The Lodger is
a psychological suspense novel by the English author Marie Adelaide Belloc
Lowndes. It was written around 1913, and loosely based on the theme of ‘Jack
the Ripper’.
In a costly
city London, Ellen Bunting and Robert Bunting having tough time managing their
needs, they are financially limited. Once they were in service but have given
up that long. To tide over their needs, they now have allowed some rooms of
their house for lodgers. But, Ellen is quite peculiar with her preferences and
choices. Soon, they get Mr. Sleuth as a lodger – he is a silent gentleman.
Though nothing is bad about him, but he sounds clumsy. He has paid the rent in
advance. Where did he come from is arcane. He wakes up anytime, reads quote
from Bibles especially that goes against women. He says that he is a man of
science, so on the gas stove he boils some or other thing anytime at night.
Parallel to this story, newspapers are full of horrid murders of women. A
serial killer kills drunkard women and pins a note from Bible on their bodies.
Ellen Bunting has grown fearful of these stories and often avoids discussing it
with her husband. Gradually, she grows suspicion about Mr. Sleuth as a serial
killer. But there is a dilemma, if she reports his behavior to the police, they
may land up in trouble, or what the lodger is an innocent man with clumsy
outlook.
The novel is
staged against the famous London fog and one night Robert Bunting watches Mr.
Sleuth taking walk wearing rubber-soled shoes. And newspapers reports and
police investigation all point to one fact that the murderer wears rubber
shoes. Robert grows suspicious of him all the more. It is a dark story; things
grow more mysterious when Daisy, Buntings’ daughter arrives home before
Christmas.
One day both
Buntings move out of the home without informing one another for some shopping.
When they confront each other, their faces go pale, and they very well know
what’s going in their minds, they share the same fear. They run back for Daisy.
She is fine in the house. There are many elements and personal assumptions
(like newspapers reports, fog, rubber shoes, acrid smell) that add darker
aspects to the novel and all together made it a murder mystery. The writing
style of the author is neither simple nor lucid. It is a good read, but the way
the author has tumulted the story is something special that makes it more
thrilling than anything else.
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