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Margaret est une jeune femme comme beaucoup d'autres. Et, comme tout le monde, elle râle. La météo, ses deux enfants, son travail, son mari, les malheurs du monde, sa vie. Tout y passe. Mais à force de jérémiades, elle a attiré sur elle une terrible malédiction : elle est vouée à un avenir plein d'aigreur et de solitude. Sa seule chance de se libérer du mauvais sort : cesser complètement de se plaindre pendant vingt-huit jours consécutifs. Et elle n'a que trois mois pour réussir !

Margaret Millar is somewhat of a hidden treasure among American "mystery writers". (She was originally from Canada, but her many years of living in California with her writer-husband Ross McDonald give us Americans a claim on her.) What makes her unusual and special within the genre is the way so many of her novels subtly and eloquently examine the emotional toll taken on people by the small things that haunt their lives, create inner conflict or despair.

A yacht captain is on trial for murdering a woman he hired with more than the boat's cooking in mind. Circumstantial evidence abounds, so the slick defense attorney coaches his client in ways to influence the jury. Millar is more interested in developing engaging, three-dimensional characters than in solving the crime here. The judge, the lawyers, the clerk, and several witnesses all have different reasons for being concerned with the outcome, and the listener gets to see that justice can be very fragile in a realistic courtroom setting.

Thomas Philips was a happy man who could afford to retire at the age of 45. Old grudges were forgotten; the past was a lucrative memory. He scarcely felt the pinprick in his neck, and by the time the hand closed over his mouth, it was too late to do anything about it.

Cleo Jasper, a beautiful woman in her early 20s drops out of sight while attending an exclusive school for the learning disabled. Shortly before her disappearance, she had wandered into the law offices of Tom Aragon, the engaging young hero of Ask for Me Tomorrow and The Murder of Miranda. Cleo's older brother, Hilton, hires Aragon to find the vulnerable girl and bring her back home. Hilton's dedication to his little sister is tinged with guilt - and perhaps something more - for he has already alienated his wife and son by his devotion to Cleo.

At 30, Helen Clarvoe is alone: Her only visitors are the staff at the hotel where she lives, and her only phone calls come from a stranger. Until that stranger, with a quiet, compelling voice, lures the aloof and financially secure Miss Clarvoe into a world of extortion, pornography, vengeance, madness, and murder. But who is the hunter and who is the victim?

A New York family rents a house in California hoping for tranquil summer. Mark Banner is a young, successful publisher, and his wife Evelyn is afraid of losing him. When the owner of the house returns, Evelyn recognizes the enemy at first sight.

Isobel Seton, a witty New Yorker, is riding to a lodge in the wilds of Quebec in the middle of a blizzard. When the driver stops the bus in the middle of nowhere and walks off into the heavy snowstorm, the stranded would-be skiers find themselves in the middle of a mystery that ranks among Millar’s best.

There are worse crimes than murder.

Private detective Joe Quinn gambles. That's how he's lost his job, car, clothes, and girlfriend; it's why he's hitchhiking from Reno to California. At The Tower, a back-country compound housing a religious cult, Quinn gambles again, when Sister Blessing asks him to locate one Patrick O'Gorman. It proves to be no easy task: O'Gorman's dead - and, Quinn wagers, not so accidentally as everyone insists.