The most vivid of her new friends is Miss Carstairs, scourge of ladies’ companions and female relations. This is fortunate, since Anne herself is practically useless. Anne finds herself in a world of women-nice, conventional ladies who are able to carry out acts of courage and treachery simply because no one expects it of them.

This kind of spider-in-the-teacup paranoia is where Patricia Wentworth excels, the familiar rendered slightly uncanny. A little picture came up in Anne’s mind-the picture of a cat waiting by a mouse-hole. “Lilian was looking at her with the strangest expression. Small things here and there make her suspect that Haleycott may not be the safe haven it appears. And Harriet-oh, they’re all right, but they haven’t as much sense as you could put on a threepenny bit.” Anne isn’t so sure, however. Her “husband” Jim reassures her that her memory will come back, and that the aunts suspect nothing: “Lilian’s all right, but she’s a fool. The peaceful life at Haleycott with her husband’s aunts should restore Anne to health, but it only confuses her more. There was cloud where there should have been memory. She didn’t know who she was, or why she was here.

But back beyond that dark moment there was nothing. Something about this whole setup feels wrong to Anne, but she’s in no position to argue.įrom the moment when she stood in the dark, four steps up from a girl’s murdered body, to the last conscious moment before she slipped into the darkness of sleep, it was all there. James Fancourt, on her way to meet her husband’s relatives for the first time. The only clue to her existence is a letter in her handbag identifying her as Mrs. While I recognize that, on an objective level, this book is not very good, somehow it is exactly what I need at the moment.Īnne is not the most proactive of heroines, but it can’t be denied that she’s in a tight spot. The tone of the book is, like Miss Silver herself, “quite out of date and tremendously reassuring.” Wentworth’s books are always cozy in the best sense, and this one is no exception. Amnesia is always an excellent starting point, however, and although the copyright is 1961, there is no hint of distressing modernity present. The solution is incredibly abrupt, leaving the reader with more questions than answers about the criminal plot. Despite its brevity, the story still manages to drag in spots, especially as characters tell each other what has already happened over and over. The Girl in the Cellar reads more like a promising first draft than a complete novel-and, since it was published the same year as Patricia Wentworth’s death, it’s quite possible that’s exactly what it is. As she heads uneasily toward a strange house and a husband she can’t remember, Anne has no idea whether she is a victim, or a killer. The former governess has a keen eye for people in trouble, and Anne’s trouble could hardly be worse. One of the other passengers is Miss Silver. Blindly, she stumbles out of the empty house and onto the first bus that comes along.Īnne is in luck. She doesn’t remember who she is, how she got into the cellar, or what happened to the girl who lies dead at the foot of the steps. There was murder between them.”Īll she knows is that her first name is Anne. That was one of the ways in which evil punished itself…There was no reason why they should trust her. Of course, running at under an hour long, the whole thing is too short to allow boredom to set in, so if you're after an undemanding piece of British spookiness to kill some time, House of Mystery is just about worth a go.“When you had done murder you couldn’t trust anyone. It's humdrum haunted house nonsense that is told with little verve or energy, the whole thing acting as build up to the 'surprise' at the end, one that I am sure most people will have guessed within minutes of the introduction of the cottage's dour housekeeper. A medium comes to the cottage and, during a seance, we learn what happened to the property's previous occupants. And like Ghost Ship, they begin to experience strange phenomena, eventually bringing in an expert in the paranormal to help them with their problem. If you've seen director Vernon Sewell's Ghost Ship (1952) then his House of Mystery will seem very familiar: it's practically the same story, except that, instead of the film's central couple buying a haunted boat, it's a country cottage that is home to a troubled spirit Like Ghost Ship, the married couple buy the cottage despite being told that it is haunted.

House of mystery 1961