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Fear Stalks the Village
It was a model English village, filled with flowers, Tudor cottages, and cobbled streets. Joan Brook loved working there as a companion to Lady d'Arcy, living in the huge mansion with its surrounding park. And small though the village was, it was not too small for Joan to have found a man there whom she could love.
Suddenly the peaceful surface of life there is shattered as a poisonous letter is received by the town's most saintly citizen. It is followed by others; no one is safe from the anonymous letter writer. And the letters bring death. In the anguished days that follow, Joan realizes her own danger. For to receive on of these letters could mean the end of her love - and her life!
Suddenly the peaceful surface of life there is shattered as a poisonous letter is received by the town's most saintly citizen. It is followed by others; no one is safe from the anonymous letter writer. And the letters bring death. In the anguished days that follow, Joan realizes her own danger. For to receive on of these letters could mean the end of her love - and her life!
343 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1932
83 people are currently reading
499 people want to read
About the author
Ethel Lina White
131 books104 followersEthel Lina White was a British crime writer, best known for her novel The Wheel Spins (1936), on which the Alfred Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes (1938), was based, and Some Must Watch (1933), on which the film The Spiral Staircase (1946) was based.
Born in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, in 1876, White started writing as a child, contributing essays and poems to children's papers. Later she began to write short stories, but it was some years before she wrote books.
She left employment in a government job working for the Ministry of Pensions in order to pursue writing. Her writing was to make her one of the best known crime writers in Britain and the USA during the 1930s and '40s.
Her first three works, published between 1927 and 1930, were mainstream novels. Her first crime novel, published in 1931, was Put Out the Light. Although she has now faded into obscurity, in her day she was as well known as such writers like Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie.
She died in London in 1944 aged 68. Her works have enjoyed a revival in recent years with a stage adaptation of The Lady Vanishes touring the UK in 2001 and the BBC broadcast of an abridged version on BBC Radio 4 as well as a TV adaptation by the BBC in 2013.
(from Wikipedia)
Born in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, in 1876, White started writing as a child, contributing essays and poems to children's papers. Later she began to write short stories, but it was some years before she wrote books.
She left employment in a government job working for the Ministry of Pensions in order to pursue writing. Her writing was to make her one of the best known crime writers in Britain and the USA during the 1930s and '40s.
Her first three works, published between 1927 and 1930, were mainstream novels. Her first crime novel, published in 1931, was Put Out the Light. Although she has now faded into obscurity, in her day she was as well known as such writers like Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie.
She died in London in 1944 aged 68. Her works have enjoyed a revival in recent years with a stage adaptation of The Lady Vanishes touring the UK in 2001 and the BBC broadcast of an abridged version on BBC Radio 4 as well as a TV adaptation by the BBC in 2013.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
May 23, 2022
A classic British mystery novel from 1932. I had previously read one other of this author’s books, Some Must Watch, which featured a serial killer in the area around a country house. The title of this book led me to think it might be along similar lines, but it’s really quite different.
The novel opens with a description of what seems to be the perfect English village, at least by how these things were judged in the 1930s. The squire is in his mansion, the priest in his pulpit, and the lower classes entirely accepting of their status as servants. The main characters are all drawn from the gentry, the sort of people who wear monocles, who dress for dinner and who have elaborately formal manners. They do not even engage in gossip, but instead hold syrupy conversations that carefully avoid any hint of criticism of others, and there is not even a suggestion of scandal within their ranks. It’s an absurd picture, but one that has been drawn quite deliberately.
The crime, when it takes place, consists of no more than a series of poison-pen letters threatening to expose the buried secrets of the locals, but these letters set off a wave of consequences. I suppose this idea of hidden scandal beneath the perfect façade is quite hackneyed today, but we have to allow for the fact this novel was published almost a century ago.
The tempo is modest for the first half of the book but from then on the author builds the pace gradually and skilfully. The mystery element was also enjoyable. Clues are provided that gradually narrow down the suspects, but personally I wasn’t sure about the outcome until the reveal.
A light read, but four stars within the genre.
The novel opens with a description of what seems to be the perfect English village, at least by how these things were judged in the 1930s. The squire is in his mansion, the priest in his pulpit, and the lower classes entirely accepting of their status as servants. The main characters are all drawn from the gentry, the sort of people who wear monocles, who dress for dinner and who have elaborately formal manners. They do not even engage in gossip, but instead hold syrupy conversations that carefully avoid any hint of criticism of others, and there is not even a suggestion of scandal within their ranks. It’s an absurd picture, but one that has been drawn quite deliberately.
The crime, when it takes place, consists of no more than a series of poison-pen letters threatening to expose the buried secrets of the locals, but these letters set off a wave of consequences. I suppose this idea of hidden scandal beneath the perfect façade is quite hackneyed today, but we have to allow for the fact this novel was published almost a century ago.
The tempo is modest for the first half of the book but from then on the author builds the pace gradually and skilfully. The mystery element was also enjoyable. Clues are provided that gradually narrow down the suspects, but personally I wasn’t sure about the outcome until the reveal.
A light read, but four stars within the genre.
February 13, 2022
3.5★
I loved Ethel Lina White's The Lady Vanishes but only liked this book, & find it hard to believe that there was only four years difference between the publishing dates, as I remember The Lady Vanishes as being a far more accomplished book.
What I did like was the sense of place White gave with her description of village life. The village did sound too good to be true - which of course it was! Ignatious Brown was an interesting in character detective & I'm trying to allow for the fact that this book was first published in 1932 so was groundbreaking for it's time.
But I didn't like the way that a character, who appeared important when she was introduced, completely disappeared. & Fear is given a physical (& fanciful appearance) Didn't work for me & I found the resolution both unsatisfying and over the top.
I have another couple of White books on my Kindle & I liked this book well enough that I will read them in the future.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
I loved Ethel Lina White's The Lady Vanishes but only liked this book, & find it hard to believe that there was only four years difference between the publishing dates, as I remember The Lady Vanishes as being a far more accomplished book.
What I did like was the sense of place White gave with her description of village life. The village did sound too good to be true - which of course it was! Ignatious Brown was an interesting in character detective & I'm trying to allow for the fact that this book was first published in 1932 so was groundbreaking for it's time.
But I didn't like the way that a character, who appeared important when she was introduced, completely disappeared. & Fear is given a physical (& fanciful appearance) Didn't work for me & I found the resolution both unsatisfying and over the top.
I have another couple of White books on my Kindle & I liked this book well enough that I will read them in the future.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
February 19, 2022
You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought that comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.
--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Adventure of the Copper Beeches'
These words of Sherlock Holmes were what popped into mind as I started reading Fear Stalks the Village (1932) by Ethel Lina White. The books opens in a picturesque village, wrapped up snuggly—first in a floral shawl of gardens, then in a great green shawl of fields. Lilies and lavender are growing everywhere and houses are perfect specimens of Tudor and Elizabethan architecture. Not only is the village aesthetically pleasing, life in it seems perfect too, with residents on friendly terms and a rich social life including garden parties, tennis and croquet. People love it so much that hardly anyone even takes a holiday.
But the peace and perfection of the village are disturbed when a poison pen strikes. The recipient of the first letter Miss Decima Asprey, who presides over village social life, is described by all as a saint. But the letter she receives accuses her of being otherwise. While she confides in Revd Simon Blake, the rector, she wants to simply put the business out of her mind. But this is not the end of the matter for another letter is received, and then a death, ostensibly an accident, takes place. Soon village life is no longer what it was with rumour and suspicion going around and fear making its way into every home and heart.
When letters continue to haunt residents and life remains far from normal, Revd Blake decides to call in an old friend, Ignatius Brown, who likes looking into ‘little’ puzzles. Brown begins to look into the matter meeting the different residents, and trying to work out which of them might have done it.
This was a fairly enjoyable read for me, with plenty of humour in the writing, a classic village setting and an exploration of how life is turned upside down (and any semblance of peace pretty much sucked out) by a poison pen.
In the book group that I read it for, a lot of members thought this a combination of Mapp and Lucia and Agatha Christie and I felt so too. As I started the book, the descriptions of the village and its social life—the garden and tennis parties, the ‘queen' who ruled over all and even the dynamics at one strawberry party that we attend and between different people was very much like in the Mapp and Lucia books. Despite the fact that the book is far more serious because of the poison pen, and the deaths (yes, there are more than one) that occur, I liked how Ethel Lina White wove humour into the dialogue and writing. For instance,
‘It's true that Nature has thoughtfully provided me with padding—but it's not fair to count on guests bringing their own cushions...’
