Review: LONESOME ROAD, Patricia Wentworth

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 466 KB
• Print Length: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; New Ed edition (December 13, 2007)
• originally published 1939
• Publication Date: December 13, 2007
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004GKMTPY
• #3 Miss Silver series

Synopsis (Amazon)

There were times when Rachel Treherne fervently wished that her beloved father had left his fortune to somebody else, so overburdened did she feel with the administration of her estate. And never more so than now for, although she was surrounded by relatives who depended on her, whom she loved and who must surely love her, there was no doubt in her mind that somebody was trying to kill her. Threatening letters could be ignored, odd tasting chocolates can be rejected, but when snakes are left in her bed, Rachel is convinced that someone means her terrible harm. Her only chance of a future life lay with Miss Silver, and Miss Silver was well on the way to unmasking the murderer when they struck again.

A terrified young woman asks Miss Silver for help unmasking someone who has threatened her life. Rachel Traherne has been receiving menacing letters about her deceased father’s fortune. The first two letters were vague; the third said simply, “Get ready to die".

My Take

This was the third in the Miss Silver mysteries, published just 2 years after THE CASE IS CLOSED.
Rachel Treherne has been given Miss Silver's contact details by Hilary Carew who was at the centre of that case.

Miss Silver agrees to visit Rachel at home and to see the situation for herself. They bring the date of Miss Silver's visit forward by a day when snakes are left in Rachel's bed. And, in case there was any doubt her life was under threat, someone attempts to kill her on the very night Miss Silver arrives.

Miss Silver ends up being no mere observer in this case, often taking a very active role in the investigation. Rachel has a number of people very heavily dependent on her, some harbouring a grievance that they did not do better under her father's will, and some resenting that Rachel has been left in charge of so much wealth.

A very readable story, that keeps the reader going with the desire to understand what is actually happening.

For those looking for a comparison between Miss Silver and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: the similarities end with the grey hair and the knitting in the lap. Miss Silver is a much more organised and systematic detective, free with her advice, and willing to take active steps to follow the investigation through. Miss Marple is more an observer after events have occurred, always comparing her observations with her memories of village life. While Miss Marple often predicts outcomes, she rarely takes active interventive steps (although I am sure you can think of exceptions here)

My rating: 4.5

I have also read
4.4, THE TRAVELLER'S RETURN
4.2, WEEKEND WITH DEATH
4.1, GREY MASK
4.4, THE CASE IS CLOSED 

Review: THE CASE IS CLOSED, Patricia Wentworth

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 583 KB
• Print Length: 340 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; New Ed edition (September 12, 2005)
• Publication Date: September 12, 2005
• originally published in 1937
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0043VDC20
• #2 of the Miss Silver mysteries

Synopsis (Amazon)

The Everton murder case has long been closed. The culprit has been charged with the murder of his uncle and has served a year of his sentence already. Or has he?

The evidence against Geoffrey Grey is convincing but his wife believes in his innocence. And so does her young cousin, Hilary, who decides to solve the mystery herself.

But when Hilary herself is nearly murdered she turns in desperation to her ex-fiance for help. He calls upon the services of Miss Silver to help solve another mystery, which she does in her own original style..

My take

The first Miss Silver mystery GREY MASK was published 1928. It was nearly 9 years until the second in the series appeared. In the meantime Patricia Wentworth had published 4 novels with an elderly male sleuth Benbow Smith as well as a large number of stand-alone novels. Wentworth born in 1878, was about 50 by the time Miss Silver made her first appearance and she had been publishing novels since 1910.

Miss Silver takes a while to appear in THE CASE IS CLOSED (she is consulted about one third into the story), and she comes in as the result of a recommendation by Charles Moray who was her client in GREY MASK.

Hilary Carew, Marion Grey's cousin, is a rather quirky character in her own right, but she is central to the story as she refuses to believe that Geoffrey Grey is guilty of murder. She is impulsive, wont to act rashly, without back up, but she can't understand what it can be that Marion Grey is not telling her.

This was a good read, more assured writing than in GREY MASK.

I bought a Kindle edition which contains the first 3 Miss Silver titles - so I have LONESOME ROAD (#3) to go

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

4.4, THE TRAVELLER'S RETURN
4.2, WEEKEND WITH DEATH
4.1, GREY MASK

Review: GREY MASK, Patricia Wentworth

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 5117 KB
• Print Length: 876 pages
• Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller (June 28, 2016)
  Publication Date: June 28, 2016
• Originally published 1928
• Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B01GUO7CK0

Synopsis  (Amazon)

Grey Mask is the start of this series, written by Wentworth in 1928. Charles Moray leaves home after being jilted by Margaret Langton on the eve of their wedding and returns four years later to find his home open and a strange meeting taking place. Watching through a childhood hideout, he sees a man in a grey mask talking to several different people - calling each by a number. When Charles hears them discussing "removing" a girl if a "certificate" is found, he is shocked. He is even more shocked when he recognizes one of the agents - his former fiancee.

