But Meecham is a likeable lead character who shows a lot of empathy and understanding for the weakness and frailties that lead the other characters to act as they do. The pace is slow and steady throughout, perhaps a little too slow in the middle section where I found my interest dipping for a while. But I found the depiction of him as a dying man credible and quite moving, and his actions seemed to arise naturally out of his situation. I am deliberately avoiding saying how Earl fits into the story, since the plot is revealed slowly and steadily as the book progresses and almost any information about it could count as a spoiler. Still a young man, he is dying of a then incurable condition – leukaemia – and Millar shows how this affects his thoughts and actions, and the people around him. Her son, Earl Loftus, is another interesting characterisation. For her the world vanished in that instant.” It’s a really excellent portrayal of the shame of alcoholism for an elderly, respectable woman – hiding and lying, trying to keep up appearances, and always desperately trying to find the money to buy the next bottle. She’d been a drunk for maybe thirty years and didn’t find it out until then. As her son says of her “One drink, and she was a drunk. Drink plays a large part – not just Virginia’s blackout, but there’s another character, an elderly woman who, late in life, has become an alcoholic after a lifetime of not drinking. However, there are undoubtedly bleak aspects to the story that may be why some consider it noir. Meecham is a little cynical about human nature, but he’s not completely world-weary, he works within the law, and he treats women like real people even if he does display the occasional “me Tarzan, you Jane” mentality typical of the time. None of the various women fulfils the requirements of the femme fatale, being considerably more realistic and well-rounded than those usually are. It’s closer to a traditional mystery in style with Meecham playing the role of the unofficial detective. This is billed as noir, but although it has some noir elements I don’t think it sits fully in that genre.

But something doesn’t feel quite right about the whole thing to Meecham, and he finds himself trying to find out exactly what did happen to Margolis… However his lawyerly skills aren’t needed for too long, since although Virginia can’t remember the events of the evening, another witness has come forward whose evidence seems to clear her.

Virginia’s husband hires lawyer Eric Meecham to defend her. When Claude Margolis is found stabbed to death, suspicion falls not unnaturally on a woman who has been spending time with him recently, Virginia Barkeley, who is found wandering the streets nearby in a drunken state and covered in blood.

How Like an Angel by Margaret Millar