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But what these unobservant birds

Poodlerat’s book blog

Patricia Wentworth

Patricia Wentworth was a Golden Age mystery novelist whose Miss Silver mysteries were quite popular in their day. Although Miss Wentworth, unlike peers Christie and Sayers, has rather faded from memory, I’m rather attached to her books. I have a sort of ongoing personal challenge: someday I’d like to read (and own) all of the Miss Silver books. In aid of that, here’s the full list, with links to reviews where I’ve written them:

  1. Grey Mask (1928)
  2. The Case Is Closed (1937)
  3. Lonesome Road (1939)
  4. In the Balance (1941; AKA Danger Point)
  5. The Chinese Shawl (1943)
  6. Miss Silver Intervenes (1943; AKA Miss Silver Deals in Death)
  7. The Clock Strikes Twelve (1944)
  8. The Key (1944)
  9. The Traveller Returns (1945; AKA She Came Back)
  10. Pilgrim’s Rest (1946; AKA Dark Threat)
  11. Latter End (1947)
  12. Wicked Uncle (1947; AKA The Spotlight)
  13. Eternity Ring (1948)
  14. The Case of William Smith (1948)
  15. Miss Silver Comes to Stay (1949)
  16. The Catherine Wheel (1949)
  17. Through the Wall (1950)
  18. The Brading Collection (1950; AKA Mr. Brading’s Collection)
  19. The Ivory Dagger (1951)
  20. Anna, Where Are You? (1951; AKA Death at Deep End)
  21. The Watersplash (1951)
  22. Ladies’ Bane (1952)
  23. Out of the Past (1953)
  24. Vanishing Point (1953)
  25. The Silent Pool (1954)
  26. The Benevent Treasure (1954)
  27. The Listening Eye (1955)
  28. The Gazebo (1956; AKA The Summerhouse)
  29. The Fingerprint (1956)
  30. Poison in the Pen (1957)
  31. The Alington Inheritance (1958)
  32. The Girl in the Cellar (1961)

2 Comments »

Anita C. wrote, on December 26th, 2008 at 7:45 pm:

I’m pleased to see you’re enjoying Wentworth.  She is very underread and underrated, in my opinion.  I read all her Miss Silver books over a short period (18 months) in the early 1990s, so maybe it was easier for me to see her subtle humor, how she gently but fondly pokes fun at some of Maude’s eccentricities, and the genius (but you have to look for it) in perfectly conveying an upper class, gentry/country squire way of life in England that is of course now gone.  It’s all in the details, of course; the way the main characters talk to their servants, how they serve drinks in the drawing room before dinner; the trips they make to “Town.”

I purchased all the Miss Silver books in the early 1990s, when Harper Collins re-issued them in trade paperback, with John Jinks’ art deco (B&W) illustrations on their covers.  They are fabulous looking!  Unfortunately, I no longer have shelf room for them, so I’m starting to re-read them one last time and then I’ll have to sell them.  Are you interested?

david wrote, on January 3rd, 2009 at 8:32 pm:

Thank you for your blog.

I recently acquired The Pool of Dreams - Poems by Patricia Wentworth / J. B. Lippincott 1954 / Hardcover / vgdw / fine boards and pages - it came in a box of other books I purchased…. Haven’t read her prose, but the poetry is certainly interesting - quite a pleasant surprise.

Very best,

David

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