FIRE WILL FREEZE (1944) by Margaret Millar

This year marks the centenary of the birth of Margaret Millar (1915-1994), easily one of the best suspense writers of the 50s and 60s. To celebrate (no that I need much of an excuse) I decided to pick up this snowbound mystery, her fifth novel and her first without a series character, one of the few of hers that I had not read previously. We begin with a group of passengers heading for a Canadian ski lodge stuck in a broken down bus. The driver heads out but never returns, so the passengers go into the storm …

I submit this review for Bev’s Golden Age Vintage Mystery Challenge; and Patti Abbott’s Friday’s Forgotten Books meme over at her fab Pattinase blog.

“If there’s a mystery I want to keep it a mystery. The only thing to do in a place like this is to get inside a room with somebody you can trust, put the furniture in front of the door and be prepared to yell like hell,”

The passengers – including a rascally adventurer with a pistol in his holster; a snoop who is forever complaining that somebody else, preferably a man, should do what she says; a would-be poet and his voluminous sponsor; an energetic hardboiled young dame who make a living as a dancer; a couple at an (emotional) crossroad; a graduate with an interest in psychology and her forgiving father, etc. – eventually get in sight of a large old house. However, before they reach the door they are shot at by persons unknown! None the less, they eventually make it inside and meet the mistress of the house, the rather unhinged Miss Frances Rudd and her nurse, Floraine. Before the night is out a cat will have its throat cut, the remains of the driver’s uniform will be found in the basement, one person will freeze to death after falling from a balcony, another will be strangled and another shot at point-blank range. Yes, this is a comedy …

“I agree, there’s nothing like a good book when you find yourself cooped up with one, maybe two, homicidal maniacs, and a cold storage corpse.”

A cross between The Old Dark House (courtesy of J.B. Priestley’s Benighted) and Stella Gibbons’ bizarre classic, Cold Comfort Farm, this proves to be a highly eccentric performance from Millar. Her interest in abnormal psychology is very much in evidence here, if not especially convincing as it is all pretty strident or used for comic relief. What is well and truly upfront is her sense of humour as this excursion into grotesquerie is written with tongue well and truly in its cheek. It makes for a highly entertaining read as the trappings of the darkly lit house are laid on with a trowel, what with assorted screams in the night, several madmen on the loose, and dead bodies being found in unexpected places. I will say though, in fairness, that while I did enjoy this, I don’t think anyone is likely to mistake this for one of her major efforts, even from her early, less well-known work of the 1940s. The characterisation is very exaggerated and consequently impossible to take seriously (though the uneasy attraction between the bossy Isobel and the grumpy Crawford is nicely done). Also, which was a bit of a surprise with this author, the plot does turn out to be a bit thin. Indeed, Millar shows her hand pretty early on and while all the various elements do eventually slot in respectably, the book doesn’t really ever generate much in the way of dramatic momentum. But as a sort of Gothic comedy about murder and mayhem, I enjoyed it quite a bit and there are a few surprises along the way too.

Here is a complete checklist of Millar mystery books (she also wrote other sorts of fiction and non-fiction too):

• The Invisible Worm (1941)
• The Weak-Eyed Bat (1942)
• The Devil Loves Me (1942)
• Wall of Eyes (1943)
• Fire Will Freeze (1944)
• The Iron Gates [aka Taste of Fears] (1945)
• Do Evil in Return (1950) – read my review here
• Rose’s Last Summer (1952)
• Vanish in an Instant (1952)
• Beast in View (1955)
• An Air That Kills [aka The Soft Talkers] (1957)
• The Listening Walls (1959)
• A Stranger in My Grave (1960)
• How Like an Angel (1962)
• The Fiend (1964) – read my review here
• Beyond This Point Are Monsters (1970)
• Ask for Me Tomorrow (1976)
• The Murder of Miranda (1979)
• Mermaid (1982)
• Banshee (1983)
• Spider Webs (1986)
• The Couple Next Door: Collected Short Mysteries (Crippen & Landru, 2004)

This book has been reviewed extensively elsewhere and I recommend that you see what Patrick wrote about it (especially as he liked it much more than I did) for his blog, At the Scene of the Crime.
I submit this review for Bev’s 2015 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Challenge bingo in the ‘country house’ category:

***** (2.5 fedora tips out of 5)