Ethel Lina White (1876–1944)

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

Iris is befriended/rescued on a European train by Miss Froy, a governess who is also travelling back to England, but who (unlike Iris) has taken the trouble to learn some European languages. Iris, who is suffering from sunstroke, dozes off and when she wakes up again, Miss Froy has vanished and the other people in her carriage deny she ever existed. I don't know if it was really obvious, or if I have seen/read some version of this earlier, or if it is just well-clued and I worked it out, but it was immediately apparent to me what had happened to Miss Froy. Nevertheless, this was an entertaining read as Iris' earlier thoughtless behaviour means none of the people she knows from the hotel she has been staying at are inclined to help her. The perspective shifts from time to time so that we understand why a whole variety of people are unwilling to get involved. Iris begins to doubt her own sanity and this is set against the pathos of Mr and Mrs Froy plus Sock the dog waiting for Miss Froy's return.

The ending left Iris and her love interest ready to walk off into the sunset together, even though he has just doubted her sanity and been willing to drug her without her knowledge - not really a match made in heaven...… (plus d'informations)

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 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.… (plus d'informations)

The Man Who Loved Lions by Ethel Lina White is a very strange story that takes place over the course of one evening. I was intrigued by the various plot points – a Gothic country house with a private zoo, a long planned reunion, and wartime blackouts. These, along with a varied mix of characters drew me in to the unusual story.

It is 1941 and our heroine, Ann has come to the country house of Ganges to reunite with a group of university acquaintances. Her main reason for coming is to meet up with Stephen, the man she has thought about for the last seven years. But the host of the reunion is a dark and twisted soul who seems to have other plans for the evening, and Ann is certain that someone is going to be murdered before the night is through. Unfortunately the story was a little too jumbled and convoluted to make much sense, but at the same time, I had to continue to read as I wanted to see how everything was going to pan out.

The Man Who Loved Lions is certainly an unusual story. We have characters tripping around in the dark avoiding the lions, tigers, bears and crocodiles while they exchange threats and warnings. The story was obviously leading the reader toward a murder but it took until the last 5 percent of book for a death to actually occur. As for Stephen, he didn’t show up until the last sentence.… (plus d'informations)