New York Times
“Margaret Millar can build up the sensation of fear so strongly that at the end it literally hits you like a battering ram.” —BBC
“Wonderfully ingenious.” —The New Yorker
“Brilliantly superlative… One of the most impressive additions to mystery literature—and the word “literature” is used in its fullest sense.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“In the whole of crime fiction’s distinguished sisterhood, there is no one quite like Margaret Millar.” —The Guardian
“A superb writer.” —H.R.F. Keating
“She writes minor classics.” —Washington Post
“Mrs. Millar doesn't attract fans she creates addicts.” —Dilys Winn, namesake of the Dilys Award
Author
Margaret Millar (1915-1994) was the author of 27 books and a masterful pioneer of psychological mysteries and thrillers. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she spent most of her life in Santa Barbara, California, with her husband Ken Millar, who is better known by his nom de plume of Ross Macdonald. Her 1956 novel Beast in View won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. In 1965 Millar was the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year Award and in 1983 the Mystery Writers of America awarded her the Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement. Millar's cutting wit and superb plotting have left her an enduring legacy as one of the most important crime writers of both her own and subsequent generations.
