SOURCE: "Fathers and Daughters," in The New York Times Book Review, July 26, 1981, pp. 8-9.

In the following excerpt, Milton argues that Blackwood successfully develops conflict between the characters in The Fate of Mary Rose but deviates from her initial concerns and fails to conclude the "who-dunnit" satisfactorily.

Both Julian Gloag's contemplative new novel, Lost and Found, and Caroline Blackwood's horror tale, The Fate of Mary Rose, are set in rural villages invaded by contemporary ugliness, but the more telling similarity is that they are also both about fathers and fatherhood and that each touches upon the rape of a little girl. In Mr. Gloag's book, rape is only the worst of many outrages, and springs from the brutish, stultifying impact of rustic life. In Miss Blackwood's book, rape is central, an emanation of insanity spawned in urban chaos. Both novels suggest that men cannot accept the fact that...