Or
‘Directly the two men were inside, they felt the formal atmosphere of the house; even the cat dressed for dinner, for his shift-front was immediately white against his black coat.’
Another fun note is added by Charles Dickens, Revd Blake's spaniel who guards his biscuit tin and enjoys being taken on car rides by Ignatius Brown.
The mystery itself is a fairly complex one for we soon see that almost all the residents have secrets (which the poison pen is picking at) but could it be one of them that’s the culprit or is it an outsider that’s targeting them all? I didn’t guess whodunit and in fact found myself thinking mostly of the suspects whom White drew our attention to. (We do get a closer look at some village residents more than others.) There were some aspects that I had thought would proceed in a different direction or rather would have a different explanation which might have made it more exciting as a mystery (saying what seems a spoiler), so in that sense the solution wasn’t quite so satisfactory for me. There is also the fact that it takes a fair while to resolve.
This was a mostly good read in which I enjoyed the setting, humour and mystery, though some aspects including the end were a touch disappointing.
3.5 stars
--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Adventure of the Copper Beeches'
These words of Sherlock Holmes were what popped into mind as I started reading Fear Stalks the Village (1932) by Ethel Lina White. The books opens in a picturesque village, wrapped up snuggly—first in a floral shawl of gardens, then in a great green shawl of fields. Lilies and lavender are growing everywhere and houses are perfect specimens of Tudor and Elizabethan architecture. Not only is the village aesthetically pleasing, life in it seems perfect too, with residents on friendly terms and a rich social life including garden parties, tennis and croquet. People love it so much that hardly anyone even takes a holiday.
But the peace and perfection of the village are disturbed when a poison pen strikes. The recipient of the first letter Miss Decima Asprey, who presides over village social life, is described by all as a saint. But the letter she receives accuses her of being otherwise. While she confides in Revd Simon Blake, the rector, she wants to simply put the business out of her mind. But this is not the end of the matter for another letter is received, and then a death, ostensibly an accident, takes place. Soon village life is no longer what it was with rumour and suspicion going around and fear making its way into every home and heart.
When letters continue to haunt residents and life remains far from normal, Revd Blake decides to call in an old friend, Ignatius Brown, who likes looking into ‘little’ puzzles. Brown begins to look into the matter meeting the different residents, and trying to work out which of them might have done it.
This was a fairly enjoyable read for me, with plenty of humour in the writing, a classic village setting and an exploration of how life is turned upside down (and any semblance of peace pretty much sucked out) by a poison pen.
In the book group that I read it for, a lot of members thought this a combination of Mapp and Lucia and Agatha Christie and I felt so too. As I started the book, the descriptions of the village and its social life—the garden and tennis parties, the ‘queen' who ruled over all and even the dynamics at one strawberry party that we attend and between different people was very much like in the Mapp and Lucia books. Despite the fact that the book is far more serious because of the poison pen, and the deaths (yes, there are more than one) that occur, I liked how Ethel Lina White wove humour into the dialogue and writing. For instance,
‘It's true that Nature has thoughtfully provided me with padding—but it's not fair to count on guests bringing their own cushions...’
Or
‘Directly the two men were inside, they felt the formal atmosphere of the house; even the cat dressed for dinner, for his shift-front was immediately white against his black coat.’
Another fun note is added by Charles Dickens, Revd Blake's spaniel who guards his biscuit tin and enjoys being taken on car rides by Ignatius Brown.
The mystery itself is a fairly complex one for we soon see that almost all the residents have secrets (which the poison pen is picking at) but could it be one of them that’s the culprit or is it an outsider that’s targeting them all? I didn’t guess whodunit and in fact found myself thinking mostly of the suspects whom White drew our attention to. (We do get a closer look at some village residents more than others.) There were some aspects that I had thought would proceed in a different direction or rather would have a different explanation which might have made it more exciting as a mystery (saying what seems a spoiler), so in that sense the solution wasn’t quite so satisfactory for me. There is also the fact that it takes a fair while to resolve.
This was a mostly good read in which I enjoyed the setting, humour and mystery, though some aspects including the end were a touch disappointing.
3.5 stars
February 5, 2024
more like a 3.7 rounded to a 4
full post is here: http://www.crimesegments.com/2024/02/...
Ahhhhh. My reading has once again returned me to the tranquil English village of the interwar years, one of my favorite settings for British crime fiction. This book features another personal favorite, the dreaded poison pen letter. In this case, it's not just one -- as the back-cover blurb info notes, there is a veritable "spate" of them going around the village. As the reader is about to discover, though, this is no ordinary poison-pen case, but rather one that threatens the very stability of the established social order.
What makes Fear Stalks the Village work well is in the way the author lays the foundation of the harmony and more importantly, the equilibrium defining this village prior to the introduction of both poison pen letters and Fear (the word capitalized throughout the novel). Once things begin to happen, it is that highly-important baseline that directs reader focus to the threat of loss of this long-established order as it begins to crumble. The core mystery is good, but it's the psychological aspects of this story that kept me turning pages, both individual and societal. And then, of course, who couldn't love a dog by the name of Charles Dickens?
Given the time in which this novel was written, it may seem a bit on the slow side as the author sets forth the atmosphere of the village (down to the flowers) and introduces us to the characters, but once again, it's a matter of patient reading that will get you to the point of being completely wrapped up in things long before the end is in sight. While this isn't my favorite novel of those I've read by Ethel Lina White (that one is her Wax from 1935), it's pretty darn good. It's also a book I can definitely recommend for Golden Age mystery fans and readers who enjoy their crime set in an English village, as well as to those people (like myself) who are studious collectors of the British Library Crime Classics.
Well done.
full post is here: http://www.crimesegments.com/2024/02/...
Ahhhhh. My reading has once again returned me to the tranquil English village of the interwar years, one of my favorite settings for British crime fiction. This book features another personal favorite, the dreaded poison pen letter. In this case, it's not just one -- as the back-cover blurb info notes, there is a veritable "spate" of them going around the village. As the reader is about to discover, though, this is no ordinary poison-pen case, but rather one that threatens the very stability of the established social order.
What makes Fear Stalks the Village work well is in the way the author lays the foundation of the harmony and more importantly, the equilibrium defining this village prior to the introduction of both poison pen letters and Fear (the word capitalized throughout the novel). Once things begin to happen, it is that highly-important baseline that directs reader focus to the threat of loss of this long-established order as it begins to crumble. The core mystery is good, but it's the psychological aspects of this story that kept me turning pages, both individual and societal. And then, of course, who couldn't love a dog by the name of Charles Dickens?
Given the time in which this novel was written, it may seem a bit on the slow side as the author sets forth the atmosphere of the village (down to the flowers) and introduces us to the characters, but once again, it's a matter of patient reading that will get you to the point of being completely wrapped up in things long before the end is in sight. While this isn't my favorite novel of those I've read by Ethel Lina White (that one is her Wax from 1935), it's pretty darn good. It's also a book I can definitely recommend for Golden Age mystery fans and readers who enjoy their crime set in an English village, as well as to those people (like myself) who are studious collectors of the British Library Crime Classics.
Well done.
January 24, 2022
I must confess that, having struggled previously with, "The Lady Vanishes," by the same author, I wasn't thrilled when this won the vote in my Golden Age mystery bookclub. However, I am glad I gave it a try, as I found it a much more interesting read. In the same way that I prefer Agatha Christie's mysteries to her adventure stories, I perhaps felt more at home here in that, oh so typical, GA setting of an idyllic English village.
However, as Miss Marple could have told the reader, no village - however pretty - is without its share of jealousy, spite, resentment, secrets, scandal and fear. Before long, the inhabitants of the village have their peace disturbed by a spate of anonymous letters. The Rector asks his friend, Ignatious Brown, to investigate and he - rather gleefully - settles down to unearth the truth.
Some of the characters motives now, such as 'living in sin,' may seem a little old fashioned, but the spiteful, poison pen letters, do create untold damage. The previously, rather smug, picture perfect village retreats, suspicions reign and the ebb and flow of social life is affected. This was a really interesting mystery, with a good cast of characters and suspects and has made me keen to read more of the author's work.
However, as Miss Marple could have told the reader, no village - however pretty - is without its share of jealousy, spite, resentment, secrets, scandal and fear. Before long, the inhabitants of the village have their peace disturbed by a spate of anonymous letters. The Rector asks his friend, Ignatious Brown, to investigate and he - rather gleefully - settles down to unearth the truth.
