Delve Into Ask For Me Tomorrow Invented By Margaret Millar Released As Paperbound

of the few women of noir, and she can write a good dark story, . . I was liking it much more, with a few quibbles on the purported Mexican dialogue, until I hit the end and then you realize it's all a bit contrived, That always annoys me a bit, but worth a read, Not my favourite Margaret Millar, However, I like the fact that she is different in each book, This particular story is full of wisecracking men and a few wisecracking women who prevent the author from describing scenes in her usual amusing style that's of course my view I love her dry humour, if less her dialogue which reminds me of Ross Macdonald for one.
The final few pages when everything becomes clear do compensate for this in a big way though, Millar always leaves me something to think about and I like that, Lovely twists and turns. Millar never disappoints. Rating and reviewing nine months after reading, but I do remember some specifics and even whodunit, so clearly I enjoyed it and I would have loved these in thes.
they are quite dated. Antroji Margaret Millar knyga, kurią perskaičiau savo pagrindiniais herojais bei vietomis buvo kur kas įdomesnė už pirmąją, Tiesa, kaip ir ,Buvo ir nebėr" taip ir šitame detektyve greita atomazga šiek tiek sugadino taip nuosekliai auginamą įtampa,

ies metų moteris nusprendžia surasti savo pirmąjį vyrą, kad įsitikintų, jog jam viskas yra gerai, Šiam darbui pasamdo žavų, jauną advokatą Aragoną, Tomas leidžiasi į kelionę po beprotišką, skurdžia bei tuo pačiu visuomet žavingą Meksiką, kad suprastų ponios Deker pirmąjį vyrą, Tiesa, vaikinui ne itin sekasi, Visi asmenys turintys tam tikrų ryšių su ponu B, Dž. Lokvudu paslaptingomis aplinkybėmis miršta, o vietos policija nusitaiko į patį advokatą, kaip galimą šių nusikaltimų kaltininką, yay for freaky twists! What a cynical little delight this novel is, I'd never read anything by Margaret Millar, wife of betterknown hardboiled detective writer Ross Macdonald aka Kenneth Millar but I'd heard good things about her work, Now I can see why,

Her husband's creation was cool and contemplative wiseacre Lew Archer, embodied on film by Paul Newman, Millar's detective, on the other hand, is fasttalking MexicanAmerican lawyer Tom Aragon, and he's actually a little more fun to hang around with than Archer,

Aragon's boss sends him to do a job for a wealthy nearwidow named Gilly Decker, who devotes herself to caring for her strokevictim husband, Marco, Gilly says she wants him to track down her first husband, last seen working a real estate scam in Mexico, She says she feels guilty turning down his request for a loan five years before, She wants an attorney who speaks the language, which is how Aragon gets the job of finding what became of B, J. Lockwood after he ran off with one of their servants in the fancy RV she bought,

Aragon's travels in Mexico turn into travails as he finds himself one step behind someone else who appears to be on the same trail, His calls back to Gilly and to his own wife are a highlight, as are his conversations with the various officials he encounters in Mexico, Aragon winds up a suspect in a murder and has to try to explain himself to a policeman who boasts that he doesn't take any bribes beyond a few cases of liquor, and who doesn't see a problem with drinking wine from a crime scene.


The final twist in the plot is one I didn't expect, and there's something downright evil that's strongly implied but never quite stated, My only complaint about the plot is that it ends too abruptly, It would have been nice to see how Aragon copes with his feelings when he at last figures out the truth about what's been going on, Perhaps that's in the second novel in the trilogy, which I really can't wait to read, Gilly Decker is rich, fifty and married to a human vegetable, Cut down by a stroke on their honeymoon, Marco has given up, He hungers only for pills and thirsts only for the fluid in the hypodermic needle,

