86. The Case of William Smith by Patricia Wentworth (Mystery) 328 p.

In 1942, a British soldier is released from a German hospital under the name William Smith, with no memory of his previous life. Upon his release from a concentration camp after the war, all he is able to discover is that he is certainly not William Smith. He settles into a new life as William Smith, and lives peacefully for several years, until attempts are made on his life.

I enjoyed reading this, as I always enjoy Miss Silver mysteries, but there were a couple of things that bothered me. William Smith spends much of the war in a concentration camp, but seems to suffer no lasting damage from the experience. In fact, although Patricia Wentworth goes out of her way to describe the horrible conditions of the camp, no one ever mentions it again afterwards. Also, the way that a murder is hushed up as a suicide by the police in order to save some good people from scandal seems quite bizarre and unlikely.

Despite those things, the characters are likable, the plot is reasonably suspenseful, and the middle-class social scene of post-war England is as soothing as ever.

Books read: 86/100 (86%)
Pages read: 25,955/30,000 (87%)
Days passed: 244/365 (67%)

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Miss Silver, Patricia Wentworth