Marie Belloc Lowdnes – The Lodger

Marie Belloc Lowdnes – The Lodger (Four Square, 1966: Originally Methuen, 1913)

Cover illustration uncredited [Josh Kirby ?]

Blurb:

The Lodger is an acknowledged classic of mystery and suspense. This spine-chiller is a psychological study of a mass murderer which concerns itself with the burning question ‘Why?’. From the first moment that Mr. Sleuth rents rooms in Mr. and Mrs. Bunting’s lod­ging house we know that he is Jack the Ripper. Yet the story is so skilfully told that the reader is held breath­less throughout. Why does Mr. Sleuth, obviously a gentleman, rent lodgings suitable only for the poor? Why does he turn all the pictures to the wall? Why does a man so gentle strike terror into the heart of Mrs. Bunting? As murder after murder is committed in a panic-stricken London, these and many more ques­tions will hold the reader spell-bound until the last page.