The Whispering Wall [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

This Australian psychological drama was first published in Britain in 1969. It describes the terror of a paralyzed stroke victim, Sarah Oatland, who cannot move or speak, but who overhears voices through the wall plotting a murder. Sarah manages at last to communicate her knowledge via eye-blinks to a young girl who visits. When the villains discover that she knows their plan, Sarah's life is in imminent danger, and the suspense and terror build.

Indeed the wall does whisper, carrying voices from the first floor up through the chimney to Sarah Oatland, bedridden with a stroke. Unable to communicate or move in any way, Sarah is presumed to be brain dead. She can only listen as doctors discuss her, friends fight over her furniture, and a greedy relative takes over the house, renting out the downstairs to boarders. That's when the terror begins, as Sarah hears the young couple beneath her, whose nightly discussions turn from the merely humiliating and angering to menacing and then murderous. Luckily for Sarah, she is taken up by Rose, the precocious 11-year-old daughter of another boarder; Rose spends enough time with Sarah to realize that she can communicate through blinking. Together, they lead us through the novel's dramatic ending. As creepy and claustrophobic as Patricia Highsmith, as suspenseful as Barbara Vine, this novel is also full of great comic touches, stemming from the wonderful characters Carlon creates. American mystery readers will appreciate coming across this unusual work, first published in Great Britain in 1969. Brian Kenney

Paralyzed by a stroke, Sarah Oatland lies in her bed unable to move or speak or persuade her diffident nurse or her grasping niece Gwenyth that she can understand their prattling. All she can do is listen, observe, and seethe. Sarah's rage turns to agonized frustration when she overhears Murray and Valma Phipps, the new tenants Gwenyth has taken in, plotting to lure Valma's wealthy stepfather, retired actor Roderick Palmer, into the house and kill him. (Murray's matter-of-fact speculations about the range of household objects that could be turned to murderous account gives the threat a macabre edge.) And frustration yields in turn to terror when, just as Palmer's learned, through alert fellow-tenant Rose Abcons, 11, that Sarah can answer yes or no to his idle questions, the Phippses discover that she knows about their plans, and that she'll be a danger to them as long as there's any chance of her recovery. So the peril to Palmer becomes a peril as well to Sarah, who struggles to communicate to Palmer, to Rose, to anyone that the menace is creeping softly closer. . . . American readers will be reminded of the 1948 film Sorry, Wrong Number. But in this masterfully suspenseful 1969 Australian original, Carlon (The Souvenir, 1996) excels her melodramatic original in realism, psychological acuity, and a diabolical sense of homely detail. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Jessica Fletcher and Miss Marple have another senior citizen-cum-crime fighter to cheer for: 60-year old Sara Oatland. Incapacitated by a stroke, bedridden Sara can communicate the affirmative and the negative only by blinks of her eyes. Overhearing plans for a murder, she endangers her own life while trying to prevent it. Readers caught up in Sara's struggle will be amazed at her courage and ingenuity. While some will be able to predict the outcome, getting there is a tense, frustrating, action-filled journey. Hurrah for another older woman who has more to think about than denture cleaners or laxatives! Originally published in 1969 in England and serialized in Woman's Day, this novel by the author of The Souvenir (LJ 12/95) will please all suspense lovers.?Dorothy S. Golden, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.