Margaret Millar: Beyond This Point Are Monsters (USA 2016)

From the Publisher:
The investigation into the disappearance of a wealthy California rancher brings to light the secrets of a whole community in this haunting masterpiece of suspense

On a small family ranch outside Boca de Rio, a California city just across the Mexican border from Tijuana, time has stood still for the last year, since the day Robert Osborne, the 24-year-old ranch owner, went out for a walk with his dog and never came home. A large amount of two types of blood was found on the floor of the canteen used by the Mexican viseros, day-laborers hired to work the fields, but Robert's body was never recovered-if he was killed. The sheriff investigating the case pursued the case so tirelessly he couldn't cope with his failure to solve it and quit his job.

In the year that has passed, the ranch has languished. Until Robert is declared dead, the ranch's executorship cannot be passed to someone else. His widow, Devon, yearns to move on with her life. But Robert's mother can't accept that her son is dead.

Now, at last, the case to have Robert Osborne declared dead in absentia is being heard before the County of San Diego Court. It should be a cut-and-dry ruling-all evidence points to murder. But as witnesses come forward to testify before the judge, secrets of the ranch's past are exposed-secrets of a salacious love affair and a suspicious suicide, of anti-Mexican racism and illegal border-crossing, of alcoholism, indigence, adultery, unwanted pregnancy, even older rumors of murder. Will learning the truth about Robert Osborne allow these wounds to finally heal, or will it only rip open new ones?

Margaret Millar: Beyond This Point Are Monsters. Soho Press, ISBN: 9781681990187 (February, 2016), eBook, 0.80 MB (ca. 256 p.), $4.99.

Margaret Millar: Beyond This Point Are Monsters (USA 1985)

From the Publisher:
"People have been telling me about Margaret Millar for years and now I am glad I didn't listen to them. Now that I have finally read one of her books [ASK FOR ME TOMORROW], I have 21 more to look forward to." -- Anatole Broyard, The New York Times

Meet Mrs. Millar's most engaging hero, Tom Aragon, a young Chicano lawyer. Aragon is hired by Gilda Decker to find her first husband, who after reportedly amassing a fortune disappeared in Mexico.

But when Aragon travels to Mexico, he finds the past shrouded in mystery, and as he approaches his elusive quarry, people start dying, one by one by one.

Margaret Millar: Beyond This Point Are Monsters. International Polygonics, ISBN: 0930330315 (November, 1985), Library of Crime Classics, 213 p., $4.95.

Margaret Millar: Beyond This Point Are Monsters (UK 1982)

From the Publisher:
Keyhole Crime
* The best of hardback Crime now for the first time regularly available in paperback
* Special selection for Crime novels carefully chosen for Crime enthusiasts
* The tingle of danger, the challenge of detection, the thrill of suspense - a fascinating variety of exciting Crime books for you to enjoy

BEYOND THIS POINT ARE MONSTERS
MARGARET MILLAR
'One of America's best crime writing talents' -- Guardian
At 8.30pm on the evening of October 13th, Robert Osborne left his ranch house to look for his dog. When he failed to return by 9.30pm, his wife roused the foreman of the ranch and a search was organised. It was the first of many searches covering a period of many months and an area of hundreds of square miles...

Evidence proved beyond all reasonable doubt that Robert Osborne was killed by a band of itinerant Mexican laborers - but the solution to the mystery was not quite so straightforward...

Once again, Margaret Millar has written a superb and absorbing novel - with a macabre twist at the end.

Margaret Millar: Beyond This Point Are Monsters. Keyhole Crime, ISBN: 0263738345 (April, 1982), 213 p., 95p.

Margaret Millar: Beyond This Point Are Monsters (USA 1970)

From the Publisher:
The clerk of the court took his place at the table he shared with the bailiff. The hearing of probate petitions was usually the dullest of all judicial procedures, but this one promised to be different. He read:

In the Matter of the Estate of Robert Kirkpatrick Osborne, Deceased, the petition of Devon Suellen Osborne respectfully shows:
That she is the surviving wife of Robert Osborne.

That Petitioner is informed and believes and upon such information and belief alleges that Robert Osborne is dead. The precise time of his death is not known, but Petitioner believes and therefore alleges that Robert Osborne died on the thirteenth day of October, 1967. The facts upon which the death of Robert Osborne is presumed are as follows:

The Petitioner and her husband, Robert Osborne, lived together as husband and wife for approximately half a year. On the evening of October 13, Robert Osborne, after dining with his wife, left the ranch house to look for his dog, which had wandered off in the course of the evening. When Robert Osborne failed to return by half past nine, Mrs. Robert Osborne roused the foreman of the ranch and a search was organized. It was the first of many searches covering a period of many months and an area of hundreds of square miles. Evidence has been collected which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that between 8:30 and 9:30 o'clock on the night of October 13, 1967, Robert Osborne met his death at the hands of two or more persons...

Devon Osborne sits listening to the drone of voices. Among them, the witnesses are recreating her young husband, and the man-who-isn't-there looms larger and larger in the courtroom as other people's lies (?), truths (?) fill out the outlines of a man only dimly perceived by those who knew him.

Margaret Millar's extraordinary talents are perfectly suited to the telling of this frightening tale. It is as though it was told in a voice that never rises above a whisper and yet fills the room with its sound.

Margaret Millar: Beyond This Point Are Monsters. A Random House Novel of Suspense. New York: Random House, 1970, 213 p., $5.95 (?).