Ethel Lina White – författare

Behind the ominous walls of Jamaica Court, Anthea Vine rules as a provincial Queen Elizabeth, imperious and wealthy, vain and pathetic.But Anthea holds chained to her in financial dependence five discontented souls, all with a motive for murder. Her tentacles reach beyond her three wards and draw into their clutches her secretary, Sally Morgan, and the sardonically charming local doctor.Anthea''s charms prove fatal to none but her. For, while people set their watches by the light in her bedroom window, Florence Pye reads death in the cards. Her prophecy comes true, silently, violently in the depths of the night.What Miss Pye has not foreseen, though, is that she will be first to find the body . . .

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.

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 ...

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 ...

On what trivialities the big things in life hang. From the moment when, dining alone in her Brussels hotel, Georgia Yeo, celebrated writer of detective thrillers, opens her cigarette case and the Count comes into her life with the polite offer of a light, she realises that here is fate. In that moment too begins the strange and inimitable spell of Georgia''s story. It is an enthralling story, of a woman successful in her career, yet timid and hesitant in making a decision which might have a far-reaching effect on her private life.It''s truly a step in the dark ...

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.

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 ...

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 ...