This collection was put together to mark 80 years since the death of Ethel Lina White, a writer whose work has given many hours of tense and suspense-filled entertainment. A while ago I ranked the novels I read by her, but last year I also reviewed another novel, not on the list, Put Out the Light (1931), which was another excellent read. Blackout and Other Tales of Suspense comes with an introduction by Tony Medawar and Alex Csurko. Whilst some information was already familiar to me, there were lots of new interesting nuggets I enjoyed reading. I particularly enjoyed White response ‘to a request for biographical information by stating that “I was not born. I have never been educated and have no tastes or hobbies.” I suspect White would be bane of a modern publicist’s life!
‘At Twilight’ (1930)
The story begins with Miss Luck thinking a tree is moving in her garden, a situation which immediately intrigues the mystery fan, as the shadowy trees have a tendency to really be a human threat in disguise in crime fiction. This motif also makes an appearance in White’s novel, Some Must Watch (1933). When reading this story, I was reminded of how good White is at making the most innocuous things seem sinister: ‘Although it was still afternoon, the autumn mists had veiled the evergreen shrubs in Miss Luck’s moist, leaf-strewn garden so that the lawn seemed peopled with crouching forms.’ I like the mental images her writing conjures up. Like the tree, which may or may not be a man, appearances are deceptive inside the Luck household:
‘In appearance, however, she looked more than a match for man or ghost. A tall, massive woman, she wore an iron grey suit cut on masculine lines; her powerful shoulders and muscular back suggested almost ruthless strength. She turned her head and the illusion vanished. Her face was a mere handful of little, indefinite features over which peered timid eyes.’
It is her ‘featherweight of a girl’ niece, Fay, who is bold and confident.
Prior to the start of the tale, Fay had previously come upon a man fleeing when disturbed in attacking a woman. So far Fay has not managed to identify any of the suspects that the police have shown her, and Miss Luck fears the culprit’s reprisals. Fay is called to the police station once more, to the dismay of Miss Luck, which renews the derision and criticism she receives from Fay and other locals for being a coward. Unsurprisingly, Miss Luck ends up home alone and the reader is made aware that a sinister man has crept into the house, and he is waiting for the return of Fay to kill her. I think the plot trajectory becomes a bit predictable at this juncture, as naturally Miss Luck tries really hard to nullify her habitual sense of danger, whilst the reader knows the threat this time is real. You are waiting for this reality to hit her. Miss Luck’s “heroic” moment is in keeping with her character, which I liked, and it was interesting that the older woman was not the target.
This story was the basis for the later novel, They See in Darkness (1944)
‘River Justice’ (1932)
White begins with an arresting opening line: ‘When Miss Nile realised that Chadwick Morris was poisoning his wife, she tried to realise her duty, in the cause of humanity.’ It makes you wonder what sort of obstacles there might be. Miss Nile is described as ‘insignificant’, ‘poor’, ‘shabby’ and ‘mild’. She is an ex-governess, whose small legacy allows her to live in a continental town, the central heating being a motivating factor. Miss Nile is not the first female protagonist in White’s fiction to be preoccupied with this housing criteria, as it comes up in some rather odd flirting in Step in the Dark (1938). Delphine married Chadwick out of spite and he more than likely married her for her money. Divorce is on the cards, and Chadwick, according to Delphine is happy about this. The reader, I suspect, disagrees. As Delphine gets sicker and sicker, and Chadwick prevents Miss Nile from seeing her, Miss Nile is desperate to come up with a plan. I enjoyed how the ending to this story caught me completely off guard.
‘Waxworks’ (1930)
I reviewed this story when looking at Silent Nights (2015).
‘Passengers’ (1933)
I reviewed this story when looking at Bodies from the Library 4 (2021).
‘Catastrophe’ (1935)
Stella is holidaying at a rural hotel, which has been overtaken by a group of rich, loud, and inconsiderate socialites, who monopolise the staff. This is an opening which is reminiscent of The Wheel Spins (1936). The anti-capitalist, Ivan Morgan, is not happy about this and the way his anger is building up, Stella is concerned about what he might do, particularly when he warns her to avoid the cave excursion that the socialites are taking. This becomes a little more problematic when one of these socialites invites Stella along. Does she tell them about her worries? Does she stay away from the cave? The answer is the same and is not in the affirmative, a decision which feels a bit ridiculous and melodramatic, as she bravely goes to meet her fate below the ground: ‘Although the rest of the party were in the highest spirits, Stella felt as though she were in the tumbrel on her way to the guillotine as the car tore through the sunlit countryside.’ The ending is not the easiest to predict as it could go in several directions. I liked how the author picks up on the superficiality of Ivan’s class consciousness.
