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Fear Stalks the Village

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Fear Stalks the Village

By: Ethel Lina White
Narrated by: Oona Beeson
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A novelist ambles down the lanes of a cosy country village, replete with Tudor houses and quaint cottages. In her writer's mind she pictures the sordid truth beyond the veneer, a seemingly laughable proposition - until the coming of the letters. Anonymous letters from a poisoned pen, sowing discord and defaming everybody from the Rector to the 'queen of the village' Miss Decima Asprey. Naturally, where there is venom in the air and dark secrets are threatening to come to light, the shadow of death is not far behind.

Ethel Lina White's 1932 classic is one of the foundation stones of the village mystery sub-genre of crime fiction. Revelling in the delicious contrast of angelic outer appearances and the wickedness behind the facade, White's novel is a witty and satisfying interwar mystery.

©2024 Martin Edwards (P)2024 Soundings Action & Adventure Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Crime Witty Detective Village
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I enjoyed this witty and unusual story. The plot is driven by the psychology of the characters. It did not deserve to go out of print and the author be forgotten. I look forward to listening to other audio editions of her books.

A delightful mystery from 1932

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Mediocre story with mediocre reading. In parts diction was poor and muffled. It’s a shame the series no longer has Martin Edwards introductions. Maybe time to retire the Crime Classics series.

Mediocre

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Possibly one of the precursors to the archetypal mystery novel set in an idyllic English village. Christie's the moving finger came a decade after this, and Wentworth's poison in the pen followed 13 years later, so ELW was certainly a trailblazer. ELW does well to integrate a large cast of characters into the setting of the idyllic countryside, which she depicts with admirable depth, detail, and atmosphere. Underneath this picturesque mise en scene, she displays the shallow village politeness, and constructed social etiquette, beneath which lies a seething undercurrent of duplicity, hypocrisy, spite and malice. The plot only seems to trip itself up with an overly intricate denoument, but one cannot blame an author for trying to be clever. The narrater is not quite up to the mark, but she does an adequate job. Her reading is in no way intolerable or offensive, like Mcdowell butchering of the wimsey books, just increase the speed to x1.25 which eliminates the unnecessarily slow tempo and pauses.

Enjoyable but over intricate denoument

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In case my write up is ambiguous: basically I liked it
I read this book years ago, and didn't like it at all. I'm dyslexic, so narrative reading is not my strongest point. But having listened to it, I have changed my mind. Ethel Lina White is not the greatest crime writer of her period, she had Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayer to contend with. To be honest the book reminded me of a teen detective novel rather than one for adults. The "detective" was a poor mans version of Lord Peter Wimsey (must check that spelling), but much more annoying. I didn't warm to him at all and I was disappointed that the Doctor's wife didn't get killed. I struggled with all the different characters, especially the women, I had to keep going back to work out which woman it was the vicar was talking to. Having said that, I'm also disappointed that only 3 of her novels are available on Audible (this one, "The Wheel Spins", better known as "The Lady Vanishes" and (my personal favourite) "Some Must Watch" (better k own as "The Spiral Staircase" - the book of which has nothing to do with a mad man stalking and killing women with disabilities, that's the film.) Some of her books are out of print, so I shouldn't be surprised there are not many of her books on Audible.

Warning; SPOILERS in review

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Well read , but not really a murder mystery, it’s a blackmail story with suicides that shows the awful judgement of middle class life, and the hypocrisy, not an easy read in a lot of ways

Not what you think it is

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