Gilly Decker has lost one husband and is about to lose another, Why, then, should she send the bright young lawyer, Tom Aragon, to the wastes of Mexico to look for her first husband It must be all of eight years since B.
J. Lockwood took off with one of the servants so is she after B, J. 's money, B. J. 's son, or sweet revenge and can she foresee the deadly future Her mysteries are good, but somehow very depressing, Einfach ein sehr humorvoller Thriller I found this author from the literary map, What a delight! This is what I mean by suspense, not horror or excessive violence, but actual mystery and unknowns waiting to be found out, The first murder that we know of doesn't happen until halfway through, Mrs. Millar also has a great way with character development and dialogue, Not as compelling as the other Margaret Millar mysteries I have read, The central character of Gilly never quite jells, and her search for BJ seems equally uninvolving, But ending is great. Although her books are beginning to come back into print at last, and most if not all of her oeuvre is available for digital download, Margaret Millar is a name sadly lost to the annals of history.
She was actually a successful writer for a long time who won an Edgar Award infor Beast In View, Had she lived today, shed be right up there with women such as Megan Abbott and Laura Lippman who dominate bestseller lists with their exciting blend of thriller and noir.
But because because her thrillers dont fit the charming, cozy style of Agatha Christie and her many imitators, Millar has been remembered for decades as “Ross Macdonalds wife who also was a decent writer.
”

Which is not fair, Millars writing floated her husband real name Kenneth Millar in his early days until he was able to sell books of his own, And her style of psychological mystery is timeless, It will not comfort. Theres nothing comfortable about reading a Margaret Millar book, Nor will it take you to the edge like Patricia Highsmith, Instead, Millar is able to get to the foundation of human behavior through her plots and characters to turn in something readable and compelling,

This one is, to my knowledge the first of the Tom Aragon books, her only series of novels, Aragon isnt a Marlow or Spade type: hes a guy who does his job, Hes good at it but not great, Think about a lessslimy Jake Gittes from Chinatown, This particular job has him going down to Mexico to track a womans exhusband for personal and financial reasons, But as he delves further into the mystery, all is not as it seems,

The all is not as it seems part is not Millars strong suit, I had a good idea of what was going on halfway through, But its when she pulls back to reveal the characters motivations that the reader realizes how talented she is, Here are humans driven by desire, even if it is fleeting due to age and illness, And desire still demands a price, The price is the misery of the characters expressed in this book,


As she is becoming republished once more, I hope more people check out Margaret Millars work, And if youre looking for a place to start, this is as good as any, There is a reason Kenneth Millar had to change his name to Ross MacDonald, . . his wife had published before him, and her books sold better than his at the time! Margaret Millar may be somewhat of a footnote now, but having just finished "Ask For Me Tomorrow", I finally realize why she was so successful, and the Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America.
Previously I had read "Fiend" and "The Listening Walls" but finally, when reading this book, the beauty of her structure, her descriptions, and her character development appeared, Her book built to an ending not foreshadowed which RARELY happens in mystery stories, yet perfectly logical, I won't spoil it, but I must say if you can find this book somewhere, . . anywhere I found it in a used bookstore called Ballards in Saratoga Springs NY, . . worth a visit do so and read it,

Maybe I can just end by quoting part of the foreward she wrote infirst published in: "I knit my books, I unravel, change yarns, drop a few stiches here and there, until the garment is finished, ASK FOR ME TOMORROW is the only book of mine that was truly made of whole cloth, The plot came to mind in its entirety, Sticking to one's knitting can be tedious, The writer presented with a whole piece of cloth is lucky indeed, So is the reader. " She did not exaggerate. . I was lucky to read this book Nice twist at the reveal, but a slog to get there, Information keeps being repeated and repeated and repeated and, . . Gilly's husband, Marco, had a stroke on their honeymoon, His health is deteriorating and his death is coming soon, Gilly hires a young Spanishspeaking lawyer to go to Mexico and track down her exhusband, B. J. left her with a young Mexican woman who was pregnant with her child, Tomas goes to Mexico to try to locate B, J. but his trail is hard to find, Soon people related to the search end up dead, Tomas returns home and learns the real truth from Gilly,/
I wanted to change this to a five star rating, Really, I just adored it,
/
I loved this, it is really good, The young lawyer Aragon, who I liked in The Murder of Miranda follow up book to this, involving him, goes to Mexico in this, I enjoyed it more than any Millar I read before, Very satisfying "mystery". Fromjust like me!. Really loved her hard and witty writing style, with some tenderness and character underneath, The mystery was fine though didn't really feel like the point, Will read more by her Junger Rechtsanwalt wird nach Mexiko geschickt, wo er den Exgatten seiner Klientin aufspüren soll, Alle Menschen, die den da gekannt haben werden ermordet, wie sich herausstellt vom Gehilfen der Auftraggeberin, die ihren ExMann rächen will,/Kysykää minua huomenna, niin tapaatte minut haudanhiljaisena,

