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#BookReview Vanish in an Instant by Margaret Millar @PushkinPress

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Vanish in an InstantAbout the Book

Virginia Barkeley is a nice, well brought-up girl. So what is she doing wandering through a snow storm in the middle of the night, blind drunk and covered in someone else’s blood?

When Claude Margolis’ body is found a quarter of a mile away with half-a-dozen stab wounds to the neck, suddenly Virginia doesn’t seem such a nice girl after all. Her only hope is Meecham, the cynical small-town lawyer hired as her defence. But how can he believe in Virginia’s innocence when even she can’t be sure what happened that night?

And when the answer seems to fall into his lap, why won’t he just walk away?

Format: Paperback (256 pages)                     Publisher: Pushkin Press
Publication date: 25th October 2018 [1952] Genre: Crime, Modern Classics

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My Review

Mrs Hamilton, Virginia’s redoubtable mother, is convinced Virginia is innocent of the murder of Claude Margolis but not so sure about the abilities of Eric Meecham, the lawyer hired to defend her daughter. On the other hand, the view the reader gets of Virginia via Meecham isn’t quite the ‘butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth’ opinion held of her by her mother.

A late night encounter draws Meecham into the investigation of the circumstances of the murder with the picture becoming more of a puzzle by the moment as a web of tangled relationships is revealed. As he observes, ‘Another equation to be solved… and each new equation led to still another, and on and on into the infinity of the human mind’.

Alongside the murder mystery, the book also charts the beginning of a relationship that is intense from the outset, as if the two people involved were somehow fated to meet, and to be together.

Vanish In An Instant is a taut, well-crafted crime mystery sprinkled with red herrings but also with a few clues for the (very) observant reader to pick up on. As an author, Margaret Millar was renowned for her clever plotting and last few page reveals and Vanish In An Instant definitely lives up to both those accolades.

Margaret Millar Vanish In An Instant A Stranger in My Grave The Listening WallsMy thanks to Pushkin Press for my review copy of Vanish In An Instant, along with A Stranger In My Grave, which I have yet to read, and The Listening Walls which I reviewed in November 2019.

Vanish In An Instant is the penultimate book on my Classics Club list and one of the two books I plan to read for the latest Classics Club Spin. (The other is the final book I need to earn my place on the Classics Club Wall of Honour, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.)

In three words: Intriguing, ingenious, assured

Try something similar: The Listening Walls by Margaret Millar

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Margaret MillarAbout the 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. (Bio credit: Publisher author page/Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

#WWWWednesday – 21st July 2021

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

One August NightOne August Night by Victoria Hislop (hardcover)

25th August 1957. The island of Spinalonga closes its leper colony. And a moment of violence has devastating consequences.

When time stops dead for Maria Petrakis and her sister, Anna, two families splinter apart and, for the people of Plaka, the closure of Spinalonga is forever coloured with tragedy.

In the aftermath, the question of how to resume life looms large. Stigma and scandal need to be confronted and somehow, for those impacted, a future built from the ruins of the past.

With Face AflameWith Face Aflame by A E Walnofer (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author and Zooloo’s Book Tours)

Born with a red mark emblazoned across her face, seventeen-year-old Madge is lonely as she spends her days serving guests and cleaning rooms in the inn her father keeps.

One day, she meets an unusual minstrel in the marketplace. Moved by the beauty of his song and the odd shape of his body, she realizes she has made her first friend. But he must go on to the next town, leaving her behind.

Soon after, while she herself is singing in the woods, she is startled by a chance meeting with a stranger there. Though the encounter leaves her horribly embarrassed, it proves she need not remain unnoticed and alone forever.

However, this new hope is shattered when she overhears a few quiet words that weren’t intended for her ears. Heartbroken and confused, she flees her home to join the minstrel and his companion, a crass juggler.

As they travel earning their daily bread, Madge secretly seeks to rid herself of the mark upon her cheek convinced that nothing else can heal her heart.

This Lovely CityThis Lovely City by Louise Hare (audiobook)

London, 1950. With the war over and London still rebuilding, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for labour. Arriving from Jamaica aboard the Empire Windrush, he’s rented a tiny room in south London and fallen in love with the girl next door.

Playing in Soho’s jazz clubs by night and pacing the streets as a postman by day, Lawrie has poured his heart into his new home ― and it’s alive with possibility. Until one morning, while crossing a misty common, he makes a terrible discovery.

As the local community rallies, fingers of blame point at those who were recently welcomed with open arms. And before long, London’s newest arrivals become the prime suspects in a tragedy that threatens to tear the city apart.

Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my review.

Kyiv by Graham Hurley

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Vanish in an Instant by Margaret Millar

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

What Cathy (will) Read Next

CecilyCecily by Annie Garthwaite (eARC, courtesy of Viking via NetGalley)  

“Rebellion?”
The word is a spark. They can start a fire with it, or smother it in their fingertips. She chooses to start a fire.

You are born high, but marry a traitor’s son. You bear him twelve children, carry his cause and bury his past. You play the game, against enemies who wish you ashes. Slowly, you rise. You are Cecily. But when the King who governs you proves unfit, what then? Loyalty or treason – death may follow both. The board is set. Time to make your first move.

Told through the eyes of its greatest unseen protagonist, this astonishing debut plunges you into the blood and exhilaration of the first days of the Wars of the Roses, a war as women fight it.