Ethel Lina White (1876–1944)

The Lady Vanishes by Ethel Lina White was a stellar read. It kept me on the edge of my seat, anxious for the characters both to find out what was going on and also to emerge from this adventure safely. I have seen the 1938 Alfred Hitchcock film many years ago so I had a vague idea of what was going to happen but there were changes that Hitchcock made, including changing the name from “The Wheel Spins” to ‘The Lady Vanishes”.

Socialite Iris Carr is coming home from her holidays in a show more remote corner of Europe, travelling alone as she got into a quarrel with one of her friends over a man. Unfortunately she suffers from too much sun as she waits for the train to arrive. She barely makes the train but is soon taken under the wing of another English woman, who gets her to eat and rest. When Iris wakes up, her friend, Miss Froy has disappeared and none of the other passengers will admit to ever seeing her. In fact many suspect that Iris is suffering from delusion brought on by her sunstoke while others are avoiding the truth in order not to get involved. Iris remains isolated in her mission to find Miss Froy and the claustrophobic setting of an express train, her lack of language skills and overall sense of urgency adds to the pressure. By continuing to make inquiries, Iris has now put herself in danger as well.

It’s been awhile since a book has affected me as strongly as The Lady Vanishes did. The author did a fantastic job of setting the suspense and keeping up the tension. Of course there is a slight dated quality to the story by the inclusion of sinister foreign political elements and the strong message that it is only the English who are sensible, reliable and clever. Nevertheless, this is a classic mystery that continues to beguile it's readers today. show less

A rip-roaringly good yarn of suspense and tension on a train journey.
The movie adaptation diverges from the book in a number of ways. Some I think are improvements, some maybe not. I actually prefer the book's motive for the villains. But I prefer the characters in the movie. In the movie, some people are combined and some are replaced, and it just results in a tighter storyline and also some welcome comedic relief.
The tension in this book is really well done, especially because Miss Carr is show more truly, truly, truly on her own in this dilemma, to a degree beyond what the movie depicts. The book also gives her more of a back story to explain how it is that she's gotten so cut off from the support of other people.

Ultimately I thought it was a top-notch story from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and it completely holds its own against the more well-known authors from the 20's and 30's. show less

Like her counterpart — though their approach was much different — across the pond in America, Cornell Woolrich, Ethel Lina White has fallen out of fashion in our day. Also like him, a number of her works were adapted for radio or film. Most notably, her 1934 book, Some Must Watch, was adapted by Robert Siodmak as The Spiral Staircase for film, and her 1936 novel, The Wheel Spins, was the loose basis for Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes.

I had been wanting to read Wax for ages, mainly show more because I loved the short story it was cannibalized from. Raymond Chandler used to do the same with his own pulp stories, lengthening them, adding elements, and turning them into Marlowe novels. Here, however, I had the misfortune — for lack of a better word — to read Waxworks, the short story that gave birth to it, before I had read the novel. Because of this, White’s wonderfully descriptive prose in the novel became a hindrance for me. I liked the short story version so much, that all the characters and elements she used to alter it slightly in order to flesh it out into a full length novel, had me wishing she’d just get on with it. I suppose that’s an indication of how much I liked the shorter story, which was originally published during the Christmas season in 1930 by Pearson’s Magazine.

That being said, there is still a lot to like here, and if I’d come at it from the opposite direction, perhaps I’d have loved it. As it was, I liked it a lot. While it has some wonderfully atmospheric scenes, especially those set in the Waxwork Gallery, modern readers will probably fuss that it isn’t a paint by the numbers thriller, focusing solely on that element. This is old-fashioned suspense which has a lot of day-to-day life interspersed between the story. While the relationships and banter may seem inconsequential to many modern readers, they can be wonderful for those who enjoy an older style of storytelling, where the table setting is just as important as the meal.

There is a reason Ethel Lina White had such success in her day. If I had to recommend the novel or the short story, however, I’d recommend the short story. Since it is apparently only available — at least that I can find — in The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries put together by Otto Penzler, however, I suggest giving the novel Wax a go to see whether White’s style of writing, and her old-fashioned suspense, is your cup of tea or not. show less

''So you saw Miss Froy no more...She is nothing but a delirium - a dream.''

A young British socialite, frustrated, disillusioned and fed up with the pretentiousness of her noisy friends and the life she has been leading, decides to end her holidays in an unnamed (and probably fictional) country somewhere in Central Europe and return to England. Surrounded by fellow travellers who are hollower than the hollowest kind of void, she finds herself in the company of the dull, yet sympathetic, Miss show more Froy. When Miss Froy simply vanishes into thin air, Iris does everything in her power to find her while her efforts are hindered and blocked by suspicious strangers and men who simply dismiss her as a ''hysterical woman''. Little do they know...

Ethel Lina White created one of the most famous mystery books (and it is a pity that it became so well-known thanks to a lousy adaptation by the greatest fraud in the History of Cinema., Alfred ''I will bore you to Death with my nonsense'' Hitchcock). Iris is a character who tells it like it is and I loved her immensely. Her determination to proceed and stay true to herself while every male character tries to coax her into submission and docility is outstanding. The claustrophobic setting of the train that never stops mirrors Iris's non-stop mind and strength. Even Hare, who is dashing and enticing, is a male figure whose motives remained unclear - at least to me- even at the end of the novel. The dialogue is surprisingly lively and modern (a characteristic of the works of women writers during the 30s) and the constant comings and goings make you feel as if you are a passenger on a train that will keep travelling until Judgement Day.

No need for more. This is one of the finest examples of the genre, a quintessentially British mystery.

*Do yourselves a favour. Ditch the Hitchcock atrocity and watch the 2013 adaptation by BBC One. Thank me later.*

Many thanks to Pushkin Vertigo and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ show less