‘The Gilded Pupil’ (1936)
Ann Shelley, who has recently graduated from Oxford like ‘so many other young women’ struggles to find a job which relates to her higher education, so she ends up working as a governess to a millionaire’s unruly and intelligent daughter, whilst Ann waits for her ship’s doctor fiancé to return. Ann is able to meet up with her own old governess, but she is finding life a little monotonous. Although this will not be for long. What follows is a tale of kidnap, which felt a bit too predictable, compared to the stories already looked at.
‘The Cellar’ (1937)
A murderer is on the loose in the poorer parts of town, but Lesley Bishop, a new nursemaid dealing with high energy and demanding charges, fears the killer might be a bit closer to home. Baby Lamb, her youngest charge says there’s an invisible man in the cellar. Bishop promptly dismisses this notion, but naturally there is a chain of small events which follow that either convince or make Bishop doubt whether this assertion is true. I felt this tale ended too abruptly and that the denouement did not fit with the mounting tension. Bishop was also a character I found it hard to engage with.
This story inspired the premise of Some Must Watch.
‘Don’t Dream on Midsummer’s Eve’ (1937)
Merle nearly dies when she crosses a road without looking. The driver takes her to Dr Perry, who she works for as a secretary/dispenser. Merle has been taking care of her nephew Puck, since his mother died from an illness, an illness Merle believes was exacerbated by living with an abusive husband, Lewis Gore. Lewis swiftly departed the country, after Merle had provided for him financially, gaining Puck in return. Her biggest fear is that Lewis might come home and demand his son, and this anxiety is realised when she arrives at the doctor’s surgery. Upon hearing his request, still rather groggy from her accident, Merle decides to dope Lewis with the sedative she was going to take herself. Yet she is horrified when she realises that she put a virulent poison in his glass instead. But did things happen as she thought they had? Was it all a bad dream? Had she just fainted from the car incident? Again, White has her protagonist swing from convinced to doubtful in a heartbeat, as new information comes to light. The outcome is a clever one and it is not one that I had anticipated.
‘The Holiday’ (1938)
Everyone in a block of flats is going on holiday, except Charles Bevan, who is currently bedbound. We are told about another tenant, Janet Lewis who is about to set off on her trip and then about a bank cashier who is nearly finishing his shift, before he too goes on holiday. But a bank robber puts paid to that and kills him. On the run, the robber enters the block of flats nearby and forces Janet back into her flat, where he plans to lay low until the coast is clear. The violence in this story is abrupt, stark and surprisingly grim for an Ethel Lina White tale, putting me more in mind of fiction from the 1950s. The robber is far from kind to Janet, happily punching her in the face to show that he means business and it remains to be seen what her fate will be. This is perhaps another story in this collection where the ending feels a bit rushed.
‘Lightning Strikes Twice’ (1938)
Hermione Heath, a film actress, has just been acquitted of the murder of a financer, an arrest which had been brought about due to incriminating circumstantial evidence. Despite the not guilty verdict being given, her old boss still looks upon her dubiously, suggesting that a holiday abroad might be good idea until the dust settles. He also reminds her that she must avoid any more scandal if she ever wants to appear in a film again. She goes to Switzerland where every goes swimmingly until she encounters another corpse, in a situation where suspicion might be cast upon her. This is a story where the main question is: What will Hermione do next?
‘The Royal Visit’ (1939)
Constable Richard’s wife, Viva, is worried about the forthcoming royal visit to their local area. It is an intuition of hers that something bad will happen, and unfortunately she does have a habit of being right as ‘usually’ there was ‘a logical origin in a tangible fact behind her tangles fancies […]’. She thinks her anxiety stems from a recent burglary at the home of Sir Anthony Kite, a crime which her husband says is unlikely to be solved. But how will this become relevant? And who has started stealing tickets for the ceremony from attendees? This is a well clued little mystery, and it is nicely told.
‘Mabel’s House’ (1940)
We are back to the theme of a violent man on the loose, this time in a more rural areaand in the form of an escaped prisoner who is getting desperate. Alongside this we have a woman named Mary whose dog (called Dopey) has been missing for some days and naturally one day she gets a report that it was seen at shepherd’s hut. However, once she is some way out, it dawns on her that she might be getting followed. There is a house nearby, one which has not been lived in, although fully functioning and furnished, as a man had it built for his bride, who died before the wedding. Could this house be the saving of Mary? The denouement is somewhat abrupt and not as dramatic or surprising as I thought it might be. I also have one query about this story. The story was published in 1940 but at one point Mary is reading an issue of Punch ‘dated January the third, 1961’. Since White died in 1944, I am little confused about this dating. Is it just a typo?
