The Beast in View

Beast in View by Margaret Millar

In 1956, Beast in View by Margaret Millar became the third book to win the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel. It took a different tack from the two previous winners. Charlotte Jay's Beat Not the Bones, which won in 1954 was written from the point of view of a widow of a murder victim seeking answers. Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye, which won in 1955, was from the point of view of his famous private eye Philip Marlowe. Beast in View, however, is written from the point of view of the intended murder victim.

That victim is Miss Helen Clarvoe, a young woman who lives alone in a hotel room, but who has been receiving harassing phone calls from a woman she claims not to know named Evelyn Merrick. In fearful desperation she turns to a P.I. named Blackshear. Through the course of his investigations, Blackshear discovers that Clarvoe and Merrick do in fact know each other, though they haven't seen each other in many years. As Blackshear questions their acquaintances, people start dying. Things ultimately culminate at Clarvoe's hotel with all three finally meeting face to face for the first time.

In the 1990s, Beast in View was listed as one of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time by the British Crime Writers' Association, and one of the Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time by the Mystery Writers of America. Yet, despite such accolades from Millar's peers, the novel isn't very accessible to modern audiences, both literally and figuratively. The story is a bit dated - it kicks off with prank phone calls, and ends with a twist which was no doubt novel at the time, but has since been ripped-off or copied so much in the intervening half-Century, that at best it lacks punch, at worst can be downright predictable. Perhaps that's why this novel has been out of print for so long, finally receiving its first re-release in deaces by Soho Syndicate Books in 2018.

While the mystery is usually the primary reason, and often the only reason to read a mystery novel,  the dated elements of Beast in View can be their own reason for picking it up. Aside from the mystery, it offers a view of affluent urban life in the 1950s that seems strangely familiar, yet entirely removed from the contemporary life experience of most modern readers. And at less than 150 pages it's practically novella length, and written in a straightforward style, making it a fairly minor time investiture.

**1/2 out of *****