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Grey Mask: A Miss Silver Mystery (Miss Silver #1)
The first of the classic mysteries featuring governess-turned-detective Miss Silver, who investigates a deadly conspiratorial ringCharles 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. Strange...more
ebook, 332 pages
Published
June 28th 2011
by Open Road
(first published 1928)
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Grey Mask was originally published in 1928 and is the first of Wentworth's Miss Silver mysteries.
Book Description: 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 f...more
Book Description: 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 f...more
Nov 18, 2012
Diane
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
reviewed,
mystery-thriller-suspense
I've read and enjoyed several Miss Silver mysteries and finally decided to read the whole series (32 books) in order. "Grey Mask" was the first, published in 1929. Set in England, it's a cozy mystery that is not dated, although a modern reader may be a bit lost at first: there are no psychopathic serial killers, gruesome forensic details, high-tech hijinks, graphic sex, terse sentences, strong language, or lousy editing. Here is a well-crafted story with multiple, rounded characters, plot twists...more
After his fiancee broke off their engagement a week before the wedding, Charles left the country for four years. Returning, he finds his London house unlocked, and even worse, witnesses an apparent gang of criminals plotting to murder a young woman. He's about to summon the police when he recognizes one of the gang who stops by to deliver something--it's his ex, Margaret. Charles decides that, because Margaret is involved, he needs to solve this on his own--though he does recruit Miss Silver to...more
Writing around the same time as Agatha Christie, Patricia Wentworth has created a detective who is an unobtrusive maiden lady, in this case a former governess named Maude Silver. Unlike Miss Marple, though, Miss Silver runs her own private detection service geared to the upper classes to mostly clear away lost or stolen jewelry, blackmail threats, etc. This book is well-written but we get very little idea of Miss Silver's character or personality other than that she seems to be everywhere at onc...more
The comparison of Grey Mask to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple is a natural one, although Miss Silver's debut actually preceded Miss Marple's. Yet, Grey Mask put me more in mind of Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn novels. Both are more slyly humorous. Miss Maud Silver, a retired governess with a propensity to quote Tennyson, is also considerably more formidable and professional in aspect than the deceptively fuzzy Miss Marple.
Don't get me wrong: Lovers of any of the Miss Jane Marple cozies will love...more
Don't get me wrong: Lovers of any of the Miss Jane Marple cozies will love...more
I heard about the Miss Silver mysteries from a recent issue of Piecework magazine, of all places--one of their issues that focus on historic knitting in literature. Miss Silver is a detective and a knitter, and the novels are supposed to be full of quietly feminist sensibilities. This first one was all right; there was very little of Miss Silver in it, however, and we saw nothing of how she worked--just that she was miraculously competent, and seemed to know all, effortlessly. That's actually no...more
This book Grey Mask is still good. It has stood the test of time. Yes it is really dated but it still a good mystery with somethings that surprised me at the end.
Charles is back from abroad after he left England four years ago. He was engaged to Margaret for a real short time after being friends for years. Margaret just dumped him and would not speak to him before he left.
Charles was not planning to go to his home till the next day but his dinner plans cancelled on him so he decided to check how...more
Charles is back from abroad after he left England four years ago. He was engaged to Margaret for a real short time after being friends for years. Margaret just dumped him and would not speak to him before he left.
Charles was not planning to go to his home till the next day but his dinner plans cancelled on him so he decided to check how...more
This is a good oldy - Miss Silver does it again. Charles Moray returns from a long time abroad after his fiance, Margaret, cancelled his engagement a week before the wedding. As he enters his home, he realizes it isn't empty, and goes to a secret compartment he used to play in. There he hears Margaret's voice and he hears conspirators talking, including the possibility of doing away with someone. Meanwhile, Margot Standing returns to London from her Swiss boarding school on the death of her fath...more
After four years away Charles returns to his childhood home only to find a secret meeting of a criminal society taking place there. The worst part is that the woman he was engaged to, and the reason for his leaving, is mixed up in it. But who are these people and who is it they're planning on "removing"? And how did Margaret get mixed up with them? Charles will need the help of Miss Maud Silver to find out.
Grey Mask isn't a new novel, it was originally published in 1928 and is the first in Went...more
Grey Mask isn't a new novel, it was originally published in 1928 and is the first in Went...more
Grey Mask is an interesting mystery. Given that this is a reissue of a book that came out in 1929, there are quite a few writing techniques that are dated, and to a modern reader this can be confusing. You have to put up with characters realizing something that the reader cannot possibly know, and the reader isn't told what these things are until the big reveal puts it all together. Sometimes this is hard to follow, and I found myself going back and rereading things so I could be sure I was keep...more
I decided to read this when I kept seeing references to the series, where the detective is a older woman named miss Maud Silver, and she is a knitter.
