The spiral staircase by Ethel Lina White

[Charybdis]

This book was published in 1933 as "Some must watch", but the film that was based on it was called "The spiral staircase", and probably more people will be familiar with the movie title.

I've seen the movie several times and was looking forward to reading the original story. Somehow I always expect the book to be better than the movie, but that isn't always the case. I was very surprised to find out that Helen Capel wasn't mute in the book at all! The script writers took the basic ingredients, added some and left some, and created a much better story.

The book isn't bad, though. There's a murderer on the loose and Helen runs around a house where the other residents disappear one by one for some reason, and soon there's nobody left to protect her.

I think the movie is better, more gothic and more plausible than the book. If there hadn't been a better movie to compare it with, I might have given it a higher rating, now it's no more than a 6 out of 10.

[Jojo Lapin X]

I have not read this one, but I have read the author's THE WHEEL SPINS, which is also the source of a famous film, Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES. I found it almost unreadable, full of archaic slang and references to celebrities and events nobody remembers any more.

[Charybdis]

I've just finished listening to the audiobook version of "The lady vanishes", and that way any archaic slang etc. sped by without my noticing. The narrator had a lovely English voice, which suited the book very much. The "heroine", Iris, is totally British and, unfortunately, totally obnoxious. So much so that I began to hate the narrator's voice. I wonder why authors won't make an effort to create likeable main characters. Then again, perhaps she wanted to let us see real people, who never are completely nice. Indeed, I think she wished to portray how the British people behave in certain circumstances, which could have been quite humorous if Ms. White had been thus talented. Iris' being selfish and rude may also have been necessary to the plot, so the other people were more inclined to disbelieve her when she professed her coach companion, Ms. Froy, was missing.
So I credit Ms. White for coming up with a nice little suspense story, but in my opinion the execution could have been done much better. Which is probably why people remember Hitchcock's adaptation and do not even know who Ethel Lina White is.