Some of the characters motives now, such as 'living in sin,' may seem a little old fashioned, but the spiteful, poison pen letters, do create untold damage. The previously, rather smug, picture perfect village retreats, suspicions reign and the ebb and flow of social life is affected. This was a really interesting mystery, with a good cast of characters and suspects and has made me keen to read more of the author's work.
January 19, 2022
Excellent period mystery, as a seemingly picture perfect English village is tormented by a poison pen letter campaign.
The book opens on an idyllic summer day as a London writer visits her friend, Joan Brook, working as a secretary to a lady in the village. Joan loves the place, says it’s absolutely perfect, everyone is kind, friendly, comfortable and happy; no scandal or nasty secrets. Her London friend entertains her as they walk to the bus by coming up with all sorts of mythical sordid tales of drunkenness and debauchery about the denizens of the “perfect village” basking under the golden summer sun.
Soon, a nasty anonymous letter is received by the “saint” of the village, an elderly lady known for her piety and good works. A whispering campaign starts, then more letters, a questionable death, then another…fear truly is stalking the village!
White even writes of fear as a black, sinister, amorphous shape hovering about, moving from resident to resident as they dwelled and fretted on past sins, wondering if they’d be the next letter receiver!
This felt in some ways like a dated mystery in that several plot devices, like the use of light and color for good and evil, the psychological analysis prevalent in the 1920s-30s, and the destructive nature of stifling morality and religious fervor on the characters. But then I realized, for it’s publication time (1932), it would have been rather daring and cutting edge - I remember how effectively Agatha Christie, the master, used a poison pen campaign to stir up fear and anxiety in a closed village setting in The Moving Finger.
In this case, the Rector invites a clever college chum down from London to investigate, and Ignatius makes a satisfying amateur detective - an excellent, sharp and critical eye to look at the saints and social arbiters of the village, and find the chinks in their armor, and more importantly, the poison below the surface.
The book opens on an idyllic summer day as a London writer visits her friend, Joan Brook, working as a secretary to a lady in the village. Joan loves the place, says it’s absolutely perfect, everyone is kind, friendly, comfortable and happy; no scandal or nasty secrets. Her London friend entertains her as they walk to the bus by coming up with all sorts of mythical sordid tales of drunkenness and debauchery about the denizens of the “perfect village” basking under the golden summer sun.
Soon, a nasty anonymous letter is received by the “saint” of the village, an elderly lady known for her piety and good works. A whispering campaign starts, then more letters, a questionable death, then another…fear truly is stalking the village!
White even writes of fear as a black, sinister, amorphous shape hovering about, moving from resident to resident as they dwelled and fretted on past sins, wondering if they’d be the next letter receiver!
This felt in some ways like a dated mystery in that several plot devices, like the use of light and color for good and evil, the psychological analysis prevalent in the 1920s-30s, and the destructive nature of stifling morality and religious fervor on the characters. But then I realized, for it’s publication time (1932), it would have been rather daring and cutting edge - I remember how effectively Agatha Christie, the master, used a poison pen campaign to stir up fear and anxiety in a closed village setting in The Moving Finger.
In this case, the Rector invites a clever college chum down from London to investigate, and Ignatius makes a satisfying amateur detective - an excellent, sharp and critical eye to look at the saints and social arbiters of the village, and find the chinks in their armor, and more importantly, the poison below the surface.
January 31, 2022
I enjoyed this crime classic from 1932, although the beginning was a bit of a struggle.
The story is set in an apparently “perfect” English village, in which wealthy people keep immaculate houses, live blameless, impeccably tasteful lives and have diligent, contented servants. The anonymous letters begin to be received, threatening to expose “scandalous” secrets from people’s pasts, and the life of the village, and the peace of mind of its inhabitants is slowly undermined as suspicion and fear grow and death follows. Eventually, Ignatius Brown, a wealthy city-dweller, amateur sleuth and friend of the Rector, is invited to the village to try to solve the problem.
The start was pretty stodgy, with a clumsy device of a visiting writer having everybody pointed out and explained to her, then making up a “joky” list of scandals for each of the inhabitants...and never being seen again. I also found Ethel Lina White’s laying on the “perfection” with a trowel got a bit much; I know she was trying to paint and then undermine a picture of middle-class self-satisafction, but it was overdone for me and I found it hard to identify with. I also found her personification of Fear rather a crude, unconvincing device.
However, once things began to happen and Ignacius’s investigations began, I enjoyed the book very much. White wrote very well and there are some very shrewd barbs and insights into an “ideal” place where anything remotely unpleasant, unsightly or innovative are seen as intolerable – or deliberately not seen at all. There are some witty scenes and one or two rather touching ones, and some thoughtful characterisation, all of which I enjoyed very much. The denouement and explanation may seem a little full of very dated psychological ideas to the modern reader, but I was happy to take that in my stride.
So, after an unpromising start, this turned out to be a well-written mystery and an interesting view of the period. 3.5 stars rounded up, and recommended.
The story is set in an apparently “perfect” English village, in which wealthy people keep immaculate houses, live blameless, impeccably tasteful lives and have diligent, contented servants. The anonymous letters begin to be received, threatening to expose “scandalous” secrets from people’s pasts, and the life of the village, and the peace of mind of its inhabitants is slowly undermined as suspicion and fear grow and death follows. Eventually, Ignatius Brown, a wealthy city-dweller, amateur sleuth and friend of the Rector, is invited to the village to try to solve the problem.
The start was pretty stodgy, with a clumsy device of a visiting writer having everybody pointed out and explained to her, then making up a “joky” list of scandals for each of the inhabitants...and never being seen again. I also found Ethel Lina White’s laying on the “perfection” with a trowel got a bit much; I know she was trying to paint and then undermine a picture of middle-class self-satisafction, but it was overdone for me and I found it hard to identify with. I also found her personification of Fear rather a crude, unconvincing device.
However, once things began to happen and Ignacius’s investigations began, I enjoyed the book very much. White wrote very well and there are some very shrewd barbs and insights into an “ideal” place where anything remotely unpleasant, unsightly or innovative are seen as intolerable – or deliberately not seen at all. There are some witty scenes and one or two rather touching ones, and some thoughtful characterisation, all of which I enjoyed very much. The denouement and explanation may seem a little full of very dated psychological ideas to the modern reader, but I was happy to take that in my stride.
So, after an unpromising start, this turned out to be a well-written mystery and an interesting view of the period. 3.5 stars rounded up, and recommended.
June 6, 2017
Dry Society
A village you won’t want to leave because life is so well-ordered, neighbourly and perfect in every way imaginable there? This concept seems like a dodo – dinky and heart-warming to look at, but also pathetically easy to give short shrift to because it is just so very clumsy. The depths of depravity lying behind a polished façade of decency, the mean hypocrisy of genteel folks, the mycelium of distrust that grows underneath the flora of good manners – all these are popular motifs of literature, and yet in Ethel Lina White’s novel Fear Stalks the Village I have found these motifs handled in an extremely realistic and skilful way, used as the backdrop against which a novel of detection slowly but forcibly unfolds.
Everyone feels well at home in the little English village which is the stage of White’s novel, and yet one day, somebody starts writing anonymous letters threatening to drag people’s skeletons out of their cupboards. It does not take very long before these letters – whose existence is kept a public secret but as to whose particular content nobody except their addressees knows anything in detail – start conjuring up Fear and Distrust, drying up the village’s social life and bereaving the Rector of his confidence in the decency of the village-people. When one of the leading ladies in the village apparently kills herself over one of these letters, the Rector asks his old friend Ignatius Brown for help, but there will be more deaths before the infamous letter-writer is unmasked.
What I particularly enjoyed were the characters Ethel Lina White created: There is the sainly Miss Asprey, apparently some kind of vampire feeding on people’s energy, and her devoted companion Miss Mack. There are the Scudamores, the perfect couple, with their spic-and-span household. There is the GP Dr. Perry with his slightly hysterical and ever-demanding wife. There is the witty novelist Julia Corner, and there is the enterprising Joan Brook, who has set her cap on the Rector. My favourite character, however, was the acid Ignatius Brown, who seems to enjoy summarizing his observations of people in the most sarcastic remarks – like this one:
and who has his own way of shedding some light on the village mystery. What also makes this novel a special treat is White’s sense of humour that very often makes her come up with funny side-observations like this one:
Seeing that Ethel Lina White also wrote the novel one of my favourite noir films is based on, I will definitely read some more of her.
