Fear Stalks the Village

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 S......more

more like a 3.7 rounded to a 4 full post is here: [URL not allowed] 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 dread......more

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 b......more

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......more

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, bas......more