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cimoreneEthel Lina White's Midnight House, She Faded into Air, and The Spiral Staircase.
A penniless twenty-something girl is governess to a widower with 2 small children in wartime England in a house of draaaama that is part of a crescent of rowhouses and shares a party wall with a house that's been boarded and sealed up for twenty years ever since a sensational Romeo-Juliet tragedy. The wheelchair-bound war hero son of the owners fell in love with the daugher of the nouveau riche tradesman next door and their parents kept them both locked inside for several years to prevent them from meeting. When the son finally died of influenza or whatever the parents went abroad and boarded up the house, while the girl next door moved away.
A couple of women get murdered on the street and people attribute this to a serial killer, but it turns out that it's because the doctor who married the war hero's sister was forced by her sadistic father to sign a confession saying that he had poisoned her when she officially died of influenza right before they were to depart when the house was already closed up, but then he got a call for an emergency across town and had to run and deal with it and when he came back he killed the parents of the war hero and his wife because they knew about the confession but couldn't find the confession and he didn't have an opportunity to search before the solicitor came and boarded up the house the next day as arranged, thinking the tenants had left when in fact they were just murdered. The date of the house being unlocked and sold is approaching and as a result the doctor has been attempting to kill anyone he thinks might know of the confession, so when the daughter of the house comes back to town he tries to kill her, except he accidentally kills another woman wearing her coat because it's dark. Then he bribes an exotic dancer to help him break into the boarded up house to look for the confession, and she was working for the same family right before the protagonist of the book but she got fired for acting suspicious (because she was attempting to break into the adjoining house it turns out); but her affection for the children and her fear that the doctor intends to kill them leads her to confide in the protagonist, after which he kills her too.
The Juliet-character finally comes back and explains everything to the protagonist, and then the son reveals that he found a secret door in the back of a coal cabinet that goes through the connecting wall in the basement and was simply hidden by bags of coal. They go through it for... some reason... I forget why, and the killer is also there, having already snuck in, but they make it out in time to lock the basement door and then the police come. Most of this answer is revealed at the very end of the book after the daughter of the house comes back and talks to her, though. The book itself is taken up with the governess being creeped out by the younger child sneaking out to telephone the fired ex-governess, unlocking the door, telling more lies etc, and by inexplicable stuff around the house like the taps being left on when nobody was in the room. Finally she meets the ex-governess who at first is combative, but then softens and gives her a warning, and then shows up dead right before the old resident shows up to explain all. There aren't really any clues that could allow you to tease out what was going on and the plot doesn't really develop in a linear fashion. It was a bit boring. At the end the protagonist marries the much-older widower father of her charges. Eyeroll.
This is a gothic/thriller but it's... incredibly obvious who the bad guy is right from the beginning.
Okay, the book starts with the narrator, a model and would-be actress out of work, who happens to be one of those present the day that a wealthy American comes to tour her building with an eye to maybe renting part of it with his daughter. But his daughter stops at the outer door and deliberately distracts the doorman, and by the time he returns to his post he only sees her legs going up and around the bend in the stairs. A while later her father comes to collect her from the apartment that is a fortune teller's office, but the fortune teller says she just stopped in and left right away, but there's no route of egress except the stairs she came in by, the fortune-teller's office and the apartments of the protagonist and a boring typist on the other side. They tear apart all three rooms and establish nobody left the building in that time. They bring in a builder to literally strip the center apartment back to the studs and under the floor and above the ceiling to demonstrate there is nowhere a person or body could have been hidden. They find nothing but apair of high heeled shoes hidden in the back of a grandfather clock on the landing. The millionaire father starts to get hysterical and the protagonist slaps him on the face and tells him to accept the landlord's glass of brandy, and on this basis the millionaire says he is going to recommend her to some even richer millionaire friend who is looking to hire a companion for his daughter.
So from the doorman distraction it's obvious the girl has disappeared under her own steam, and while there had to be indoor confederates it was only LIKELY that the father was in on it, not certain. However, when the protagonist finds out she's the companion to the spunky 19-year-old daughter of a multi-millionaire and her parents live in fear of kidnapping, it's obvious that it was him, since he was the connection to them.
For a while he doesn't get any ransom demands and he lets it be known that he thinks she has either run away to be with a lover, or that it's an act of vengeance from bitter business rivals. Then one arrives and it tells him not to consult the police OR ELSE, but the multimillionaire and his wife - who became close friends with him and his daughter on the cruise over from New York - insist it's safer to tell the police. So he does, and he gets a phone call that his daughter has come back to his hotel, but when they get there, she's freshly murdered.
And obviously shortly thereafter they use the same building, which has been outfitted with a fake mirror and a secret door, to kidnap the multi-millionaire's daughter in the 20 seconds the protagonist has turned her back to speak to the landlord, and because of a slight conspiracy the multimillionaire and wife don't listen to her and assume she helped the girl sneak out the window and is lying, and refuse to contact the police when the get a ransom demand. So with the deductive aid of a private dick who's in love with her, the protagonist goes after the confederate taking the ransom money in a taxicab and walks the last several miles after sending her cabbie back with a telephone message to indicate where she's being held. The day is saved and she and the private dick get married.
The protagonist has just been hired as a companion at a remote and isolated Victorian mansion and there have been a series of home invasion strangling murders in the neighborhood. In the first scene she is coming home after dark and sees a suspicious shadow, so she takes a shortcut through the hedge to get to the door and sees a man sneaking away from the shadow in question before she goes inside. So the next day of course she decides to go out and walk alone after dark again even though the others advise her not to. So I stopped reading.