A village you won’t want to leave because life is so well-ordered, neighbourly and perfect in every way imaginable there? This concept seems like a dodo – dinky and heart-warming to look at, but also pathetically easy to give short shrift to because it is just so very clumsy. The depths of depravity lying behind a polished façade of decency, the mean hypocrisy of genteel folks, the mycelium of distrust that grows underneath the flora of good manners – all these are popular motifs of literature, and yet in Ethel Lina White’s novel Fear Stalks the Village I have found these motifs handled in an extremely realistic and skilful way, used as the backdrop against which a novel of detection slowly but forcibly unfolds.
Everyone feels well at home in the little English village which is the stage of White’s novel, and yet one day, somebody starts writing anonymous letters threatening to drag people’s skeletons out of their cupboards. It does not take very long before these letters – whose existence is kept a public secret but as to whose particular content nobody except their addressees knows anything in detail – start conjuring up Fear and Distrust, drying up the village’s social life and bereaving the Rector of his confidence in the decency of the village-people. When one of the leading ladies in the village apparently kills herself over one of these letters, the Rector asks his old friend Ignatius Brown for help, but there will be more deaths before the infamous letter-writer is unmasked.
What I particularly enjoyed were the characters Ethel Lina White created: There is the sainly Miss Asprey, apparently some kind of vampire feeding on people’s energy, and her devoted companion Miss Mack. There are the Scudamores, the perfect couple, with their spic-and-span household. There is the GP Dr. Perry with his slightly hysterical and ever-demanding wife. There is the witty novelist Julia Corner, and there is the enterprising Joan Brook, who has set her cap on the Rector. My favourite character, however, was the acid Ignatius Brown, who seems to enjoy summarizing his observations of people in the most sarcastic remarks – like this one:
”’I think I’ve heard about them […] Aren’t they the people, who remember nothing of the places they’ve visited except the shops?’” –
and who has his own way of shedding some light on the village mystery. What also makes this novel a special treat is White’s sense of humour that very often makes her come up with funny side-observations like this one:
”The Rector – who did not know shorthand – was impressed by the dots and dashes with which his friend covered pages of his note-book. Ignatius – who did not know shorthand, either – had counted on making this effect.”
Seeing that Ethel Lina White also wrote the novel one of my favourite noir films is based on, I will definitely read some more of her.
July 26, 2025
This was not what I was expecting after having read White’s The Wheel Spins. This novel was quite confusing at times and had too large a cast of characters to be truly effective. While there were some aspects of the book that were really well done, including the personification of Fear, it wasn’t enough to make this a truly great mystery for me.
Huge thanks to my Book Jennies Patreon group for the vibrant discussion of this book! It added so much to the reading experience for me.
Huge thanks to my Book Jennies Patreon group for the vibrant discussion of this book! It added so much to the reading experience for me.
December 23, 2024
Gather round, children. You probably think that, before TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and the Internet, there wasn’t written bullying. Indeed, that’s what the denizens of this particular village thought in 1932, too. The villagers are described as “not only well-bred and charming, but endowed with such charity that there was no poverty or unemployment in the village. The ladies had not to grapple with a servant problem, which oiled the wheels of hospitality. If family feuds existed, they were not advertised, and private lives were shielded by drawn blinds.”
Ah, but what goes on behind those drawn blinds? you may ask. And that gets us to the form of bullying you’ll find in detective novels of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s (including this one) called poison pen letters: letters that reveal that an anonymous somebody knows a very shameful secret you thought no one knew. Will they tell anyone else? And who is this person? Could it be the betrayal of a close friend? It’s easy to see how poison pen letters could breed distrust and even paranoia.
Enter delightfully ascerbic Ignatius Brown, “who’s potty on puzzles.” The village rector, Reverend Simon Blake, summons Brown to investigate the puzzle of the poison pen letters
Brown’s a tiny man with a big imagination and a bigger brain. It’s a pity that he only appears in Fear Stalks the Village, as I would have loved to see Brown in a series; it’s an even a bigger pity that Brown doesn’t saunter into the village until 42% of the way into the novel, as the pace is much too slow until then. Luckily, after that, it’s one shocker after another. Making me raise the rating from three stars to four.
I have been meaning to read something by Golden Age author Ethel Lina White since I read a short story by her in a crime analogy by the inestimable Martin Edwards. But with one thing and another, it’s been several years, and this novel is my first introduction to White. I’ll likely try another, but I had higher hopes of Fear Stalks the Village, which is no The Moving Finger or even Gaudy Night.
In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, British Library Crime Classics and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.
Ah, but what goes on behind those drawn blinds? you may ask. And that gets us to the form of bullying you’ll find in detective novels of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s (including this one) called poison pen letters: letters that reveal that an anonymous somebody knows a very shameful secret you thought no one knew. Will they tell anyone else? And who is this person? Could it be the betrayal of a close friend? It’s easy to see how poison pen letters could breed distrust and even paranoia.
Enter delightfully ascerbic Ignatius Brown, “who’s potty on puzzles.” The village rector, Reverend Simon Blake, summons Brown to investigate the puzzle of the poison pen letters
Brown’s a tiny man with a big imagination and a bigger brain. It’s a pity that he only appears in Fear Stalks the Village, as I would have loved to see Brown in a series; it’s an even a bigger pity that Brown doesn’t saunter into the village until 42% of the way into the novel, as the pace is much too slow until then. Luckily, after that, it’s one shocker after another. Making me raise the rating from three stars to four.
I have been meaning to read something by Golden Age author Ethel Lina White since I read a short story by her in a crime analogy by the inestimable Martin Edwards. But with one thing and another, it’s been several years, and this novel is my first introduction to White. I’ll likely try another, but I had higher hopes of Fear Stalks the Village, which is no The Moving Finger or even Gaudy Night.
In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, British Library Crime Classics and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.
January 6, 2025
This is a rather somber but effective poison-letter mystery. Ethel Lina White (author of The Wheel Spins, aka The Lady Vanishes, and other thrillers) spins a moody tale of an apparently perfect village, the peace of which is threatened by a spate of vicious letters. I did figure out the culprit, based solely on the principles of misdirection, but it still made for a taut and tense read, suitable for a fan of vintage thriller/Golden Age mystery.
Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this digital review copy!
Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this digital review copy!
July 23, 2020
An idyllic English village seems perfect in every way until an avalanche of anonymous letters threaten the villagers’ happiness. The rector and his friend become the heroes of the story. What lurks behind each door and window? For those who love mysteries and English village life.
January 26, 2022
This book is set in an idyllic, country village, where the residents are all good friends and enjoy each other's company. That is until an anonymous, poison- penned letter is received by one of the most well-thought of women. She immediately informs the rector of the village, who promises to keep this knowledge to himself. Unfortunately, the episode is overheard, and the rest of the village are soon aware. The letter was postmarked with the village address, therefore it is obvious that it was penned by one of the residents. Soon the neighbours are all suspecting each other, causing a bad atmosphere. Other letters begin to be delivered, and eventually three deaths occur. The rector, who is a man with a history of being very highly-strung, sees the detrimental effect this is having on the villagers, calls in a friend of his to try and find the source of these letters.
This book started very well, giving a sense of the atmosphere, with well drawn characters, and the author did actually personify fear, as a dark creeping being moving about the village. The rector's friend did bring some light relief to the story, but I had my suspicions of the guilty party for some time, and was proved right. The reason this didn't quite make the 4 star rating, was because I felt the middle did drag. An entertaining read but nowhere as good as The Lady Vanishes which was a book I had read previously by this author
This book started very well, giving a sense of the atmosphere, with well drawn characters, and the author did actually personify fear, as a dark creeping being moving about the village. The rector's friend did bring some light relief to the story, but I had my suspicions of the guilty party for some time, and was proved right. The reason this didn't quite make the 4 star rating, was because I felt the middle did drag. An entertaining read but nowhere as good as The Lady Vanishes which was a book I had read previously by this author
February 8, 2022
Interesting early psychological mystery, centred on an idyllic village whose peace is shattered by the receipt of a poison pen letter. Before long, suspicion spreads and as more letters arrive, the villagers fear that their secrets will be revealed. Then a suspicious death heightens the tension, and the Rector asks his friend Ignatius Brown to investigate.
This was an unusual and rather intriguing mystery with a sense of menace lurking behind the genteel facade of the village and its oh-so-respectable characters. Fear is personified to good effect as it ‘stalks’ beside the villagers, creeping up behind them and laying a cold hand on their shoulder. White also does a really good job in showing the fragility of the social structures, as long friendships quickly begin to fracture and people close ranks against those who are touched by suspicion.
