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The Spiral Staircase  By  cover art

The Spiral Staircase

By: Ethel Lina White
Narrated by: Kim Hartman
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Publisher's summary

Four girls have been murdered. As darkness falls, the young maid Helen Capel feels distinctly uneasy, as though she is being watched, as she walks through the woods alone.

News of yet another murder reaches the ears of the inhabitants, but this time close to their isolated family home on the Welsh border. Under the instruction of the Professor Warren, nobody may leave or enter the house that night. Just as the Professor finishes his announcement someone starts to knock loudly at the front door.... But is there really safety in numbers? And what happens when their numbers start to dwindle?

Ethel Lina White was born in Abergavenny, Wales, in 1876. She wrote from an early age, progressing from essays and poems, on to short stories, and eventually left her government job in the Ministry of Pensions to pursue a full time career in writing. White became one of the best known crime writers of the 1930s and '40s thanks to a string of successful titles, the most famous of which were Some Must Watch (filmed as The Spiral Staircase) and The Wheel Spins (filmed as The Lady Vanishes, including a 1938 production by Alfred Hitchcock).

©2016 Fantom Publishing (P)2016 Spokenworld Audio & Ladbroke Audio Ltd/Fantom Publishing

What listeners say about The Spiral Staircase

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    4 out of 5 stars

Starts out slow, then zips into sustained headlong action

Very well worth wading through the slow start because, wow, once it takes off you are plunged into headlong action side-by-side with Helen for hours — scary, thoughtful, wondering, heart pounding hours. I mean, the action never stops. I’ve never read anything like it. One night spent in the Summit House is even scarier than that train ride of Iris’ in “The Lady Vanishes.” What a writer that Ethel Lina White was!!

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