'Then the rhythm of the train changed, and she seemed to be sliding backwards down a long slope. Click-click-click-click. The wheels rattled over the rails, with a sound of castanets.' Iris Carr's holiday in the mountains of a remote corner of Europe has come to an end, and since her friends left two days before, she faces the journey home alone. Stricken by sunstroke at the station, Iris catches the express train to Trieste by the skin of her teeth and finds a companion in Miss Froy, an affable English governess. But when Iris passes out and reawakens, Miss Froy is nowhere to be found. The other passengers deny any knowledge of her existence and as the train speeds across Europe, Iris spirals deeper and deeper into a strange and dangerous conspiracy. First published in 1936 and adapted for the screen as The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock in 1938, Ethel Lina White's suspenseful mystery remains her best-known novel, worthy of acknowledgement as a classic of the genre in its own right.

This is a newly printed book via print on demand in a larger size 16 Font. There is good reason for this book to have been the basis for three movies named the Spiral Staircase. As Professor Sebastian Warren battens down the shutters and locks all the doors of their isolated country house, the eight occupants start to feel safe. Somewhere outside lurks a murderer of young girls, the latest only an earshot away. Is there really safety in numbers and what happens when their numbers start to dwindle? If you are able to pick this book up, will you be able to put it down? As a psychological thriller this is a masterpiece from a writer at her peak.

Ethel Lina White was a prolific author, and became one of the best-known crime writers in Britain and the US during the thirties and forties. Though best-remembered for her novels Some Must WatchandThe Wheel Spins, her short fiction was also hugely popular, and 'Cheese' ranks amongst her best tales. Many of the crime and detective stories of the Victorians, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

___________________________ The classic psychological thriller that was adapted into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, and is now a major BBC drama ___________________________ 'Miss Froy?' repeated the baroness. 'I do not know anyone who has that name.' Exhausted after her vacation in Europe, the young socialite Iris Carr is set for a return to England. Aboard the train, Iris is glad to have the company of the elderly Miss Froy - the only other passenger she can tolerate. But when Iris wakes up after a long rest, Miss Froy has vanished. Suspecting foul play, Iris is suspicious of the strange passengers surrounding her, most of whom cannot understand her. Those who can, however, have serious doubts that such a 'Miss Froy' ever existed... Iris' dream vacation soon turns into a nightmare voyage back to England, forcing her to explore the uncharted territories of both her surroundings and her own mind.

Every morning, Miss Loveapple blesses her good fortune. She has property, a devoted maid and is young and beautiful. An independent woman, she has a mind never to marry. But a darker mind - one Clarence Club's - has a plan that will leave her accused of murder. About to go on holiday to Switzerland, Miss Loveapple has her fortune told at the village fete, and her good luck is predicted to turn sour. At the station, she stops to buy some white heather, giving her mere seconds to board her train. Though her holiday is not quite what she wished for, she meets all kinds of people, who come between her and many an opportunity for disaster. And when she narrowly misses being killed by jewel thieves, her delayed return helps her make a very important decision.

Caroline Watts has accepted a post as games mistress at the prestigious Abbey School in the west of England. She is delighted with the appointment: it's an excellent private girls' school. No matter that she was introduced to the post through a tenuous network of family contacts. And that the previous games mistress was found dead in bed from heart failure. From the moment she arrives at the school, Caroline is beset by fear. But of what? How could a school, owned by two influential ladies and run by the formidable Mrs Nash, threaten harm to a new teacher, eager to start her first job? Rumour has it that her predecessor died of fright ...

Anna, a young Englishwoman, is drawn to visit Russia partly out of interest, to see for herself the 'proletarian experiment', and partly by Otto, a glamorous but faithless newspaper editor. With nothing left now to keep her in Russia, she prepares to leave and return to England. But she has not reckoned with the environment of that closed nation, which has already begun to work on her nerves. She wonders if she will ever get out, and when delay follows delay, it seems as if she is losing her grip, hysteria threatening. Anna is trapped, dazed by the terrifying atmosphere of suspicion and maddening delaying tactics of the Soviet Union ...

No. 11 India Crescent is officially a dead address. Its absentee owner, General Tygarth, and his wife are reported to be living abroad, but it is so long since they have been seen in the town that few remember them. Only one or two people recall its tragic story of domestic tyranny, ill-starred love and early death; only Mr Spree the lawyer knows that the old General has ordered the house to be closed for a certain number of years. Now, in a fortnight's time, the house is to be reopened. But to Elizabeth Fetherstonehaugh, the young governess at No. 10, the night noises coming from the house next door are fast becoming an obsession ...

The roar of a lion is not the kind of music one expects to hear at night in the stillness of the English countryside. Yet in the neighbourhood of 'Ganges', Sir Benjamin Watson's house, that terrifyingly wild sound is not uncommon. Sir Benjamin is rich enough to indulge his expensive hobby of a private zoo. The first time Ann Sherborne, walking at night to the gates of 'Ganges' on that strange, eventful visit, hears the savage roar, her courage dies and she starts to run. But that frightening experience is just a prelude to a night charged with terror, when not only fear but death stalks 'Ganges', playing havoc among the guests assembled there ...

Charlie Baxter has never been a success. Yes, he's popular with women, but he's not exactly a party guy. A cheerful loser, that's Charlie. He has even made a hash of his 'death'. For, having almost exhausted a legacy left to him by a rich aunt, he has planned to insure his life and then 'die'. But he has failed to foresee the ramifications of his sinister scheme. And he has reckoned without people cleverer than him - the insurance company, for one. Then there's his wife, Vera, who is playing along for her own benefit ...

Reporter Sonia Thompson discovers threads linking prominent members of Riverpool society with the chamber of horrors in a neglected waxworks museum. Married Lilith Nile is using it as a place to meet Sir Julian. Schoolteacher Miss Monroe is obsessed with the moth-eaten figure of Mary of England. And why does Mr Cuttle, the amorous Alderman, take such a keen interest in the museum? When Sir Julian, having spent the night in the waxworks for a bet, is found dead, and an epidemic of purse-snatching sweeps Riverpool, Sonia realises that she is on the verge of uncovering a sinister plot. Forced to bring matters to a head, Sonia resolves to spend a night alone in the waxworks ...

In a lovely English village of flowers, Tudor cottages and cobbled streets, Joan Brook works as companion to Lady d'Arcy, living in at the huge mansion with its surrounding park. And the village is not too small for Joan to have found a man whom she can love. Suddenly the peaceful surface of life is shattered as a poisonous letter is received by the town's most saintly citizen. It is followed by others; no one is safe from the anonymous letter writer. With the letters comes death. In the anguished days that follow, Joan realises that she too is in danger. For to receive one of these letters could mean the end of her love ... and her life.

At four o'clock on a misty October afternoon in London, Evelyn Cross, blonde, nineteen and fashionably dressed, vanishes into thin air. Evelyn is the daughter of wealthy Raphael Cross. She has been seen going into the flat of Madame Goya, a fortune teller in Mayfair, but in response to Mr Cross's distracted enquiries, Madame Goya swears that his daughter never entered her flat. Then another millionaire's daughter goes missing in the same block of flats, and Cross decides to employ the services of Alan Foam, Private Investigator. But if Foam thinks this is a straightforward case of find the victim, he'll need to think again ...