Despite the Golden Age setting, this mystery often feels very modern in the issues it raises. The mystery plot itself is a little unconvincing, but the malice behind the letters feels very real.
This was an unusual and rather intriguing mystery with a sense of menace lurking behind the genteel facade of the village and its oh-so-respectable characters. Fear is personified to good effect as it ‘stalks’ beside the villagers, creeping up behind them and laying a cold hand on their shoulder. White also does a really good job in showing the fragility of the social structures, as long friendships quickly begin to fracture and people close ranks against those who are touched by suspicion.
Despite the Golden Age setting, this mystery often feels very modern in the issues it raises. The mystery plot itself is a little unconvincing, but the malice behind the letters feels very real.
November 17, 2014
Just read at Gutenberg Australia. I'm really having so much fun with White's thrillers. This one is set in a perfect English village which is struck by fear, and once again she kept me on my toes with veiled predictions, characters who may or may not be what they seem, and a pace that never slackens. It's a humble thriller, but very well done, and will please all those who like their crime served in a tea-cozy with plenty of 1932 English ambience. Garden parties, Tudor manors...yes, please!
Also, some unexpected treats in the form of the Rector, who is bull-necked, young and thundery (not the typical insipid village vicar), and several relationships which went in a different directions than anticipated.
Just good fun. Recommended as her third best, after Some Must Watch, and The Wheel Spins.
Also, some unexpected treats in the form of the Rector, who is bull-necked, young and thundery (not the typical insipid village vicar), and several relationships which went in a different directions than anticipated.
Just good fun. Recommended as her third best, after Some Must Watch, and The Wheel Spins.
January 15, 2016
A very old school light reading that never bores but never equally excites. A very light touch narrative without pretension or refreshing originality but that has everything in its place. All flows with no big flaws. The introduction of a semi amateurish inspector in the middle of the book might have been a nice surprise if it were not for the uncharacteristically bland way in which the author pushes him into action...with no thrills or frills. This character could have benefited from a more in depth description of his psychology or methodology of work, and from a better usage of his dry sense of humour.
This, though, does not take the little charm away from a well executed murder mystery like billions of others written in the era.
This, though, does not take the little charm away from a well executed murder mystery like billions of others written in the era.
March 27, 2024
i actually really enjoyed this despite reading it for a class; it was complex, atmospheric, and i was fully immersed into it. i loved the prose. however, there was not a single actual murder and the ending felt quite unsatisfactory to me. where's the punishment?!
November 8, 2017
I absolutely loved Ethel Lina White's The Wheel Spins, and was very much looking forward to reading the rest of her work. I had no idea what Fear Stalks the Village was about before I began; I deliberately avoided any blurbs which I could have found, in order to come to the story truly afresh. The novel is not badly written, but it barely captured my attention, and was in a completely different league to The Wheel Spins. The denouement was very obvious indeed, which was a real shame.
November 7, 2019
3.75⭐
A witty excursion back into the Golden Age of Crime. A quintessentially perfect English village is plagued by a series of poison pen letters and events unfold. Written by one of those authors who were incredibly popular in their day but have been forgotten. Ethel Lina White is the author whose novels, The Lady Vanishes and The Spiral Staircase were made into very successful films. It was through looking into buying The Spiral Staircase that I came across her. I will definitely be reading more from her🙂
A witty excursion back into the Golden Age of Crime. A quintessentially perfect English village is plagued by a series of poison pen letters and events unfold. Written by one of those authors who were incredibly popular in their day but have been forgotten. Ethel Lina White is the author whose novels, The Lady Vanishes and The Spiral Staircase were made into very successful films. It was through looking into buying The Spiral Staircase that I came across her. I will definitely be reading more from her🙂
February 28, 2024
I thought this was a very interesting and intriguing village mystery and I loved the charactisation (including Fear!). I enjoyed the writing very much, the tension (especially chaper 31 -The Way Out) and suspicions amongst the villagers were very well done. I think the author friend at the beginning was a clever way of introducing us to the villagers before we properly met them and I had to read the first chapter again which nearly tempted me to read the whole book again!
October 5, 2018
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
January 12, 2020
Fear Stalks the Village
is a mystery novel written by Ethel Lina White and published a long time ago, in 1932 I think. I didn't look it up, I'm going from memory for once. This is the second, also I think I didn't look it up, book I've read of Miss White's and I can't wait to read more. So far I'm having a lot of fun in the world of Ethel Lina White even though people keep ending up dead in it. And of the people who don't end up dead, there has to be a murderer out there somewhere, so I'd be living with people who either get murdered or could be the killer, but I still have fun in her world. Who wouldn't want to live in the world of Fear Stalks the Village?, why the village is absolutely perfect:
THE village was beautiful. It was enfolded in a hollow of the Downs, and wrapped up snugly—first, in a floral shawl of gardens, and then, in a great green shawl of fields. Lilies and lavender grew in abundance. Bees clustered over sweet-scented herbs with the hum of a myriad spinning-wheels.
Although the cottages which lined the cobbled street were perfect specimens of Tudor architecture, the large houses on the green were, chiefly, of later date. The exception was a mellow Elizabethan mansion—'Spout Manor', on Miss Asprey's printed note-paper—but known locally by its original name of 'The Spout'. This was the residence of Miss Decima Asprey, the queen of the village—an elderly spinster of beautiful appearance and character, and possessed of the essential private means.
Miss Asprey's subjects were not only well-bred and charming, but endowed with such charity that there was no poverty or unemployment in the village. The ladies had not to grapple with a servant problem, which oiled the wheels of hospitality. If family feuds existed, they were not advertised, and private lives were shielded by drawn blinds. Consequently, the social tone was fragrant as rosemary, and scandal nearly as rare as a unicorn.
A perfect spot. Viewed from an airplane, by day, it resembled a black-and-white plaster model of a Tudor village, under a glass case. At night, however, when its lights began to glow faintly, it was like some ancient vessel, with barnacled hull and figure-head, riding in the peace of a forgotten port.
See, what more could you want? I want to live here. Everyone wants to live here, as one resident says to a visitor who is thinking of spending a summer there:
"It's perfect," she declared. "I wonder if I could rent a cottage for the summer."
"If you did you'd never go back to London," Joan told her. "Nobody ever goes away, not even for holidays.
See? It's just perfect. Well, except for the anonymous letters that begin arriving accusing people of just about anything, and the people dying because of them, it would be a little better without that. I wonder what stuff people could drag out of my earlier days to put in an anonymous letter to bug me? That's what happens. I can hardly believe it even now, but someone finds enough "stuff" about these people's past lives to send them anonymous letters about it, and cause quite a bit of trouble too. I wonder if it is hard to live with a group of people with nothing bad in their lives. I may have trouble keeping up with that. Anyway, the letters arrive and the secrets come out and people start avoiding each other, and especially avoiding the people they think are the ones causing the trouble, and then they start dying. And now instead of tea parties, flower gardens, town gatherings, visiting, now there is just....fear.
"There was a complete stoppage of all social intercourse. He met no other casual caller in any drawing room. The village was dead, with the paralysis which follows the generation of poison. Very soon, he found that he was growing affected by the general complaint. In the middle of some friendly chat, he would suddenly remember his anonymous letter, look up into a smiling face, and wonder ‘Is it you?’"
Fear stalks the village. It ruins my perfect village. It makes my perfect people a little less perfect.
As for the perfect people, there is Miss Asprey, the queen, an angel, almost anyway, she gets the first letter. She is always followed by Miss Mack, that lady never leaves her side and it gets on my nerves, so I suppose it would be a little better if they were apart at least once in a while. Oh, and I can't forget the Scudamores, they have the perfect marriage:
At a quarter-to-eight, Mr. and Mrs. Scudamore emerged from the gates of the Clock House for their evening stroll. The lady wore a feathered hat and a fichu of real lace, and all the village did homage to the Honiton point.
The doctor studied the Rector, and he—in his turn—watched the stately advance of the pair. The clergyman noticed how the lawyer's frost-bitten face thawed whenever he spoke to his wife, and he was delighted by her responsive smile. Yet they were not too engrossed in each other to pass a couple of sunburnt children, in old-fashioned lilac sun-bonnets. The little girl took a sugar almond out of her mouth, to prove that its colour had turned from pink to white, and the Scudamores rather overdid their pantomimic surprise at the miracle.
The doctor's lip curled slightly, but the Rector beamed.
"Lovers still," he said. "That's a perfect marriage."
"In the sight of God and the neighbours," murmured the doctor.