When he reads about Margot Standing, whose millionaire father dies leaving her inheritance in the balance because of a missing marriage certificate, he puts two and two together and approaches Miss Silver, a private investigator with a high success rate in missing jewelry. He is skeptical until Miss Silver astutely guesses he will not go to the police because of his former love.

My take

The first of 32 Miss Silver mysteries published 1928-1961.
It would be 9 years before a second title was published, as Wentworth experimented with other sleuths.

Readers in 1928 would have compared Miss Silver with that "other" elderly female detective Miss Marple who made her first appearance in 1927 (in a short story). Since beginning writing in 1920 Agatha Christie had dabbled in male sleuths, and in 1927 published THE BIG FOUR, which seems to me to have similar themes to GREY MASK.

For me this was a re-read. See also audio book review. 
Most of my conclusions in that review still hold. I think the style of the novel shows signs that it is nearly 100 years since it was published. I think Margot Standing is a most exasperating character, a chatterbox who would drive all of those around her mad. However I think the novel also shows a complexity of plot strands that Agatha Christie managed to avoid.

Readers' expectations of crime fiction novels have changed since this novel was published. But Miss Silver is surprisingly modern. She does a lot of investigation (in contrast to Miss Marple who relied on her experience) and is surprisingly organised with notebooks for each case that she undertakes.

I bought a Kindle edition which contains the first 3 Miss Silver titles - and I don't think I have read the other 2 before.

My rating: 4.1

Review: WEEKEND WITH DEATH, Patricia Wentworth

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• first published 1941, titled UNLAWFUL OCCASIONS
• Republished 2016
• review copy provided by Dean Street Press
• File Size: 1194 KB
• Print Length: 239 pages
• Publisher: Dean Street Press (June 16, 2016)
• Publication Date: June 16, 2016
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B01H7J6KFU

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

She held the candle steady and, stooping, touched the smeared patch with the tip of her finger.

The stain was blood.

When Sarah Marlowe, secretary to the president of the New Psychical Society, touches the cold, strange object in her hand-bag, she thinks at first it is a snake. As things turn out, it is almost as dangerous.
Her travelling acquaintance, Emily Case, has been murdered by someone who won’t hesitate to kill again to obtain the contents of Sarah’s bag. Unwilling to join the spirit world herself, Sarah enlists the aid of a handsome if not entirely trustworthy stranger, John Wickham. Together they must scrabble to solve the mystery—and outwit a murderer.

Weekend with Death was originally published in 1941. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

My Take

WEEKEND OF DEATH is a novel of it's time, set during World War II. Note it is NOT a Miss Silver novel.

It is a novel of almost Gothic overtones, set in a run down English country house that has no electricity or running water. Sarah Marlowe goes there for the weekend with her employer, Wilson Cattermole and his eccentic sister Joanna, in pursuit of ghostly emanations.

Sarah finds herself with people who are prepared to murder for the papers she is carrying. In fact she knows that at least one person, the woman who gave them to her in a train station two nights earlier, has already died and she is not sure who in the house she can trust.

Like many Golden Age stories this is a tale full of coincidences which the reader just has to accept as "normal".  Sarah Marlowe is one of those young women who don't like being told what to do, and constantly gives in to curiosity.

My Rating: 4.2

I've also read
4.1, GREY MASK
4.4, THE TRAVELLER'S RETURN

About the Author

Patricia Wentworth (1878–1961) was one of the masters of classic English mystery writing. Born in India as Dora Amy Elles, she began writing after the death of her first husband, publishing her first novel in 1910. In the 1920s, she introduced the character who would make her famous: Miss Maud Silver, the former governess whose stout figure, fondness for Tennyson, and passion for knitting served to disguise a keen intellect. Along with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Miss Silver is the definitive embodiment of the English style of cozy mysteries.

Review: THE TRAVELLER RETURNS, Patricia Wentworth

• alternative title: SHE CAME BACK
• first published 1945 (US publication)
• #9 in the Miss Silver series
• this edition from Amazon (Kindle)
• File Size: 655 KB
• Print Length: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; New Ed edition (December 13, 2007)
• Publication Date: December 13, 2007
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0043VDC8E

Synopsis (Amazon)

Anne Jocelyn had been a beautiful, wealthy young woman. She had died three years ago. At least, that was what her husband Philip and the rest of the family had always thought. But then a woman calling herself Anne Jocelyn appeared and managed to convince everyone that she was the real Anne. Everyone, that is, except Miss Silver, whose suspicions are aroused by an apparently senseless murder.

My Take

I chose this for my participation in the Crime Fiction of the Year challenge for 1945 found over at Past Offences.  There is a little conflicting evidence about the date of publication so I have gone with the date on Fantastic Fiction. It seems that it was published in 1945 in USA, but not till 1948 in UK

The setting is England 1943. As far as Philip Jocelyn was concerned his wife Anne had been killed in France by a German bullet in 1940 and her body was buried in the local churchyard at Jocelyn's Holt. So when a woman claiming to be Anne turns up at the house at Jocelyn's Holt he can't believe it is her. The rest of the family are taken in by her stunning resemblance to Anne and to her detailed knowledge of the family. But if this woman is impersonating his wife, why is she doing it?

