The Lodger refashions the Ripper myth into domestic terror. When the cash-strapped Buntings let a room to the reserved Mr. Sleuth, a series of 'Avenger' murders in fog-bound London creeps toward their doorstep. Lowndes sustains dread through tight focalization—chiefly Mrs. Bunting's anxious gaze—measured rhythms, and scrupulous detail. An heir to sensation fiction and a precursor to psychological noir, it probes respectability, class precarity, and the press's manufacture of panic. Marie Belloc Lowndes—a Franco-English Catholic and seasoned journalist—drew on reportage and notorious crimes for narrative spark. A dinner-table tale of a landlady who suspected her lodger prompted a 1911 story, expanded into this 1913 novel. Sister to Hilaire Belloc, she brought a sharp sense of female domestic vulnerability and the ethics of witness, repositioning crime from the alley to the parlor. For readers who prize atmosphere over puzzle, this novel remains a bracing study of complicity, fear, and urban modernity's psychic toll. The Lodger is essential for students of crime fiction, admirers of Hitchcock's early cinema, and anyone curious how a quiet room can become the most perilous space in London. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.