White, Ethel Lina - The Wheel Spins (1936) aka The Lady Vanishes

Fans of the Hitchcock film, or even the daft 1979 remake, will find it hard to recognise anything they know and love in this book. Even the name of the leading character is changed. In the book she is Iris Carr, a Bright Young Thing from England, holidaying between the wars in an unnamed Balkan country with a group of her shallow friends. They fall out; the friends leave early, and Iris remains another day before catching the Trieste express with a group of comparative strangers from her hotel. A dose of sunstroke before the trip leaves her feeling weak and confused, so she is grateful for attention from a chatty Englishwoman called Miss Froy. Miss Froy has been a governess to the children of a powerful unnamed Personage, and now she's returning to England for a holiday before moving on to another position. Iris remains in the carriage while Miss Froy goes off for a meal...and doesn't return.

Where is Miss Froy? Does a carriage-full of Narsty Foreigners have something to do with her disappearance? Iris begins to investigate, but no-one will believe her. Her distress is described in tedious detail. She meets and - for no apparent reason - falls in love with an English traveller, but even he's not convinced. For half the book, in fact, nothing much happens. Miss Froy is replaced by an impostor. Much time and print is spent explaining why no-one particularly wants to help Iris. There are vignettes of Miss Froy's family, waiting anxiously for her arrival in England; even a pointless suggestion of telepathy.

Since Miss Froy's fate is obvious to the reader, this is hardly a mystery. And the denouement must be the shortest on record. But top marks to Hitchcock for extracting a watchable film from a rather dull book.

Jon.