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Loading... The Listening Walls (1959)by Margaret Millar
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Most of what you could want in a book of the type. Taut, pacy, tense, bit of humour, good characters. Bit dated in places but hard to fault it for that. Only missing a truly satisfying denouement. Not entirely sure the plot adds up but I did read it across two plane rides so quite possibly the fault is mine. ( ) I read this with enjoyment. A view into another time and place for sure. I cannot really recall what it is about, it did have a beginning, middle and end but it was more the experience of reading it, like going back in time and seeing into the minds of others that were full of important things from that time but which seem nothing much now. If this was a movie it would have been on late at night on a near forgotten channel. That doesn't sound as good as the book so forgive me. Two women, one married and one recently divorced, go on vacation together in Mexico City. Although supposedly best friends, they are overheard having several loud arguments. On the fourth night of their stay, they drink tequila in the hotel bar with an expatriate American man who hangs out there. Later that night, screams come from their suite, and the divorcee, Wilma Wyatt, plunges from the balcony to her death, while Amy Kellogg is found unconscious on the floor. Her husband comes immediately to Mexico and takes her straight from the hospital to their home in San Francisco. On the night they arrive, Amy takes her dog and leaves immediately on another trip. Her brother, Gil Brandon, is suspicious and hires a private detective. What really happened to Amy Kellogg? Lots of twists & turns - I read it all in a single day just to find out what happened. Very good! Although the ending is a little stiff and the final twist pretty goofy, this is still a great book. More than the plot and the mystery, the characters -- particularly the supporting cast of secretaries, bartenders, and wives -- are what make this book stand apart from other perfectly fine mystery novels and make it something with a little more to bite into. [full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2009/02/listening-walls-1959.html ] no reviews | add a review
Distinctions
In this suspenseful masterpiece about corrupted love, Rupert Kellogg's wife, Amy, goes missing after an ill-fated trip to Mexico--and Rupert becomes the focus of a paranoid investigation. Amy Kellogg is not having a pleasant vacation in Mexico. She's been arguing nonstop with her friend and traveling companion, Wilma, and she wants nothing more than to go home to California and the Bay Area. But an uncomfortable stay in a Mexican hotel takes a nightmarish turn when Wilma is found dead on the street below their room--an apparent suicide. Rupert Kellogg has just returned from seeing his wife Amy through the difficulties surrounding the apparent suicide of her friend in Mexico. But Rupert is returning alone--which worries Amy's brother. Amy was traumatized by the suicide, Rupert explains, and has taken a holiday in New York City to settle her nerves. But as gone girl Amy's absence drags on for weeks and then months, the sense of unease among her family changes to suspicion and eventual allegations lead to a paranoid investigation. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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