THE BLANK WALL (1947) by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding is a standout in the mystery and suspense genre. Centering on Lucia Holley—a seemingly ordinary wife and mother—this novel follows her increasingly perilous attempts to shield her family from danger. As Lucia fends off blackmailers and struggles to maintain normalcy within her household, Holding builds a tightly wound narrative that feels both intimate and relentlessly suspenseful.
The Blank Wall showcases her talent for crafting intricate moral dilemmas and portraying the resilience of women pushed to their limits, solidifying her place as one of the most compelling—and influential—voices in crime fiction.
When we’re about to record our episodes on the book, we’ll add some questions and discussion starters here.
In the meantime, we want to hear from YOU! Share your thoughts and questions, and we may just include them in our upcoming episodes!
Share your thoughts about the book (or about mysteries, thrillers, tea, tonic, or toxin) for a chance at an on-air shoutout and the world’s best sticker! (It is a pretty sweet sticker.)
Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, detective stories, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Each month, your hosts, Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughters, will dive into the history of mystery to get a firsthand look at how the mystery genre evolved.
We’re discussing seminal works by Edgar Allan Poe (Auguste Dupin), Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Wilkie Collins, Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey), Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple), Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe), and Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe), and Elisabeth Sanxay Holding.
Along the way, we’ll entertain ideas, prospects, theories, doubts, and grudges, along with fabulous guests. And we hope to entertain you, dear friend. We want you to experience the joys of reading some of the best mysteries and thrillers ever written.
Teasers & Tidbits
Dashiell Hammett’s crime novel Red Harvest is more than just a gripping detective story. It’s also a political statement, inspired in part by a true incident – the 1920 Anaconda Road massacre, triggered by a labor dispute in the mining town of Butte, Montana. The story begins with the main
When Dorothy L. Sayers wrote Whose Body? (her debut novel, published in 1923), she introduced a detective who would go on to appear in 10 more novels and five collections of short stories. Lord Peter Wimsey was no ordinary detective, however. Readers of the stories about this character will soon
If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries, I’m sure you’re already familiar with Hercule Poirot, the eccentric Belgian detective who manages to solve virtually every murder he stumbles across. But did you know The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the novel where he first appears? Seeing the way
This detective novel introduces readers to a British mining engineer – Richard Hannay – who has just returned to London from Rhodesia. The story was written by Scottish author John Buchan and published in 1915. The tale is exciting, fast-moving, and action-packed. Not surprisingly, it was adapted into several different
Even though the name of this book is Trent’s Last Case, the novel is actually about the FIRST detective case of detective Philip Trent. Published in 1913, the main character, Philip Trent, is an artist, freelance journalist, and amateur detective sent to report on a case involving the murder of
Long before he started writing his own detective stories, Gilbert Keith (G.K.) Chesterton was already a fan of the genre. He had been reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about Sherlock Holmes since he was a boy and even tried his hand at writing mysteries of his own with a