‘Caged’ (1940)
Kathy married her second husband, Hector Mint, so she could provide for her daughter, Una, after Kathy’s first husband died. They live next door to the home of Lord Hammersmith, who has a private zoo. Kathy is miserable in her new marriage, as Hector is cruel and unkind. Moreover, she fancies Alan, the nephew of Lord Hammersmith. Once certain pieces of the plot present themselves the outcome of the situation is somewhat predictable, and the ending is oddly jubilant and a little bit in poor taste on the characters’ part (despite them claiming the need to be avoid hypocrisy).
The setting of this story inspired the later novel, The Man Who Loved Lions (1943).
‘Blackout’ (1940)
This is a WW2-set story as the title suggests and the opening passage felt like a reflection of the psychological strain blackout regulations could cause:
‘The blackout over London was nearly absolute. When Christina drew aside the window curtains of the sitting room, at first she could distinguish nothing. It was as though a wall had been built up outside the glass. As her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness she saw the dimmed lights of traffic and glowworm gleams speckling the pavement, cast by the electric torches of invisible pedestrians. Her nerves were somewhat frayed, owing to lack of sleep. She went to bed late because she was afraid of a recurrent nightmare. It was always the same dream. She found herself walking down an unknown road, in absolute darkness – with the knowledge that she had a long distance to go. Suddenly she felt herself gripped by invisible hands – when the horror always shook her awake.’
Christina is working as a counter espionage agent at a factory, and she is wary of attempts to take her life. She thinks one has already occurred, and she is worried about the sherry party she has been invited to that evening. Yet she need not have been concerned about the party as she never arrives. Instead. a man on the bus, who also works at the same factory, asks her to deliver an envelope to an address, as he says enemy agents have drugged him and are watching him, waiting to strike. But naturally not everything is what it seems.
‘Underground’ (1928)
Iris, a factory worker, is on holiday at her grandma’s cottage in the Cumberland Dales, as her older relative has injured herself. Yet there is an even greater issue with a drought meaning that Iris, her grandma and their animals are struggling to have enough water to drink, yet alone water for other uses. But is it just a drought? Iris is not so sure, especially since her grandma’s landlord has a nice new swimming pool. This is another story in which caves and this time potholing is involved. I would not describe this as a conventional mystery or crime story. Perhaps it best falls into the category of adventure tale.
‘The Baby Heir’ (1941)
In this story we are focused on a different rural household. Annabel is a nurse to the youngest heir of a millionaire. He lives with an older relative, a Harley Street specialist, due to his heart trouble. This baby stands to inherit a lot of money, but only if he lives, and unsurprisingly there are a large number of people who might prefer he was out of the way. As such his life and therefore Annabel’s is very restricted, due to the risk of poisoning and kidnap. I feel in this story we are told rather than shown the mystery and the plot follows a predictable trajectory.
‘White Cap’ (1942)
I reviewed this story when looking at Bodies from the Library 2 (2019).
‘The First Day’ (1943)
Vivien, who is half British and half American, is an orphan at the start of the story and she is working at an Austrian hotel, owned by some kind of relative. She has been something of an ostrich, with her head in the sand, regarding the ongoing world war. Yet one day she is invited to join a resistance group, an invitation she is not happy to receive:
‘She listened in incredulous dismay. His words had shattered her sense of security by suggesting her inclusion in the ranks of those heroic girls who seemed to be made of different clay from herself. As she looked around the lounge – at the mirrors, the palms, the show-cases – the idea seemed both monstrous and fantastic while she was safe in this warm, well-lit place of shoddy splendour… She thought of the concentration camp and shuddered again…’
Eventually though she is convinced. After all, the only thing she had to is pass on one short message to a man who will visit her hotel. She has a description of him. What could possibly go wrong?
I thought it was interesting White eschewed the more typical heroic female protagonist, which links it in a way to the first story in this collection, ‘At Twilight’. Nevertheless, I would say this makes the narrative more engaging as you do not know what to expect as much and the ending is intriguing in the social details it taps into.
‘You’ll Be Surprised’ (1943)
The final story in this anthology sees Celia planning to drop in on her married twin sister, as a nice surprise. She has been out of the country for a while due to her role in a touring theatrical company. However, this plan does not go smoothly. When she arrives, the house doesn’t seem right. It is in a mess, and there is a level of deterioration to the furnishings. However, Celia helps herself to a drink, runs herself a bath and only when she looks in the wardrobe does she discover the dead body. It is not her sister thankfully, but the danger level rises when sinister persons return home, people who begin to have a Goldilocks moment. How will Celia extricate herself from this situation? The plot developments in this story were very interesting.
Rating: 4/5
Source: Review Copy (Crippen & Landru)
See also: Audrey reviewed this title on her blog Happiness is a Book.