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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.
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What Members Thought

Feb 19, 2022 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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 ...more

16 likes · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2022 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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 - ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Jan 19, 2022 Susan in NC rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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 ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Feb 05, 2024 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction, 1930s, crime-fiction-uk, british-library-crime-classics, 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, 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. ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

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

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

3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 12, 2022 Jan C rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: england, mystery, gr-group-read, 2022

Enjoyable British mystery of a "perfect" village when all of a sudden poison pen letters start appearing. This is a very closed society. Inevitably, mistakes will happen. A letter to the wrong person can cause them to go over the edge.

Also: I liked how White made Fear a character - a shadow walking along with people. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 04, 2024 Laura Anne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, british-isles

A quiet village is disturbed by a series of anonymous letters exposing their secrets. The contrasting cozy and dark tone was intriguing, but the story ended on an anticlimactic note.

Like · see review