The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White (filmed by Hitchcock as ‘The Lady Vanishes’)

It’s always a pleasure when a new reissue from the British Library Crime Classics series drops through the door, and Ethel Lina White’s wonderfully suspenseful novel The Wheel Spins proved no exception to this rule. Many of you will be very familiar with the story as it formed the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s hit film The Lady Vanishes (1938), starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave and Dame May Whitty. If anything, White’s novel is more sinister than Hitchcock’s adaptation, as a young Englishwoman’s sanity is called into question during a nightmarish train journey across Europe, with language issues adding to the general confusion. 

White’s heroine is the disillusioned socialite Iris Carr, who has been holidaying with a group of friends in the depths of Eastern Europe. Through their selfish, rowdy behaviour, Iris’ pals have managed to alienate the other English guests at their hotel – all of whom consider themselves respectful members of their communities. Nevertheless, while Iris is perceived to be ‘vain, selfish and useless’, she is in fact more compassionate and generous than her prickly exterior suggests.

Having fallen out with one of the other girls in her crowd, Iris decides to remain at the hotel for a couple of days, just for some peace and quiet, when her friends depart. But with no one else to guide her, she manages to get lost during a walk in the mountains – a thoroughly unsettling experience that presages some of the horrors to come…

While waiting for her train to Trieste, Iris is struck by a violent pain – presumably due to sunstroke – and she loses consciousness for a few moments. Left feeling dazed and confused by the experience, she only just manages to board her train before it leaves the station. Here, Iris is thrust into a stuffy compartment full of unfamiliar faces, the most unwelcoming of which belongs to an imposing woman in black, who seems to be eyeing her with ‘a fixed stare of hostility’. The only friendly presence is the lady sitting opposite Iris – a non-descript, middle-aged Englishwoman, Miss Winifred Froy, dressed in a tweed suit and matching hat.

Under normal circumstances, Iris would have little time for a frumpy chatterbox like Miss Froy, who is returning to England following a stint as a governess for a prestigious family. But still feeling headachy after fainting at the station, Iris is more than happy to accompany Miss Froy to the dining car for tea, hoping it will perk her up.

After returning to her compartment with Miss Froy, Iris falls asleep…but when she wakes up, her new friend is nowhere to be seen. In fact, everyone else in the carriage claims not to have seen Miss Froy at all, denying the very existence of another English lady in their compartment. In short, this is all very perplexing for Iris, who remains convinced that Miss Froy was sitting opposite her in the carriage only a short time before.

A frantic search for Miss Froy swiftly follows as Iris becomes increasingly concerned that something underhand is afoot. If anything, the presence of a rather sinister-looking doctor in the adjacent carriage only adds to her sense of unease, especially as his patient’s face is covered in bandages.

Following an appeal for help in the dining car, Iris is joined in her quest by a young English engineer, Max Hare, who is travelling back to England with a friend – a professor who happens to speak the local language. While Hare is willing to believe Iris – at least at first – the professor is more sceptical, especially when he questions the other passengers in Iris’ carriage.  

[Iris:] “Are you telling me I invented her?” she asked angrily.

[The Professor:] “I hardly know what to think.”

“Then I’ll tell you. All these people are telling lies.”

Even as she spoke Iris realised the absurdity of her charge. It was altogether too wholesale. No rational person could believe that the passengers would unite to bear false witness. The family party in particular looked solid and respectable, while the father was probably the equivalent to her own lawyer. (p. 105)

Right on cue, the sinister doctor appears, claiming Iris’ sunstroke has induced a state of delirium. In other words, Iris simply imagined Miss Froy, who was nothing more than an illusion in her mind.

But Iris remains convinced that Miss Froy actually exists and is hidden away somewhere on the train – possibly something to do with the rather imposing woman in black travelling in her compartment. The plot thickens when ‘Miss Froy’ miraculously reappears – only it’s not the Winfred Froy who was there before, but some strange imposter dressed in her clothes!

…she [Iris] had begun to regard all the officials as being tools of the baroness. A mysterious power was operating on a wholesale scale, to her own confusion. In proof of this, opposite to her was the horrible changeling who wore Miss Froy’s clothing. Yet the incident was inexplicable, since she could find no motive for such a clumsy subterfuge (p. 132)

All the other English passengers on the train fail to come to her rescue when Iris tries to enlist their help. Firstly, she hasn’t endeared herself to these fellow travellers through her earlier self-centred behaviour at the hotel. Secondly, each person has their own private reasons for wanting to get back to England as soon as possible – and any delays to this leg of the journey, such as a search for a missing passenger or a similar mystery, could disrupt their plans. It’s an ironic critique of these seemingly upstanding pillars of society, highlighting the hypocrisy they willingly display.

“I have no recollection of your companion. Some one may have been with you, but I was not wearing my glasses.”

“Neither was I,” remarked Miss Flood-Porter. “So you can understand that we shall not be able to help you. It would be against our principles to identify some one of whom we were not sure.”

“Most unfair,” commented Miss Rose. “So, please, don’t refer to us. If you do, we must refuse to interfere.” (p. 119)

The more Iris searches for Miss Froy, the more distressed and determined she becomes. Consequently, she makes a complete nuisance of herself, alienating the professor and worrying Max Hare in the process – to the point where her sanity is called into question as she persists in her quest. The last thing Iris wants is to be taken under the wing of the sinister doctor; who knows what might happen to her then?

…he [the professor] could have no idea of the hell of fear into which he plunged her. She was white to her lips as she shrank into the corner of the carriage. She was afraid of him–afraid of every one in the train. Even Hare seemed to have entered into the conspiracy against her. The whole world appeared roped into a league that threatened her sanity. (p. 231)

The Wheel Spins is a very atmospheric, suspenseful read – another hugely enjoyable entrant in the entertaining BLCC series. As the train speeds through the European countryside, White does an excellent job of dialling up the tension, using foreshadowing and other techniques to hint at the trouble ahead. The glimpses of villages slipping by outside as the train hurtles towards its destination add to the novel’s woozy atmosphere, mirroring Iris’ disturbed state of mind.

She was scarcely conscious of slides of twilight scenery streaming past the window, or of the other passengers. A village shot out of the shadows and vanished again in the dimness. She caught the flash of a huddle of dark roofs and the white streak of a little river, which boiled under a hooded bridge. (p. 93)

While certain aspects of the story were changed to streamline the film, White’s novel is still very much worth reading. If anything, I found it more frightening than Hitchcock’s adaptation, which I adore for its charming blend of mystery and wit. (Charters and Caldecott were excellent additions to the screen version, proving popular enough to reappear in other films and radio shows following the adaptation’s success.) There’s also another novel by White, Fear Stalks the Village, in the BLCC series – definitely something to look forward to in the months ahead!