Midnight House, 1942
A penniless twenty-something girl is governess to a widower with 2 small children in wartime England in a house of draaaama that is part of a crescent of rowhouses and shares a party wall with a house that's been boarded and sealed up for twenty years ever since a sensational Romeo-Juliet tragedy. The wheelchair-bound war hero son of the owners fell in love with the daugher of the nouveau riche tradesman next door and their parents kept them both locked inside for several years to prevent them from meeting. When the son finally died of influenza or whatever the parents went abroad and boarded up the house, while the girl next door moved away.
A couple of women get murdered on the street and people attribute this to a serial killer, but it turns out that it's because the doctor who married the war hero's sister was forced by her sadistic father to sign a confession saying that he had poisoned her when she officially died of influenza right before they were to depart when the house was already closed up, but then he got a call for an emergency across town and had to run and deal with it and when he came back he killed the parents of the war hero and his wife because they knew about the confession but couldn't find the confession and he didn't have an opportunity to search before the solicitor came and boarded up the house the next day as arranged, thinking the tenants had left when in fact they were just murdered. The date of the house being unlocked and sold is approaching and as a result the doctor has been attempting to kill anyone he thinks might know of the confession, so when the daughter of the house comes back to town he tries to kill her, except he accidentally kills another woman wearing her coat because it's dark. Then he bribes an exotic dancer to help him break into the boarded up house to look for the confession, and she was working for the same family right before the protagonist of the book but she got fired for acting suspicious (because she was attempting to break into the adjoining house it turns out); but her affection for the children and her fear that the doctor intends to kill them leads her to confide in the protagonist, after which he kills her too.
The Juliet-character finally comes back and explains everything to the protagonist, and then the son reveals that he found a secret door in the back of a coal cabinet that goes through the connecting wall in the basement and was simply hidden by bags of coal. They go through it for... some reason... I forget why, and the killer is also there, having already snuck in, but they make it out in time to lock the basement door and then the police come. Most of this answer is revealed at the very end of the book after the daughter of the house comes back and talks to her, though. The book itself is taken up with the governess being creeped out by the younger child sneaking out to telephone the fired ex-governess, unlocking the door, telling more lies etc, and by inexplicable stuff around the house like the taps being left on when nobody was in the room. Finally she meets the ex-governess who at first is combative, but then softens and gives her a warning, and then shows up dead right before the old resident shows up to explain all. There aren't really any clues that could allow you to tease out what was going on and the plot doesn't really develop in a linear fashion. It was a bit boring. At the end the protagonist marries the much-older widower father of her charges. Eyeroll.
She Faded into Air, 1941.
This is a gothic/thriller but it's... incredibly obvious who the bad guy is right from the beginning.
Okay, the book starts with the narrator, a model and would-be actress out of work, who happens to be one of those present the day that a wealthy American comes to tour her building with an eye to maybe renting part of it with his daughter. But his daughter stops at the outer door and deliberately distracts the doorman, and by the time he returns to his post he only sees her legs going up and around the bend in the stairs. A while later her father comes to collect her from the apartment that is a fortune teller's office, but the fortune teller says she just stopped in and left right away, but there's no route of egress except the stairs she came in by, the fortune-teller's office and the apartments of the protagonist and a boring typist on the other side. They tear apart all three rooms and establish nobody left the building in that time. They bring in a builder to literally strip the center apartment back to the studs and under the floor and above the ceiling to demonstrate there is nowhere a person or body could have been hidden. They find nothing but apair of high heeled shoes hidden in the back of a grandfather clock on the landing. The millionaire father starts to get hysterical and the protagonist slaps him on the face and tells him to accept the landlord's glass of brandy, and on this basis the millionaire says he is going to recommend her to some even richer millionaire friend who is looking to hire a companion for his daughter.
So from the doorman distraction it's obvious the girl has disappeared under her own steam, and while there had to be indoor confederates it was only LIKELY that the father was in on it, not certain. However, when the protagonist finds out she's the companion to the spunky 19-year-old daughter of a multi-millionaire and her parents live in fear of kidnapping, it's obvious that it was him, since he was the connection to them.
For a while he doesn't get any ransom demands and he lets it be known that he thinks she has either run away to be with a lover, or that it's an act of vengeance from bitter business rivals. Then one arrives and it tells him not to consult the police OR ELSE, but the multimillionaire and his wife - who became close friends with him and his daughter on the cruise over from New York - insist it's safer to tell the police. So he does, and he gets a phone call that his daughter has come back to his hotel, but when they get there, she's freshly murdered.
And obviously shortly thereafter they use the same building, which has been outfitted with a fake mirror and a secret door, to kidnap the multi-millionaire's daughter in the 20 seconds the protagonist has turned her back to speak to the landlord, and because of a slight conspiracy the multimillionaire and wife don't listen to her and assume she helped the girl sneak out the window and is lying, and refuse to contact the police when the get a ransom demand. So with the deductive aid of a private dick who's in love with her, the protagonist goes after the confederate taking the ransom money in a taxicab and walks the last several miles after sending her cabbie back with a telephone message to indicate where she's being held. The day is saved and she and the private dick get married.
The Spiral Staircase, 1933.
The protagonist has just been hired as a companion at a remote and isolated Victorian mansion and there have been a series of home invasion strangling murders in the neighborhood. In the first scene she is coming home after dark and sees a suspicious shadow, so she takes a shortcut through the hedge to get to the door and sees a man sneaking away from the shadow in question before she goes inside. So the next day of course she decides to go out and walk alone after dark again even though the others advise her not to. So I stopped reading.
