Banshee

Rating:
Summary: "Children's Play"
Review: BANSHEE is late Millar, and though there is a half-heartedness about some of the characters, and even a half-heartedness about the story itself, it is still vintage Millar, with an assortment of people and circumstances which hold your interest.

A young darling of a girl, who is called Princess, prances about and delights the reader at the beginning of the story. She has been built an out-sized doll house, where she plays out her imaginary fairy-tale life. Sometimes strangers come by - stragglers off the highway - looking for food. But they, too, are enchanted by the child's innocence and beauty. This is, after all, California's lush countryside, where nothing goes wrong. She shares her idyllic life with her young cousin, who lives nearby. Others in the neighborhood, a retired "Madam," for one, have curiously mysterious lives but then they maintain their privacy as well as respecting that of their neighbors.

The inevitable happens. Princess disappears and only months later, her decomposed body is found within her play area, along the stream, bordering the neighborhood. Who, amongst the neighbors and friends and strangers, has committed this heinous crime? The father desperately spends endless days searching for clues but is finally defeated. He cannot solve the mystery. Can you? This seems to be Margaret Millar's question, throughout. Yes, vintage Millar.

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Millar--heads and shoulders above the rest!
Review: This is vintage Millar--mature, rich, and fertile. The mystery itself--the death of a princess--is deftly handled. More important, however, is the pain and soul searching unleashed by the main event. Deep soundings about innocence, experience, and faith.