Do Evil in Return

Do Evil in Return / Margaret Millar
NY: Soho Syndicate, 2017, c1950.
192 p.

I've also been reading some crime fiction that is not light and frothy, like the first two I shared this week. I returned to Margaret Millar's books, which I space out so I don't run out too quickly. She writes psychological mysteries usually set around mid-century or a bit later, and they are equally suspense and social commentary. 

In this one, published in 1950, the subject matter is eerily relevant. Charlotte is a doctor, and one day a young woman appears in her office. Violet is pregnant from a one night stand with a salesman; her husband is angry and Violet is desperate to get rid of it. Charlotte can't do it, although it nags at her for the rest of the day and into her evening, when her married boyfriend comes over -- she mentions what's bothering her, the thought that this young woman is in dire straits, but ones that Charlotte herself could just as easily find herself in. Her boyfriend is impatient with this line of thought. 

But Charlotte's lack of assistance leads to bigger things; Violet is found drowned, while her uncle and husband try to extort money from Charlotte and others in her circle. Charlotte meets Detective Easter, the cop on the case, an unmarried man her own age who falls for her quickly and can't understand her relationship with an older married man. Meanwhile Charlotte is uneasily sure that this was murder and not suicide, and tries to investigate on her own, and it gets her into some deep water as well. 

I thought this was a masterful story of motives, character, desperation and the need for connection is a noirish, bleak setting. The characters are all drawn so sharply, their interior lives and flaws exposed to the reader. Even small bit characters get their moment, from a waitress to the murdered girl's sister's friend -- they are all fully present. Millar has a knack for this, and for a twisty plot. This one shocked me, and the theme and atmosphere of this book felt too contemporary in many ways. There were small flaws for me; Detective Easter feels a bit like a stereotype and never really came to life, and the biting commentary on Charlotte's spinster receptionist was a bit too sharp for me in moments. Otherwise, this was one of those books that you start and then don't put down again until you're finished, no matter what time it is. An excellent read.