They are sweet in a perfect marriage sort of way, I wouldn't want to have a fight with my husband around them though. And everyone likes the Rector, except he tends to take away from the peace of the village:
"By the way, when I get a free Sunday I'm coming to hear you preach, padre. You're the one man who can keep me awake."
The Rector grinned in a boyish, half-bashful manner.
"I know I'm a noisy fellow," he confessed, "but oratory is my talent. It's out of place here, but I dare not let it rust. Besides, it may do secret good. Who knows?"
He knew that his red-hot Gospel, with which he had blasted his old Parish to attention, was like a series of bombs exploding under the arches of the Norman church. But habit persisted, and he exhorted his hearers, every Sunday, to search their hearts for hidden sin. The congregation remained tranquil, while he liked the sound of his own organ-voice.
Oh, our Rector, he's not married, and Joan, who works for Lady d'Arcy, she's not married either, but she wants to be, any guesses as to who she wants to marry? The Rector isn't married but he has a dog and I have to mention the dog's name:
When he entered his cheerful study, the whisky was on the table and the Wireless turned on. The essential parts of a fat spaniel—named 'Charles', after Dickens—were crowded on the doctor's lap, while the dog, from his intelligent look, was helping their guest to solve a chess-problem in the evening paper.
The dog has nothing to do with letters or murder or anything like it, I just like his name. There is also Ignatius Brown, a detective friend of the Rector's who shows up to solve this whole thing, who did what to whom type of thing. There is Doctor Perry and his wife Marianne, who I'm pretty sure didn't say a thing in the entire book that wasn't about her children. Luckily we managed to avoid her pretty much of the time. They all get letters too, everyone but the dog that is. Doctors, lawyers, Squires, angels, anyone can get one of these letters, and while most can just throw them in the fire and move on with their lives, some can't. Who is sending them anyway? Read the book and find out, I'm moving on to the next one. Happy reading.
THE village was beautiful. It was enfolded in a hollow of the Downs, and wrapped up snugly—first, in a floral shawl of gardens, and then, in a great green shawl of fields. Lilies and lavender grew in abundance. Bees clustered over sweet-scented herbs with the hum of a myriad spinning-wheels.
Although the cottages which lined the cobbled street were perfect specimens of Tudor architecture, the large houses on the green were, chiefly, of later date. The exception was a mellow Elizabethan mansion—'Spout Manor', on Miss Asprey's printed note-paper—but known locally by its original name of 'The Spout'. This was the residence of Miss Decima Asprey, the queen of the village—an elderly spinster of beautiful appearance and character, and possessed of the essential private means.
Miss Asprey's subjects were not only well-bred and charming, but endowed with such charity that there was no poverty or unemployment in the village. The ladies had not to grapple with a servant problem, which oiled the wheels of hospitality. If family feuds existed, they were not advertised, and private lives were shielded by drawn blinds. Consequently, the social tone was fragrant as rosemary, and scandal nearly as rare as a unicorn.
A perfect spot. Viewed from an airplane, by day, it resembled a black-and-white plaster model of a Tudor village, under a glass case. At night, however, when its lights began to glow faintly, it was like some ancient vessel, with barnacled hull and figure-head, riding in the peace of a forgotten port.
See, what more could you want? I want to live here. Everyone wants to live here, as one resident says to a visitor who is thinking of spending a summer there:
"It's perfect," she declared. "I wonder if I could rent a cottage for the summer."
"If you did you'd never go back to London," Joan told her. "Nobody ever goes away, not even for holidays.
See? It's just perfect. Well, except for the anonymous letters that begin arriving accusing people of just about anything, and the people dying because of them, it would be a little better without that. I wonder what stuff people could drag out of my earlier days to put in an anonymous letter to bug me? That's what happens. I can hardly believe it even now, but someone finds enough "stuff" about these people's past lives to send them anonymous letters about it, and cause quite a bit of trouble too. I wonder if it is hard to live with a group of people with nothing bad in their lives. I may have trouble keeping up with that. Anyway, the letters arrive and the secrets come out and people start avoiding each other, and especially avoiding the people they think are the ones causing the trouble, and then they start dying. And now instead of tea parties, flower gardens, town gatherings, visiting, now there is just....fear.
"There was a complete stoppage of all social intercourse. He met no other casual caller in any drawing room. The village was dead, with the paralysis which follows the generation of poison. Very soon, he found that he was growing affected by the general complaint. In the middle of some friendly chat, he would suddenly remember his anonymous letter, look up into a smiling face, and wonder ‘Is it you?’"
Fear stalks the village. It ruins my perfect village. It makes my perfect people a little less perfect.
As for the perfect people, there is Miss Asprey, the queen, an angel, almost anyway, she gets the first letter. She is always followed by Miss Mack, that lady never leaves her side and it gets on my nerves, so I suppose it would be a little better if they were apart at least once in a while. Oh, and I can't forget the Scudamores, they have the perfect marriage:
At a quarter-to-eight, Mr. and Mrs. Scudamore emerged from the gates of the Clock House for their evening stroll. The lady wore a feathered hat and a fichu of real lace, and all the village did homage to the Honiton point.
The doctor studied the Rector, and he—in his turn—watched the stately advance of the pair. The clergyman noticed how the lawyer's frost-bitten face thawed whenever he spoke to his wife, and he was delighted by her responsive smile. Yet they were not too engrossed in each other to pass a couple of sunburnt children, in old-fashioned lilac sun-bonnets. The little girl took a sugar almond out of her mouth, to prove that its colour had turned from pink to white, and the Scudamores rather overdid their pantomimic surprise at the miracle.
The doctor's lip curled slightly, but the Rector beamed.
"Lovers still," he said. "That's a perfect marriage."
"In the sight of God and the neighbours," murmured the doctor.
They are sweet in a perfect marriage sort of way, I wouldn't want to have a fight with my husband around them though. And everyone likes the Rector, except he tends to take away from the peace of the village:
"By the way, when I get a free Sunday I'm coming to hear you preach, padre. You're the one man who can keep me awake."
The Rector grinned in a boyish, half-bashful manner.
"I know I'm a noisy fellow," he confessed, "but oratory is my talent. It's out of place here, but I dare not let it rust. Besides, it may do secret good. Who knows?"
He knew that his red-hot Gospel, with which he had blasted his old Parish to attention, was like a series of bombs exploding under the arches of the Norman church. But habit persisted, and he exhorted his hearers, every Sunday, to search their hearts for hidden sin. The congregation remained tranquil, while he liked the sound of his own organ-voice.
Oh, our Rector, he's not married, and Joan, who works for Lady d'Arcy, she's not married either, but she wants to be, any guesses as to who she wants to marry? The Rector isn't married but he has a dog and I have to mention the dog's name:
When he entered his cheerful study, the whisky was on the table and the Wireless turned on. The essential parts of a fat spaniel—named 'Charles', after Dickens—were crowded on the doctor's lap, while the dog, from his intelligent look, was helping their guest to solve a chess-problem in the evening paper.
The dog has nothing to do with letters or murder or anything like it, I just like his name. There is also Ignatius Brown, a detective friend of the Rector's who shows up to solve this whole thing, who did what to whom type of thing. There is Doctor Perry and his wife Marianne, who I'm pretty sure didn't say a thing in the entire book that wasn't about her children. Luckily we managed to avoid her pretty much of the time. They all get letters too, everyone but the dog that is. Doctors, lawyers, Squires, angels, anyone can get one of these letters, and while most can just throw them in the fire and move on with their lives, some can't. Who is sending them anyway? Read the book and find out, I'm moving on to the next one. Happy reading.
February 1, 2022
I love a good old-fashioned poison pen murder mystery and this one seems to have been one of the first, a decade or so before Agatha Christie's The Moving Finger. White uses all the classic tropes: the picture-perfect village, the hidden secrets beneath the surface, the chaos which ensues once the malice starts.
This one got off to a good start for me with a tongue-in-cheek novelist making up stories about the residents to her friend - a kind of stand-in for White herself. This gossipy character-based beginning reminded me of the Mapp and Lucia books with strawberry parties and a bit of social jostling. But then someone dies and suspicion takes over village life.
I liked White's snappy, sly writing: 'the social tone was fragrant as rosemary, and scandal nearly as rare as a unicorn', but there are flaws too: the characterisation of the doctor's wife is especially confusing - one minute she's anxious and fretting over her babies, the next she's strolling through the village in a 'transparent' dress and vamping the men!