Shakespeare on englanninkielisten kirjailijoiden ehtymätön innoituksen lähde, Margaret Millar leikittelee Romeosta ja Juliasta poimitulla lausahduksella kuin kissanpentu lankakerällä, Nuori juristi Tom Aragon saa tehtäväkseen etsiä Meksikoon vuosia sitten häipynyttä aviomiestä, Tehtävä osoittautuu kuitenkin odotettua mutkikkaammaksi, sillä aviomiehen jäljistä jotakin tietävillä tuntuu olevan ikävä tapa heittää henkensä, ennen kuin Tom Aragon pääsee heidän juttusilleen, I'd be very interested to know what research Millar did of Mexico for this book, It's painted with a vibrancy where the characters stand on their own and the story holds strong, Not that it's devoid of the white gaze or a racist view, but there is agency invested in the country and its people that's not always extended in books of the era or now.
I'm not sure what I think, I had an inkling by the end, but she was feeding the clues by then, A decent piece of writing, It took me a while and I kept falling asleep, so not the most gripping of mysteries for me, I checked out an anthology on a whim, so I'll read some other books and then try another in the series, This is probably a four star novel but I've given it five because Millar should be a lot better known than she is, This is vividly imagined, gripping and humane, with fully realised characters and a final twist that had me reading the last chapter twice, just to make sure, Highly recommended if you like the idea of something that nods briefly at Chandler in terms of wit and plot, but has an extra bit of heart, Margaret Ellis Millar née Sturm was an American Canadian mystery and suspense writer, Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto, She moved to the United States after marrying Kenneth Millar better known under the pen name sitelink Ross Macdonald, They resided for decades in the city of Santa Barbara, which was often utilized as a locale in her later novels under the pseudonyms of San Felice or Santa Felicia.
Millars books are distinguished by sophistication of characterization, Often we are shown the rather complex interior lives of the people in her books, with issues of class, insecurity, failed ambitions, loneliness or existential isolation or paranoia often being explored with an almost literary quality that transcen Margaret Ellis Millar née Sturm was an American Canadian mystery and suspense writer.
Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto, She moved to the United States after marrying Kenneth Millar better known under the pen name sitelink Ross Macdonald, They resided for decades in the city of Santa Barbara, which was often utilized as a locale in her later novels under the pseudonyms of San Felice or Santa Felicia.
Millar's books are distinguished by sophistication of characterization, Often we are shown the rather complex interior lives of the people in her books, with issues of class, insecurity, failed ambitions, loneliness or existential isolation or paranoia often being explored with an almost literary quality that transcends the mystery genre.
Unusual people, mild societal misfits or people who don't quite fit into their surroundings are given much interior detail, In some of the books we are given chilling and fascinating insight into what it feels like to be losing touch with reality and evolving into madness, In general, she is a writer of both expressive description and yet admirable economy, often ambitious in the sociological underpinnings of the stories and the quality of the writing, Millar often delivers effective and ingenious "surprise endings," but the details that would allow the solution of the surprise have usually been subtly included, in the best genre tradition, One of the distinctions of her books, however, is that they would be interesting, even if you knew how they were going to end, because they are every bit as much about subtleties of human interaction and rich psychological detail of individual characters as they are about the plot.
Millar was a pioneer in writing intelligently about the psychology of women, Even as early as the 's and 's, her books have a very mature and matter of fact view of class distinctions, sexual freedom and frustration, and the ambivalence of moral codes depending on a character's economic circumstances.
Her earliest novels seem unusually frank, Read against the backdrop of Production Code era movies of the time, they remind us that life as lived in the 's and 's was not as black and white morally as Hollywood would have us believe.
While she was not known for any one recurring detective unlike her husband, whose constant gumshoe was Lew Archer, she occasionally used a detective character for than one novel, Among her occasional ongoing sleuths were Canadians Dr, Paul Prye her first invention, in the earliest books and Inspector Sands a quiet, unassuming Canadian police inspector who might be the most endearing of her recurring inventions, In the California years, a few books featured either Joe Quinn, a rather down on his luck private eye, or Tom Aragorn, a young, Hispanic lawyer, Sadly, most of Millar's books are out of print in America, with the exception of the short story collection The Couple Next Door and two novels, An Air That Kills and Do Evil In Return, that have been re issued as classics by Stark House Press in California.
InMillar won the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, Best Novel award for Beast in View, Inshe was awarded the Woman of the Year Award by the Los Angeles Times, Inshe was awarded the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America in recognition of her lifetime achievements, sitelink.