Ethel Lina White was a British crime writer, best known for her novels "Some Must Watch" (made into the movie "The Spiral Staircase" in 1945, and then filmed again in 1975, and made into a TV film in 2000) and "The Wheel Spins" (on which Alfred Hitchcock based the film "The Lady Vanishes"). She started writing as a child, contributing essays and poems to children's papers. Later she began to write first short stories and then, even later, book-length novels. She became one of the best known crime writers in Britain and the USA during the 1930s and 1940s. In "Fear Stalks the Village," anonymous letters lead to general distrust, paralyze social life, and bring death: tragedy that follows an invented story of double life led behind blinds. In the end, when the mystery is unraveled, fear will be chased out of the village, and the postman will bring again only the usual “family news, invitations, charity appeals, and receipted bills.â€