This is the first book in the series, and begins with Charles Moray returning from four years of "exploring" to take responsibility for his family home after the death of his father. The first night he is home, he goes to visit the house, and inadvertently witnesses and overhears a man wearing a grey mask talking to various other people in the hou...more
This is the first book in the series, and begins with Charles Moray returning from four years of "exploring" to take responsibility for his family home after the death of his father. The first night he is home, he goes to visit the house, and inadvertently witnesses and overhears a man wearing a grey mask talking to various other people in the hou...more
This is the first in a long series of mysteries featuring an older woman named Miss Silver as the detective. It's a very old series, this book being written in 1928 and it did seem rather dated. Written in a rather different style from most modern detective stories, you really don't find out much of anything about Miss Silver nor get to read about her detecting techniques or anything. The story is told from the POV of several different characters involved.
I was not overly crazy about the book....more
I was not overly crazy about the book....more
Apr 30, 2011
Susan
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2011,
golden-age-mystery
I liked this. However, I found both female heroines a bit on the ditzy side, one more so than the other. The 18 year old kept giggling at the most inappropriate times and used the word frightful (frightfully) way too much. And what was the author thinking naming them Margaret and Margot and one of them a daughter of another Margaret?
Miss Silver does alot of her sleuthing in the background and seems to let the major players figure things out themselves and only comes on the scene when there is s...more
Miss Silver does alot of her sleuthing in the background and seems to let the major players figure things out themselves and only comes on the scene when there is s...more
1 like · like · see review
I really quite enjoy these cosy little mysteries. I like Maud Silver, I enjoy some of the bizarre characters and the unfolding of the action.
This is easily the silliest one. Many of these books have the protagonists, particularly the women, behaving very stupidly, often becoming estranged from the hero because they valiantly keep secrets which no sane person would keep. These grand noble secrets are usually clumsily necessary to the plot, and utterly ridiculous and frustrating. The big secret t...more
This is easily the silliest one. Many of these books have the protagonists, particularly the women, behaving very stupidly, often becoming estranged from the hero because they valiantly keep secrets which no sane person would keep. These grand noble secrets are usually clumsily necessary to the plot, and utterly ridiculous and frustrating. The big secret t...more
Published in 1929, this is the first Miss Silver mystery. Miss Maud Silver is a retired governess who opened a investigation service in her "golden" years. This book reminded me of the Agatha Christie Miss Marple books. Miss Silver is a quiet old lady who is always knitting (who pays any attention to a little old lady sitting off to the side sewing?). She also seems to know everything that is going on. In this initial book in the series, Wentworth is finding her voice and the plot is clearly dat...more
I picked up this and #2 on Kindle for a couple bucks on the recommendation of a stranger on the internet. I gobbled them up!
The wit and dry humor in the relations between the characters reminded me a lot of Dorothy Sayers but the construction of the plot was unlike any I've seen before in the genre. In Wentworth's books, you don't meet the detective until well into the plot and she serves only as the medium through which certain clues are divulged. While using amateur detectives is nothing new...more
The wit and dry humor in the relations between the characters reminded me a lot of Dorothy Sayers but the construction of the plot was unlike any I've seen before in the genre. In Wentworth's books, you don't meet the detective until well into the plot and she serves only as the medium through which certain clues are divulged. While using amateur detectives is nothing new...more
I read about Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver mysteries in an issue of PieceWork magazine about needlework in literature--Miss Silver, you see, produces an endless stream of knitted items, mostly for the children of acquaintances and clients. As a fan of cozy British mysteries, I had to check them out, and I'm glad I did.
Fans of Christie's Miss Marple and Sayers' Miss Climpson will find Miss Silver a combination of the two: an older woman, using her social invisibility as a disguise, sets up her...more
Fans of Christie's Miss Marple and Sayers' Miss Climpson will find Miss Silver a combination of the two: an older woman, using her social invisibility as a disguise, sets up her...more
This book was written in 1929. That said, it was written in such a way, that it wasn't "dated" so much. A jilted man returns to England, after 4 years abroad, only to discover his house being used as a meeting place for some evil clandestine group. This is full of mystery and intrigue, and Miss Silver, a spinster (one assumes) PI, of sorts. Strangely, we don't see a lot of Miss Silver, but she seems to know a whole lot about what's going on.
I enjoyed the book, but Margo, a 15 yr old supposed-he...more
I enjoyed the book, but Margo, a 15 yr old supposed-he...more
An heiress in danger, mysterious criminal cabal, missing children, a lost wife, star-crossed lovers - this has pretty nearly everything one might wish in a genteel thriller. The plot twists are fairly predictable, and guessing The Criminal Mastermind wasn’t too hard, but it’s all done so beautifully that you must keep turning pages. The writing is smooth, the pace is rapid, the characters very well drawn; and while quite shamelessly cinematic (20s style), the denouement is very entertaining.
Ver...more
Ver...more
Patricia Wentworth is compared often to Agatha Christie and Miss Silver to Miss Marple. Silver and Marple do share a way of thinking through knitting, but Miss Silver's work (she has an office! how frightfully daring!...for 1929) is that of helping people solve their problems they can't for honor and reputation's sake, bring to the police.