Miss Silver meets a woman on a train who is travelling to London to meet Lady Jocelyn.  She says she will know whether this is truly Anne Jocelyn or not. And then she is found dead.

While the police sergeant is a fan of Maudie Silver's, his boss doesn't come out of it too well as he is always ready to accept the easy solution to a problem. He sees Miss Silver as an interefering old biddy, always turning up where she is not really needed. Of course it is Miss Silver who eventually solves the case. 

 A nice cosy read.

My Rating: 4.3

I've also read
4.1, GREY MASK

Review: GREY MASK, Patricia Wentworth - audio book

• first published 1928
  
• #1 in the Miss Silver series
• Narrated by: Diana Bishop
• Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins 
  
• Format: Unabridged
• audio book from Audible.com

Synopsis (Publisher)

The first of the classic mysteries featuring governess-turned-detective Miss Silver, who investigates a deadly conspiratorial ring.

Charles Moray has come home to England to collect his inheritance. After four years wandering the jungles of India and South America, the hardy young man returns to the manor of his birth, where generations of Morays have lived and died. Strangely, he finds the house unlocked, and sees a light on in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, he learns of a conspiracy to commit a fearsome crime.

Never one for the heroic, Charles’ first instinct is to let the police settle it. But then he hears her voice. Margaret, his long-lost love, is part of the gang. To unravel their diabolical plot, he contacts Miss Silver, a onetime governess who applies her reason to solve crimes and face the dangers of London’s underworld.

My Take

I've read this as part of the 2014 Vintage Mystery Challenge. I'm sure I have read a Miss Silver novel before, maybe even several (see these posts about forgotten books), but have not reviewed any on this blog, so a long time ago. Although the first in the Miss Silver series, this was far from Patricia Wentworth's first novel. There would eventually be over 30 titles in this series, which she kept publishing until 1961. However the second title in the series does not appear for another nine years.

It is probably inevitable that readers compare Miss Silver with Agatha Christie's Jane Marple, who made her first appearance in 1927. In contrast to Miss Marple, Miss Silver had had a previous career as a governess, and seems to be more experienced in the ways of the world, whereas Miss Marple is mainly experienced in village life. While Miss Silver appears to be attempting to be make a living as a private detective and sleuth, Miss Marple gets her cases from the things that happen around her.

Miss Silver does not appear to be as old as Miss Marple, but at the same time is rather more non-descript. Both are spinsters, and both seem rather small and harmless. Both do a lot of knitting. The author stresses how colourless and drab Miss Silver is. In fact the plot seems to bear that out for there are long passages between her appearances, and the reader could be forgiven for forgetting that she is "on the job" at all. But she has the knack of turning up when you least expect her, and she certainly is a shrewd observer. And in the long run it is Miss Silver who initiates the decisive action that brings everything to a satisfactory resolution and saves the day.

So how well has GREY MASK weathered? The plot is passable but I think perhaps the language of the novel is a bit dated. It seems set in a world of inheritances and a social structure that even by 1929 was rapidly disappearing.

My rating: 4.1

Forgotten Book: DANGER POINT, Patricia Wentworth

My plan this year for my contributions to Friday's Forgotten Books hosted by Pattinase is to feature books I read 20 years ago - in 1993- from the records I have in my "little green book", which I started in 1975.
In 1993 I read 111 books and was pretty well addicted to crime fiction by then.

This is #4 in Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series. Published in 1941, it was also titled IN THE BALANCE.
The series began in 1928 with the publication of GREY MASK. The final title, #32, published in 1961, was THE GIRL IN THE CELLAR.

Patricia Wentworth, a British author, lived 1878-1961.

Miss Silver is sometimes compared to Jane Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. Miss Silver is a retired governess who becomes a private detective. She works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott. She is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson.

Miss Silver is well known in the better circles of society, and she finds entree to the troubled households of the upper classes with little difficulty. In most of Miss Silver's cases there is a young couple whose romance seems ill fated because of the murder to be solved, but in Miss Silver's competent hands the case is solved, the young couple are exonerated, and all is right in this very traditional world. See Wikipedia.

Most of the Miss Silver titles appear to be available on Amazon for Kindle, although generally for $11.80 each which in my terms is a bit pricey. You'll probably find some in your local library.

Synopsis

Miss Silver is returning from holiday when a distraught young woman enters her carriage. 

Beautiful society heiress Lisle Jerningham confides that she believes her husband Dale is trying to kill her. An overheard conversation and a near-tragic accident have convinced her that her life is in danger.

Lisle returns to Tanfield Court, unsettled by her suspicions and then by another accident. But it's when a young woman from the local village is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, that she really begins to fear for her life. It's a good thing that Miss Silver is on hand..