Margaret Millar: The Fiend (USA 2016)

From the Publisher:
A young girl is at risk in this tense and disturbing page-turner that reveals a web of abusers and victims among a disparate cast of middle class Americans

Ben Gowen is trying to do the right thing. His brother Charlie is a disturbed man -- one who has done his time for the crimes he committed, crimes involving children. But Ben is determined to help Charlie reform, something that isn't easy considering Charlie's limited mental capacity and the nature of his disease.

Charlie wants to be good. To be good and to be liked by his brother Ben. He doesn't want to have the bad thoughts. But he's disturbed that the parents of a little girl named Jessie have allowed their daughter to engage in risky behavior. Climbing trees. Rough-housing on the playground. She could get hurt. She should be fed nourishing meals and given warm clothing to wear. Upset, Charlie writes an anonymous letter to Jessie's mother, shaming her. He will keep an eye on her and make sure she's safe.

The Fiend, first published in 1964, is a shocking novel in any era. Millar piles on the suspense and tension to nearly unbearable heights as a self-absorbed group of adults fail to notice a predator in their midst.

Margaret Millar: The Fiend. Soho Press, ISBN: 9781681990170 (February, 2016), eBook, 0.50 MB (ca. 245 p.), $4.99.

Margaret Millar: The Fiend (USA 1974)

From the Publisher:
FIRST WARNING
Your daughter takes too dangerous risks with her delicate body. Children must be guarded against the cruel hazards of life and fed good, nourishing food so their bones will be padded. Also clothing. You should put plenty of clothing on her, keep arms and legs covered, etc. In the name of God, please take better care of your little girl.

Kate Oakley received this strange letter in her morning mail. It marked the beginning of a campaign of terror waged against Kate, her little daughter, and an entire community.

"RIVETING!" Harper's

Margaret Millar: The Fiend. The celebrated novel of terror in suburbia. Avon Books #17962 (January, 1974), 281 p., $1.25.

Margaret Millar: The Fiend (USA 1966)

From the Publisher:
"Breathtaking." - LOS ANGELES HERALD-EXAMINER
MARGARET MILLAR
THE FIEND
"The tense, watchful atmosphere in which a known sex offender is forever condemned to live... the strain on his family and friends, the precarious nature of any 'cure' for his problem emerge starkly when a little girl disappears one night.... Spellbinding." — ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH "Inspired." -- BOOK WEEK
"Miss Millar's talent lies in riveting the attention and involving one's emotions." - HARPER'S

Margaret Millar: The Fiend. Dell Books #2504 (March, 1966), Dell Great Mystery Library, 224 p., ¢60.

Margaret Millar: The Fiend (USA 1964)

From the Publisher:
The premise of Margaret Millar's new suspense novel is simple and shocking. Charlie Gowen, a handsome young man with a badly disordered past, finds himself profoundly drawn toward a a nine-year-old girl. His past record suggests, even to Charlie himself, that his sick passion for little Jessie is placing her life in jeopardy. But he can't stay away from her school, her street, her house.

If the premise of Mrs. Millar's story is simple enough, its development is complex and compelling. Charlie's fiancée Louise, who loves him desperately, risks her life in an effort to save him from the dark forces of his own nature. Half a dozen other adults, Jessie's parents, friends and neighbors, become involved in the network of guilt and menace which surrounds the child. Without sacrificing its quality of almost unbearable suspense, this novel makes a searching and scathing inquiry into the guilty relations of adults with children. To read it is a shaking experience.

About the Author
Margaret Millar is recognized here and abroad as a leader in the renaissance of the mystery novel. Her books are marked by a deep emotional commitment to life, balanced by an artistic concern with style and form. They constitute an original and disturbing series of novels -- The Fiend is her nineteenth -- which are not only remarkable as mystery and suspense novels, but rank with some of the best contemporary fiction.

Born in Canada and educated in the classics at the University of Toronto, Mrs. Millar now lives quietly in the Santa Barbara foothills with her husband Kenneth, who writes mysteries under the name of Ross Macdonald. Their leisure time is enjoyed by three dogs, by the visits of their one-year-old grandson, Casey, and by more than a hundred species of wild birds which patronize their canyon feeding stations. Mrs. Millar is an active conservationist, and last year helped to found a Santa Barbara branch of the National Audubon Society.

In 1956 Margaret Millar's novel, Beast in View, was given the Edgar Allan Poe award by her fellow members of Mystery Writers of America, and the following year she was elected president of that organization. Her books have been widely translated in Europe, Asia and South America.

Margaret Millar: The Fiend. A suspense novel in which nine adult lives are enmeshed in the horrible threat to a little girl's life. New York: Random House, 1964, 244 p., $3.95.