From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Fear Stalks the Village

Ethel Lina White

Start date: February 1, 2022

Finish date: February 28, 2022

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of the poll for our February read.
[close] Winner of the poll for our February read.

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Group reads

* November 2025 group read - Winner!
By Judy · 20 posts · 32 views

last updated Sep 17, 2025 08:43AM

* Sept 25: Lonesome Road (#3 Miss Silver Mysteries) by Patricia Wentworth
By Susan · 16 posts · 16 views

last updated Sep 19, 2025 01:03PM

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What Members Thought

Feb 13, 2022 Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-murder-crime-20th-century

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 thi ...more

39 likes · Like · see review

Nov 07, 2019 Jen rated it liked it · review of another edition

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 mo ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Oct 02, 2022 Lynnie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2024, read-in-2022, invitation-to-tea, golden-age-mystery, british-library-crime

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!

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 07, 2022 Sandy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: rread-2022, mystery-classic, mystery-detective-grp, own, z2022-own-24

Very atmospheric with fear personified and, as the title says, stalking a much too "perfect" English village. The psychologic norms of the 1930's spoiled my read as I doubt people have changed that much. There are excellent portrayals of pets and lots of great snide comments, but I found most of the characters one dimensional and uninteresting. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 12, 2022 Ruth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: golden-age-and-vintage

I found the imagery in this book of Fear as a physical presence which attached itself to various residents of the village who were most susceptible a very powerful motif running through the story. You could feel the suspicion growing and a wariness that started to taint seemingly happy and idyllic community.

I was less convinced by the unmasking of the culprit and subsequent explanations. It's hard to go into any more detail without giving too much away but I found the ending disappointing when t ...more

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