The Wheel Spins


Book Description

First published in 1936 and adapted for the screen as The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock in 1938, Ethel Lina White's suspenseful mystery remains her best-known novel, worthy of acknowledgement as a classic of the genre in its own right. Then the rhythm of the train changed, and she seemed to be sliding backwards down a long slope. Click-click-click-click. The wheels rattled over the rails, with a sound of castanets. Iris Carr's holiday in the mountains of a remote corner of Europe has come to an end, and since her friends left two days before, she faces the journey home alone. Stricken by sunstroke at the station, Iris catches the express train to Trieste by the skin of her teeth and finds a companion in Miss Froy, an affable English governess. But when Iris passes out and reawakens, Miss Froy is nowhere to be found. The other passengers deny any knowledge of her existence and as the train speeds across Europe, Iris spirals deeper and deeper into a strange and dangerous conspiracy.




The Wheel Spins


Book Description

The day before the disaster, Iris Carr had her first premonition of danger. She was used to the protection of a crowd, whom-with unconscious flattery-she called "her friends." An attractive orphan of independent means, she had been surrounded always with clumps of people. They thought for her-or rather, she accepted their opinions, and they shouted for her-since her voice was rather too low in register, for mass social intercourse.Their constant presence tended to create the illusion that she moved in a large circle, in spite of the fact that the same faces recurred with seasonal regularity. They also made her pleasantly aware of popularity. Her photograph appeared in the pictorial papers through the medium of a photographer's offer of publicity, after the Press announcement of her engagement to one of the crowd.This was Fame.Then, shortly afterwards, her engagement was broken, by mutual consent-which was a lawful occasion for the reproduction of another portrait. More Fame. And her mother, who died at her birth, might have wept or smiled at these pitiful flickers of human vanity, arising, like bubbles of marsh-gas, on the darkness below.When she experienced her first threat of insecurity, Iris was feeling especially well and happy after an unconventional health-holiday. With the triumph of near-pioneers, the crowd had swooped down on a beautiful village of picturesque squalor, tucked away in a remote corner of Europe, and taken possession of it by the act of scrawling their names in the visitors' book.




The Spiral Staircase


Book Description

Helen Capel takes the position of lady-help in a remote country house owned by the Warren family and, before long, learns that a murderer is on the loose. All four of his victims were young girls, and the last of these was strangled in a lonely house just five miles away. Helen feels safe inside the house, protected, but the maniac is closer than she fears.




The Wheel Spins (The Lady Vanishes) - Thriller Classic


Book Description

Ethel Lina White's 'The Wheel Spins' (also known as 'The Lady Vanishes') is a gripping thriller classic that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Set in the midst of a mysterious disappearance on a train journey, the novel showcases White's masterful storytelling ability and her knack for building suspense. The intricate plot twists and turns are reminiscent of the Golden Age of detective fiction, making this book a must-read for fans of the genre. White's vivid descriptions and clever characterizations create a rich and immersive literary experience that will leave readers eagerly turning the pages until the thrilling conclusion. 'The Wheel Spins' is a timeless classic that has stood the test of time and continues to captivate audiences with its thrilling narrative and expertly crafted suspense. Ethel Lina White, a British author known for her contributions to the crime and mystery genres, drew inspiration for 'The Wheel Spins' from real life events and her own experiences. Her keen eye for detail and her talent for creating intricate plots have made her a revered figure in the world of detective fiction. White's background in journalism and her passion for storytelling shine through in this novel, showcasing her skill as a masterful storyteller who knows how to keep readers guessing until the very end. I highly recommend 'The Wheel Spins' to anyone who enjoys a gripping mystery with unexpected twists and turns. Ethel Lina White's classic thriller is a masterclass in suspenseful storytelling that will leave readers spellbound from beginning to end, making it a timeless and essential addition to any mystery lover's bookshelf.




Going Wrong


Book Description

From a New York Times–bestselling author: A chilling psychological thriller about one man’s murderous obsession with his childhood sweetheart. Growing up in the roughest part of London, Guy Curran never imagined he would fall in love with a rich girl. But from the moment he meets Leonora Chisholm, he knows it’s their destiny to be together. They have a short, passionate teenage fling—over almost before it begins. Leonora moves on, but Guy never will. His love for her is dangerous, and it will destroy them both. Over the next ten years, Guy becomes a millionaire, selling hard drugs and bad art to the jet set of Western Europe. He and Leonora remain friends, sharing weekly lunches—until the day he learns she’s fallen in love with someone else. Seized by murderous jealousy, Guy is about to embark on a mad quest to claim the woman he desires—or die trying. “Rendell is a master of depicting the long, slow slide into madness” and Going Wrong shows her brilliant ability to walk the line between elegance and terror (Publishers Weekly).




Niceville


Book Description

Something is wrong in Niceville. . . A boy literally disappears from Main Street. A security camera captures the moment of his instant, inexplicable vanishing. An audacious bank robbery goes seriously wrong: four cops are gunned down; a TV news helicopter is shot and spins crazily out of the sky, triggering a disastrous cascade of events that ricochet across twenty different lives over the course of just thirty-six hours. Nick Kavanaugh, a cop with a dark side, investigates. Soon he and his wife, Kate, a distinguished lawyer from an old Niceville family, find themselves struggling to make sense not only of the disappearance and the robbery but also of a shadow world, where time has a different rhythm and where justice is elusive. . . .Something is wrong in Niceville, where evil lives far longer than men do. Compulsively readable, and populated with characters who leap off the page, Niceville will draw you in, excite you, amaze you, horrify you, and, when it finally lets you go, make you sorry you have to leave. Read the first thirty-five pages. Find out why Harlan Coben calls Carsten Stroud the master of “the nerve-jangling thrill ride.” Now with an excerpt from Carsten Stroud’s next book, The Homecoming.




Wax (British Mystery Classic)


Book Description

This carefully crafted ebook: "Wax (British Mystery Classic)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. In a small English town of Riverpool several people were found dead in a wax museum, and a rookie journalist, Sonia Thompson, decides to solve the mystery of this notorious place. She goes to spend the night between scary wax figures and while the night slowly unfolds, the horrifying events start to occur. Frightening figures of murderers and lunatics slowly come to life. Ethel Lina White (1876-1944) was a British crime writer, best known for her novel The Wheel Spins, on which the Alfred Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes, was based.




The Wheel Spins


Book Description

Iris Carr is a beautiful, young socialite on her way back home to England after vacationing in Europe. Feeling terribly alone and afraid, she finds comfort in the company of a strange woman she knows only as Miss Froy. But comfort soon turns to horror when Miss Froy mysteriously vanishes without a trace. Fearing madness, risking death, Iris desperately tries to solve the sudden disappearance of her traveling companion-a woman no one else on the journey remembers seeing at all!




The Wheel Spins


Book Description

Socialite Iris Carr is travelling across Europe by train, returning to England after a holiday. She spends some time chatting with 'Miss Froy'... ...but very soon Miss Froy disappears and no-one can remember seeing her. Some people suggest that Iris may have imagined the old lady... ...stranger still, when someone claiming to be Miss Froy does turn up again, she is not at all as Iris remembered her. Who is Miss Froy? What is happening on the train? And why did the lady vanish? The basis for the classic movie, The Lady Vanishes.




Everything I Never Told You


Book Description

The acclaimed debut novel by the author of Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts “A taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense.” —O, the Oprah Magazine “Explosive . . . Both a propulsive mystery and a profound examination of a mixed-race family.” —Entertainment Weekly “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.