Ethel Lina White was een Britse misdaadschrijfster, gevierd om haar vermogen om ingewikkelde suspense en psychologische diepgang in haar verhalen te verweven. Haar romans combineerden meesterlijk elementen van mysterie met scherpe inzichten in de menselijke natuur, wat haar zowel kritische lof als een toegewijd lezerspubliek opleverde. White's talent voor het creëren van ijzingwekkende sferen en onverwachte wendingen verstevigde haar plaats onder de prominente stemmen van het genre. Ze creëerde boeiende verhalen die blijven boeien met hun originaliteit en meesterlijke plotontwikkeling.
Revelling in the wickedness that lies beneath the idyllic veneer of village life, White’s 1932 mystery is an inventive interwar classic and remains one of the foundation stones of the village mystery sub-genre of crime fiction.
This novel, when originally published in 1936, was entitled The Wheel Spins. However, since the Alfred Hitchcock film adaptation in 1938, the novel has become better known by its 'Hollywood name' The Lady Vanishes. The novel tells of a beautiful English tourist travelling by train in Europe who discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is helped by a young musicologist, and the two proceed to search the train for clues to the old woman's disappearance. This edition also includes the novel originally published as Some Must Watch, now better known as The Spiral Staircase from the subsequent film adaptations.
Helen Capel takes the position of lady-help in a remote country house owned by the Warren family. She 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.
"First published 1936 by William Collins, Sons and Co. Ltd., under the title The Wheel Spins"--Title page verso.