The wheel spins

Ethel Lina White

Best known as the basis for Hitchcock's classic early film, The Lady Vanishes, Ethel White's The Wheel Spins is a gripping and accomplished work in its own right. The plot is deceptively simple, and the premise-a woman meets a mysterious stranger during a long railway journey-is classic. It's easy to see why Hitchcock found this novel so compelling and so well-suited to his particular brand of filmmaking.The protagonist of the story is a young woman named Iris Carr, who suffers a blackout just before she is to board her train for a railway journey across Europe to London. It is an ominous beginning to what will be a very disturbing trip. On board, the still-woozy Iris befriends Mrs. Froy, a fellow Englishwoman who is a little eccentric, but who seems mostly agreeable and benign. Mrs. Froy is the "Vanishing Lady" of Hitchcock's title, and she mysteriously disappears while Iris is...