This is very old-fashioned in terms of morals and motives, and I wasn't always sure whether White was reinforcing or exposing things like sexual double standards for men and women, or that sort of so-called chivalrous attitude that allows the rector to ask 'but do you like the idea of arresting a woman? I don't.' I also never warmed to the amateur 'detective' who seems brought in for no other reason than he's got a private income and so has lots of free time on his hands!
With an intrusive and rather twee personification of Fear who 'stalks' around the village, and a rather fizzle-out ending (), this isn't great as a murder mystery but I enjoyed the rather cynical attitude to English village life: 3.5 stars rounded down to 3.
This one got off to a good start for me with a tongue-in-cheek novelist making up stories about the residents to her friend - a kind of stand-in for White herself. This gossipy character-based beginning reminded me of the Mapp and Lucia books with strawberry parties and a bit of social jostling. But then someone dies and suspicion takes over village life.
I liked White's snappy, sly writing: 'the social tone was fragrant as rosemary, and scandal nearly as rare as a unicorn', but there are flaws too: the characterisation of the doctor's wife is especially confusing - one minute she's anxious and fretting over her babies, the next she's strolling through the village in a 'transparent' dress and vamping the men!
This is very old-fashioned in terms of morals and motives, and I wasn't always sure whether White was reinforcing or exposing things like sexual double standards for men and women, or that sort of so-called chivalrous attitude that allows the rector to ask 'but do you like the idea of arresting a woman? I don't.' I also never warmed to the amateur 'detective' who seems brought in for no other reason than he's got a private income and so has lots of free time on his hands!
With an intrusive and rather twee personification of Fear who 'stalks' around the village, and a rather fizzle-out ending (), this isn't great as a murder mystery but I enjoyed the rather cynical attitude to English village life: 3.5 stars rounded down to 3.
February 13, 2025
I was initially excited by another find in the British Library republished classics from the 1930s by a woman author but the story of an idyllic village disrupted by a set of poisoned letters lost its initial charm and intrigue in a confusing merry-go-round of undistinguishable characters. The story of the village life with its apparent bonhomie disrupted by the spreading secret accusations and the simplistic solution tied together by an unconvincing amateur detective dragged on and some of the more promising characters such as the Rector and the punchy quasi-love interest, the doctor and his sex appeal wife, never truly took control of the plot or the narrative. Forgettable detective fiction despite some sparks of womanly 1930s flair.
June 8, 2024
This was the best amongst the current round of murder mysteries I have been listening to., although we can’t really call it a murder mystery, but mystery it was. Very creepy and entertaining at the same time and funny too at points. Although the culprit was fairly easy to guess, there was a constant element of doubt and mystery till the end.
January 17, 2024
A very enjoyable slow-burn of a village mystery centred on a series of poison pen letters.
April 19, 2024
Too good to be true…
Joan Brook has come to a little village in the Downs to work as companion to Lady d’Arcy, one of the village’s social luminaries. The village is perfect in every way – pretty gardens set in lovely countryside, and respectable inhabitants, happy with themselves and their neighbours. As Joan tells a visiting friend, it’s a place that people never want to leave. Joan herself has set her sights on settling permanently in the village by dint of marrying the local parson, although he’s as yet unaware of this plan for his future. But suddenly the peace of the village is disturbed when the leader of the small society, Miss Decima Asprey, receives an anonymous letter accusing her of all sorts of (unspecified) scandal. This proves to be just the first in what becomes a spate of poison pen letters, and eventually there is a death. The worried pastor calls in an old friend, Ignatius Brown, to act as amateur ‘tec…
There’s a real mix of strengths and weaknesses in this one. The characterisation is uneven – some of the characters are very well done, like the lady author who writes adventure stories for boys and doesn’t take herself too seriously, or the doctor struggling to cope with an hysterical wife and a practice that isn’t as profitable as it once was. Others are less well drawn, like that hysterical wife, for instance, who frankly behaves like an escapee from a Gothic asylum most of the time. Or Miss Asprey, whose leadership of society seems unlikely given her complete lack of warmth, charm or skills as a hostess. The relationships between the villagers are similarly uneven. At first, they are all unbelievably well behaved towards each other – no hint of gossip in this little village where everyone assumes the best of their neighbours. But then as Fear begins to stalk the village (in a kind of personified form as a shadow walking the streets) old friendships and loyalties break down far too quickly. The touches of Gothic are rather underplayed – they hint at possibilities but never come to much. Ignatius Brown is not the most successful amateur ‘tec – more Wodehouse than Holmes! He gets there in the end but it takes him a long time!
The writing is excellent, however, full of vibrant descriptions of the flowery village setting, and rather more waspish observations of the various villagers, often with a humorous edge. I can’t say I liked many of the characters wholeheartedly, and, unlike Joan, living in such a restricted, bland, respectable little group of self-satisfied snobs would be my idea of hell rather than heaven, but the whole perfection thing does feel a little tongue-in-cheek as if White is deliberately writing it as too good to be true. As often happens unfairly when reading vintage crime, the plot feels a little hackneyed – the poison pen idea has been done many times, and often better. But when this was first published in 1932, it would have had a much more original feel which might well have made the first readers more willing to accept the increasingly convoluted and incredible (should that be ridiculous?) twists in the plot.
It also has moments, though, where the tone is more sombre and these work very well, both as a contrast and to give some depth to the plot. The letters range from a kind of scatter-gun approach of random accusations which annoy rather than harming, to more pointed and accurate suggestions of behaviour that isn’t in any way criminal but which would destroy reputations and lead to scandal if it came to light. The result is growing suspicion as everyone wonders who the letter writer is, and gradually the social life of the village falls away as people retreat into their own homes. We see how old friendships and loyalties are shown to be hollow things when fear and suspicion enter the picture. Much of the scandalous behaviour wouldn’t be scandalous now, so it’s interesting to see the kinds of things that were considered beyond the pale back then.
The silliness that crept into the plotting and the generally unappealing characters stopped me from loving this one, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Entertaining, but with enough depth to stop it from feeling too cosy.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Joan Brook has come to a little village in the Downs to work as companion to Lady d’Arcy, one of the village’s social luminaries. The village is perfect in every way – pretty gardens set in lovely countryside, and respectable inhabitants, happy with themselves and their neighbours. As Joan tells a visiting friend, it’s a place that people never want to leave. Joan herself has set her sights on settling permanently in the village by dint of marrying the local parson, although he’s as yet unaware of this plan for his future. But suddenly the peace of the village is disturbed when the leader of the small society, Miss Decima Asprey, receives an anonymous letter accusing her of all sorts of (unspecified) scandal. This proves to be just the first in what becomes a spate of poison pen letters, and eventually there is a death. The worried pastor calls in an old friend, Ignatius Brown, to act as amateur ‘tec…
There’s a real mix of strengths and weaknesses in this one. The characterisation is uneven – some of the characters are very well done, like the lady author who writes adventure stories for boys and doesn’t take herself too seriously, or the doctor struggling to cope with an hysterical wife and a practice that isn’t as profitable as it once was. Others are less well drawn, like that hysterical wife, for instance, who frankly behaves like an escapee from a Gothic asylum most of the time. Or Miss Asprey, whose leadership of society seems unlikely given her complete lack of warmth, charm or skills as a hostess. The relationships between the villagers are similarly uneven. At first, they are all unbelievably well behaved towards each other – no hint of gossip in this little village where everyone assumes the best of their neighbours. But then as Fear begins to stalk the village (in a kind of personified form as a shadow walking the streets) old friendships and loyalties break down far too quickly. The touches of Gothic are rather underplayed – they hint at possibilities but never come to much. Ignatius Brown is not the most successful amateur ‘tec – more Wodehouse than Holmes! He gets there in the end but it takes him a long time!
The writing is excellent, however, full of vibrant descriptions of the flowery village setting, and rather more waspish observations of the various villagers, often with a humorous edge. I can’t say I liked many of the characters wholeheartedly, and, unlike Joan, living in such a restricted, bland, respectable little group of self-satisfied snobs would be my idea of hell rather than heaven, but the whole perfection thing does feel a little tongue-in-cheek as if White is deliberately writing it as too good to be true. As often happens unfairly when reading vintage crime, the plot feels a little hackneyed – the poison pen idea has been done many times, and often better. But when this was first published in 1932, it would have had a much more original feel which might well have made the first readers more willing to accept the increasingly convoluted and incredible (should that be ridiculous?) twists in the plot.
