The Iron Gates was
Margaret Millar’s fifth novel, published in 1945. It introduced Inspector Sands of the Toronto police force. Millar (who was, of course,
Ross Macdonald’s wife) didn’t use Sands in her novels often, and
The Iron Gates was not one of her more famous crime novels. The Edgar Award-winning
Beast in View (1955),
How Like an Angel (1962), and
The Fiend
(1964) are the three books for which she’s probably best known.
Although Millar is not well-remembered nowadays, devotees find her
writing particularly rewarding. She’s especially skillful at portraying
women, although her stories are very different from those of writers
known for targeting female audiences.
Millar’s greatest strength was in exposing the psychological
underpinnings of a crime. Her books are more about motivation than
detection. What appealed to me most as I read her novels back in the
1970s was that her writing was never formulaic or predictable. Her best
work is found in the standalones. Even Sands, a charming and fully
fleshed-out detective, never steals the story from the women who
dominate
The Iron Gates entirely.
It’s not about the detective.
Lucille Morrow lives with her wealthy physician husband, his two grown
children, and his sister, Edith, in a large house in Toronto, Ontario.
Lucille is Andrew’s second wife. His first wife, Mildred, was murdered
in a nearby park 16 years earlier. That case was never solved. The two
stepchildren, Polly and Andrew, tolerate their stepmother. And she
tolerates them. This uneasy rapprochement begins to come undone when
Polly, along with her father and brother, goes to pick up her new
fiancé, a soldier who’s coming to Toronto to meet the family. A train
crash complicates their trip, but they return home later that night.
The next day, Lucille suddenly disappears after a visit from a strange
man carrying a small wrapped box. The last that is heard from her is
a scream.
She is eventually run down by the Toronto police and her condition is
such that she’s institutionalized. This action, mainly occurring in the
Morrow household, forms the first section of the novel, which Millar
labels as “The Hunt.”
The middle section, “The Fox,” details Lucille’s state of mind as she
hides from an assailant, the police, or perhaps her own fears in a
mental hospital. The reader is unsure which she sees as the greatest
threat. Her involvement with other patients turns out badly. Much of
this section of the novel describes her mental anguish, and the reader
is left to ponder whether Lucille is the victim she appears to be. Who
or what is after her?
The final section of this novel, “The Hounds,” details Sands’ solution
to the crimes that have taken place. This section is again largely set
in the Morrow household and concerns a diary newly unearthed. Giving
away any more plot points would ruin the delicate nature of Millar’s
story.
It’s hard to imagine this book being written today, because of its
lengthy depiction of a mentally fragile woman in an institution. Today,
Lucille Morrow would be prescribed an appropriate drug. Or perhaps she’d
be under the daily care of a psychiatric nurse at home. Nevertheless,
Millar uses the middle section of
The Iron Gates
to provide clues, and to do what she does best: show the unraveling of a
psyche. It’s also the section of this book that makes Millar’s
storytelling different. We go from the calm, if slightly hothouse, feel
of the Morrow home in section one, to the agitated madhouse of section
two, and then back again.
This novel was apparently purchased after World War II as a vehicle for actress
Bette Davis, but was never filmed. I think she would have done justice to Lucille Morrow. However, after reading
The Iron Gates, you will understand why the movie wasn’t made.
