A Stranger in My Grave

'A genius of plot twists' LA Review of Books

Jim and Daisy Harker are a young, well-to-do Californian couple with the sort of domestic happiness that others can only aspire to. But a darkness exists at the outer edges of Daisy's mind and she has no idea why it's there. In a series of reoccurring nightmares she wanders a cemetery, eventually finding her own gravestone. According to the dream, December 2nd, 1955 is the day she died

Street smart but honorable, Stevens Pinata is a man with his own mysteries. When a pretty young woman like Daisy Harker comes into his office with a crazy request to "find her lost day" he is intrigued. He is too decent to take advantage of a crazy woman, but Mr. Harker is a wealthy man and who is Pinata to turn down money?

What unfolds is a masterpiece of suspense and one of the books that forever changed the domestic thriller. Millar's razor sharp prose cuts a masterful plot and slashes at the racism, sexism, and entitlement endemic to an era otherwise celebrated for its prosperity.