_Grey Mask_ is a romantic comedy of a mystery, and if you love flappers and dashing fools of a certain period, these are must-reads. They're good work and, no...more
_Grey Mask_ is a romantic comedy of a mystery, and if you love flappers and dashing fools of a certain period, these are must-reads. They're good work and, no...more
A true "golden age" mystery from a rival of Agatha Christie--this is Patricia Wentworth's first mystery, from the late 1920's. Listened to this and it was quite fun and at the end even very suspenseful. This story is very involved and complicated but that is part of the fun! Thwarted love, misunderstandings, a teenage heiress in peril, "marriage by declaration", wicked servants, a missing will, a vast criminal conspiracy headed by a mysterious man in a grey mask, and a female "gentlewoman" sleut...more
Wentworth's first Miss Silver mystery pre-empts Christie's Miss Marple by a couple of years. Miss Silver is a bit of an enigma in this novel, much as Allingham's Campion is in his early adventures. The wacky plot involves criminal gangs, lost inheritances, incarcerations and double identities. There are several enormous coincidences to accept which really stretch the boundaries of credulity, but it's tremendous fun, and sits very comfortably with other golden age detective novels. A book with wh...more
Dear Open Road Media:
As a reader I know I cannot possibly discover and read all the fantastic books out there. If I allowed that thought to bog me down, I would be one depressed lady. That said, you have introduced me to my newest obsession - Miss Silver - and I cannot believe I have lived 30 years without her.
What do I love about Miss Silver? First, she's a quiet character. Grey Mask doesn't revolve around her but the other characters in the story. She appears, almost inconspicuously, at the...more
As a reader I know I cannot possibly discover and read all the fantastic books out there. If I allowed that thought to bog me down, I would be one depressed lady. That said, you have introduced me to my newest obsession - Miss Silver - and I cannot believe I have lived 30 years without her.
What do I love about Miss Silver? First, she's a quiet character. Grey Mask doesn't revolve around her but the other characters in the story. She appears, almost inconspicuously, at the...more
Wentworth was learning her craft here - and shaped her book in accordance with 1920s standards. Charles Moray returns from overseas to find his house being used by a criminal ring. Worse, he can't call the police about it because Margaret, who jilted him, is one its members. He finds himself in the odd position of protector for a naive young girl, a target of the criminal ring, who is being given shelter by Margaret. GREY MASK is awash in conflicting loyalties and adorned by one plot twist that...more
Decent enough, and fairly typical British crime fiction of its time in many ways. I did find it somewhat odd that the detective hero of the series, Miss Silver, had so little presence in the book. The book was narrated mainly from the perspective of one of the people caught up in the mystery, who eventually becomes Miss Silver's client. You never see anything of Miss Silver's deductive process...no "little grey cells" of Poirot, or Inspector Alleyn police procedure, or Miss Marple playing the co...more
I enjoyed this and look forward to reading more in the series. Presumably Miss Silver comes more to the fore in subsequent books in the series, as she didn't seem to play much of a part in this one. She felt like a device used to reveal information required to move the plot forward, but with no mention of how she came by it. No matter; I didn't read it expecting to be baffled and astounded and it was a perfect listen during a pleasant afternoons stitching.
Disappointing. But then I suppose not every knitty middle-aged detective can be Miss Marple. What’s odd about this novel is that Miss Silver was fairly peripheral to the story – every once in a while, the protagonist would go update her on the events and she’d say something perceptive. Who wants to read an English mystery where you barely get to see the detective do anything? The mystery itself was also less than thrilling.
I might have given this one 4 stars up to the very end (good characterization, complex plot, well-set in the 1920s), then there is this Hansel and Gretel like ending which is just too weird. It's almost as though Wentworth had a fantastic plot up to the climax, then didn't know how to work her way out of the final scene.
I like Miss Silver, though, and I'd read another one of these books.
I like Miss Silver, though, and I'd read another one of these books.
I generally like these kind of books for their nostalgic value. However this book felt more like a parody than nostalgia.
On the other hand I have enjoyed other books by Patricia Wentworth, so I am of the opinion that its more a reflection being her first novel rather than an overall testament of her ability.
IMO Patricia Wentworth is a worthwhile writer, but I would pass on this one.
On the other hand I have enjoyed other books by Patricia Wentworth, so I am of the opinion that its more a reflection being her first novel rather than an overall testament of her ability.
IMO Patricia Wentworth is a worthwhile writer, but I would pass on this one.
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Patricia Wentworth--born Dora Amy Elles--was a British crime fiction writer.
She was educated privately and at Blackheath High School in London. After the death of her first husband, George F. Dillon, in 1906, she settled in Camberley, Surrey. She married George Oliver Turnbull in 1920 and they had one daughter.
She wrote a series of 32 classic-style whodunnits featuring Miss Silver, the first of wh...more
More about Patricia Wentworth...
She was educated privately and at Blackheath High School in London. After the death of her first husband, George F. Dillon, in 1906, she settled in Camberley, Surrey. She married George Oliver Turnbull in 1920 and they had one daughter.
She wrote a series of 32 classic-style whodunnits featuring Miss Silver, the first of wh...more
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Apr 27, 2011 05:34pm