It also has moments, though, where the tone is more sombre and these work very well, both as a contrast and to give some depth to the plot. The letters range from a kind of scatter-gun approach of random accusations which annoy rather than harming, to more pointed and accurate suggestions of behaviour that isn’t in any way criminal but which would destroy reputations and lead to scandal if it came to light. The result is growing suspicion as everyone wonders who the letter writer is, and gradually the social life of the village falls away as people retreat into their own homes. We see how old friendships and loyalties are shown to be hollow things when fear and suspicion enter the picture. Much of the scandalous behaviour wouldn’t be scandalous now, so it’s interesting to see the kinds of things that were considered beyond the pale back then.
The silliness that crept into the plotting and the generally unappealing characters stopped me from loving this one, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Entertaining, but with enough depth to stop it from feeling too cosy.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
June 28, 2015
Ethel Lina White was a British mystery writer, best known for her books Some Must Watch (basis of the movie "The Spiral Staircase") and The Wheel Spins (basis of the Hitchcock movie "The Lady Vanishes").
In "Fear Stalks the Village," the residents of a small town begin to receive poison pen letters accusing them of various misdeeds. The formerly idyllic village becomes prey to fear and paranoia. The Rector notices the change in the atmosphere:
"There was a complete stoppage of all social intercourse. He met no other casual caller in any drawing room. The village was dead, with the paralysis which follows the generation of poison. Very soon, he found that he was growing affected by the general complaint. In the middle of some friendly chat, he would suddenly remember his anonymous letter, look up into a smiling face, and wonder ‘Is it you?’"
When one of the residents dies, no one is sure if her death is suicide, accidental or murder.
The poison pen letters continue to break hearts:
"In one house a woman rose from her chair, where she sat reading. She, too, kissed her company, and— at the door— looked back into the cheerful room, with a smile.
But once outside, her face was that of a dead woman, as she drew from her bag a bit of crumpled paper, covered with printed letters.
Someone knew. The years of false security and happiness were over. She groped her way up the stairs through the dense blackness of fear.
'I can’t face it,' she whispered. 'Never. Never. I’ll die first... I’ll— die.'"
The Rector brings in a detective, Ignatius Brown. Before Brown can solve the mystery, though, there is another death. There is no doubt that this one is a suicide. Ms White does an excellent job of showing the aftermath, and the pain of the victim's surviving spouse. It actually moved me to tears, and showed the suffering inflicted by the anonymous letter writer.
I really did not suspect the person who was behind the letters. Ms White does an excellent job with red herrings and concealing the true character (if you can call it that) of the villain. Very surprising, and hands down, one of the most despicable villains I've run across in a mystery, even though they did not directly (or possibly intentionally) kill anyone. They're basically a sadist on a power trip.
The one weakness in the book is Ignatius Brown. I never liked him. I found him arrogant and even cruel. After one suicide, he makes the heartless statement, "I told you I didn’t like her, because I thought her a humbug. That holds still. The whole truth is that she killed herself because she couldn’t endure the thought of exposure. She hadn’t the guts to sit tight." He spends his time making sarcastic comments about people and shows a terrible lack of empathy. Fortunately, he is not in most of the book and I was able to skim over the passages where he did show up.
"Fear Stalks the Village" is not as good as "Some Must Watch" or "The Wheel Spins," but it is an enjoyable, very different Golden Age mystery, and I do recommend it.
In "Fear Stalks the Village," the residents of a small town begin to receive poison pen letters accusing them of various misdeeds. The formerly idyllic village becomes prey to fear and paranoia. The Rector notices the change in the atmosphere:
"There was a complete stoppage of all social intercourse. He met no other casual caller in any drawing room. The village was dead, with the paralysis which follows the generation of poison. Very soon, he found that he was growing affected by the general complaint. In the middle of some friendly chat, he would suddenly remember his anonymous letter, look up into a smiling face, and wonder ‘Is it you?’"
When one of the residents dies, no one is sure if her death is suicide, accidental or murder.
The poison pen letters continue to break hearts:
"In one house a woman rose from her chair, where she sat reading. She, too, kissed her company, and— at the door— looked back into the cheerful room, with a smile.
But once outside, her face was that of a dead woman, as she drew from her bag a bit of crumpled paper, covered with printed letters.
Someone knew. The years of false security and happiness were over. She groped her way up the stairs through the dense blackness of fear.
'I can’t face it,' she whispered. 'Never. Never. I’ll die first... I’ll— die.'"
The Rector brings in a detective, Ignatius Brown. Before Brown can solve the mystery, though, there is another death. There is no doubt that this one is a suicide. Ms White does an excellent job of showing the aftermath, and the pain of the victim's surviving spouse. It actually moved me to tears, and showed the suffering inflicted by the anonymous letter writer.
I really did not suspect the person who was behind the letters. Ms White does an excellent job with red herrings and concealing the true character (if you can call it that) of the villain. Very surprising, and hands down, one of the most despicable villains I've run across in a mystery, even though they did not directly (or possibly intentionally) kill anyone. They're basically a sadist on a power trip.
The one weakness in the book is Ignatius Brown. I never liked him. I found him arrogant and even cruel. After one suicide, he makes the heartless statement, "I told you I didn’t like her, because I thought her a humbug. That holds still. The whole truth is that she killed herself because she couldn’t endure the thought of exposure. She hadn’t the guts to sit tight." He spends his time making sarcastic comments about people and shows a terrible lack of empathy. Fortunately, he is not in most of the book and I was able to skim over the passages where he did show up.
"Fear Stalks the Village" is not as good as "Some Must Watch" or "The Wheel Spins," but it is an enjoyable, very different Golden Age mystery, and I do recommend it.
October 28, 2020
Really rather marvellous. The writing itself felt fresh and non-dated, despite being 90 years old. I was absolutely delighted that, depending on intrepretation, this is not actually a murder mystery, it's an anonymous-letter mystery. I've never understand why 99.9% of mystery novels are solving murder mysteries, when other types of mysteries might be just as (or more) interesting, so this was a very pleasant change.
The author played fair, all the clues and knowledge given to the detective were also given to us. Despite a vast cast, I could tell all the characters apart (so often writers fail to worry about this, giving me names and no more, really), and they were a fun, diverse bunch, including some character types not before encountered--nothing remotely resembling a stock character.
Very recommended! But a bit of a page-turner, I've had two sleepless nights in a row.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
The author played fair, all the clues and knowledge given to the detective were also given to us. Despite a vast cast, I could tell all the characters apart (so often writers fail to worry about this, giving me names and no more, really), and they were a fun, diverse bunch, including some character types not before encountered--nothing remotely resembling a stock character.
Very recommended! But a bit of a page-turner, I've had two sleepless nights in a row.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
March 16, 2021
This is the first book I've read by Ethel Lina White and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's not a traditional murder mystery, but rather a poison pen mystery.
I found the characters engaging, especially Joan and Mrs Corner. Even if the detective himself fell a bit flat and was more of just a vehicle for figuring things out. And the way White anthropomorphizes Fear is interesting, not something I've seen done in another Golden Age book. Some of the accusations in the poison pen letters seem quite thin and inconsequential to a modern reader, although this may be a way of highlighting the simple conventionality of the village.
There were a few things however than dropped this down from a possible 4 stars.
Mainly that one of the most interesting characters is killed of fairly early in the book. It's a recurring pattern in Golden Age murder mysteries that when a woman is independent and interesting and won't bow to convention, she gets knocked off. Which really frustrates me. I often empathize and identify with these characters and it feels like being removed from the story myself.
Also, there are a pair of suicides in the book that I was uncomfortable with that also lowered the book for me. I find the attitude towards suicide in Golden Age books uncomfortable in general.
I think I will read more by White in the future.
Content Notes: suicide
I found the characters engaging, especially Joan and Mrs Corner. Even if the detective himself fell a bit flat and was more of just a vehicle for figuring things out. And the way White anthropomorphizes Fear is interesting, not something I've seen done in another Golden Age book. Some of the accusations in the poison pen letters seem quite thin and inconsequential to a modern reader, although this may be a way of highlighting the simple conventionality of the village.
There were a few things however than dropped this down from a possible 4 stars.
Mainly that one of the most interesting characters is killed of fairly early in the book. It's a recurring pattern in Golden Age murder mysteries that when a woman is independent and interesting and won't bow to convention, she gets knocked off. Which really frustrates me. I often empathize and identify with these characters and it feels like being removed from the story myself.
Also, there are a pair of suicides in the book that I was uncomfortable with that also lowered the book for me. I find the attitude towards suicide in Golden Age books uncomfortable in general.
I think I will read more by White in the future.
Content Notes: suicide
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