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Miss Silver #21
Comme l'eau qui dort
Au-delà des intrigues extrêmement bien menées, on retrouve chez Patricia Wentworth l'attachement de beaucoup d'écrivains anglais à décrire avec bonheur des personnages réservés, obstinément retenus, dont les haines et les passions s'abritent derrière une éducation et un maintien à toute épreuve. Même quand les fêlures et les faiblesses des personnages apparaissent au détour d'une ligne - il s'agit tout de même de crimes -, l'impression de brume ouatée demeure. Miss Silver, en plus d'être un personnage convaincant, offre l'image d'une Angleterre victorienne pas tout à fait révolue.
334 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
355 people are currently reading
567 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Wentworth
162 books522 followersPatricia 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 which was published in 1928, and the last in 1961, the year of her death.
Miss Silver, a retired governess-turned private detective, is sometimes compared to Jane Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. She works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott and is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson.
Wentworth also wrote 34 books outside of that series.
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 which was published in 1928, and the last in 1961, the year of her death.
Miss Silver, a retired governess-turned private detective, is sometimes compared to Jane Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. She works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott and is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson.
Wentworth also wrote 34 books outside of that series.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
March 28, 2019
The watersplash in the village of Greenings in England plays an important role in this story, as it is the scene of two deaths. Watersplash is not a term I am familiar with, but through context I was able to deduce that it is a shallow and narrow stream that doesn’t seem to warrant the cost of a bridge. Instead, it has stepping stones placed across it.
I noticed another interesting cultural/language aspect. Although I have bumped into this unfamiliar phrase before: Sunday week, or Friday week, I had no idea the words can point to either future or past depending on context. For example, “Miss Sims will be playing the organ for church Sunday week,” as differentiated by, “Miss Sims attended the working party Friday week.” In other words, the former is in the future and the latter refers to a time in the past. Coming across these little unknowns when reading is always a delight for me.
The deaths in the watersplash appear to have something to do with a will. James Random had intended that the Random estate should go to his nephew Edward when he passed. However, Edward disappeared for nearly 5 years and was presumed dead so James Random left the estate to his brother Arnold. According to the only living witness of a second will, the first one was changed based on a dream that Edward was really alive.
About a year after his Uncle James passed, Edward returned to the village and now, the only remaining witness to the signing of the second will has come up with a scheme to benefit himself. He is the first one to end up drowned in the watersplash.
This story is fascinating, and there are some interesting links between many of the characters in this small village. One of those links is to Miss Silver herself, for the new(er) vicar of the parish is married to the daughter of one of Miss Silver’s oldest friends. Through a series of events, Miss Silver goes to Greenings to visit her old friend’s daughter and becomes intrigued by the mystery of the watersplash deaths.
Miss Silver doesn’t enter this story until Chapter 13, which gave me time to become familiar with all the villagers, their relationships, and their gossip. In a village that size, everyone pretty much knows everyone else’s business, and if they don’t, then speculation takes the place of missing facts.
This is actually fortunate for Miss Silver because she is adept at sifting through all the gossip and conjecture to arrive at facts. Those facts usually lead somewhere, and it’s usually not in the same direction that the police prefer.
I enjoyed my 21st outing with Miss Silver as an enjoyable and lighter read. On the other hand, there are still plenty of challenges presented to those of us who are amateur sleuths, and I look forward to my next Miss Silver adventure next month.
I noticed another interesting cultural/language aspect. Although I have bumped into this unfamiliar phrase before: Sunday week, or Friday week, I had no idea the words can point to either future or past depending on context. For example, “Miss Sims will be playing the organ for church Sunday week,” as differentiated by, “Miss Sims attended the working party Friday week.” In other words, the former is in the future and the latter refers to a time in the past. Coming across these little unknowns when reading is always a delight for me.
The deaths in the watersplash appear to have something to do with a will. James Random had intended that the Random estate should go to his nephew Edward when he passed. However, Edward disappeared for nearly 5 years and was presumed dead so James Random left the estate to his brother Arnold. According to the only living witness of a second will, the first one was changed based on a dream that Edward was really alive.
About a year after his Uncle James passed, Edward returned to the village and now, the only remaining witness to the signing of the second will has come up with a scheme to benefit himself. He is the first one to end up drowned in the watersplash.
This story is fascinating, and there are some interesting links between many of the characters in this small village. One of those links is to Miss Silver herself, for the new(er) vicar of the parish is married to the daughter of one of Miss Silver’s oldest friends. Through a series of events, Miss Silver goes to Greenings to visit her old friend’s daughter and becomes intrigued by the mystery of the watersplash deaths.
Miss Silver doesn’t enter this story until Chapter 13, which gave me time to become familiar with all the villagers, their relationships, and their gossip. In a village that size, everyone pretty much knows everyone else’s business, and if they don’t, then speculation takes the place of missing facts.
This is actually fortunate for Miss Silver because she is adept at sifting through all the gossip and conjecture to arrive at facts. Those facts usually lead somewhere, and it’s usually not in the same direction that the police prefer.
I enjoyed my 21st outing with Miss Silver as an enjoyable and lighter read. On the other hand, there are still plenty of challenges presented to those of us who are amateur sleuths, and I look forward to my next Miss Silver adventure next month.
March 30, 2019
“It is only a guilty person who can afford to be silent. The investigation of a murder is always handicapped by the fact that so many people have something which they would prefer to hide.” — Miss Silver, to Susan
The return of James Reardon’s nephew, Edward, a man who had been thought dead, to the tranquil, picturesque English village of Greenings, is the catalyst for two murders in this cozy and involving Miss Silver mystery. Greenings is a quaint village which hasn’t yet been swallowed up by the larger town of Embanks. Retaining its Vicarage, and the quaint watersplash on Halfpenny Lane, there is something rustic about the place. But Edward’s return, and the inheritance he did not receive, will send quiet shockwaves throughout the village, leading to not one murder, but two:
“No. A watersplash is not usually deep enough to drown anyone. If a man and a girl manage to bring it off on two successive Fridays, the long arm of coincidence would seem to be doing a record stretch, and when both the man and the girl are mixed up with a missing will — well, it does begin to look as if someone has been busy.” — Inspector Frank Abbott, to Miss Maud Silver
Wentworth is always marvelous in creating atmosphere. She imbues Greenings with the cozy English village lifestyle, then gradually shows the reader the turmoil beneath the genteel tranquility. So successfully does she immerse us in the events surrounding Edward’s return, including the lovely Susan, whose yearning for Edward goes way back, we scarcely notice it isn’t until chapter thirteen that Miss Silver is introduced into this story of unexplained death, missing wills, blackmail, and unrequited love.
It is one of the wonderful things about Wentworth’s Miss Silver series that she made the aged, ever-knitting, gentle yet observant Miss Silver so unobtrusive. They really aren’t “Miss Silver mysteries” in the same way that Christie wrote Miss Marple mysteries. They are more Wentworth mysteries of English village life, in which Miss Silver eventually appears and helps solve the goings on — usually with Inspector Frank Abbott’s help. Invariably, Miss Silver, who seemed to have friends and relatives everywhere, would find someone she could visit near the scene of the crime. Due to her unobtrusive and kind demeanor, villagers would confide both gossip and facts to Miss Silver which they would not the police, who were outsiders.
Not only does Miss Silver not enter the picture until chapter thirteen, but it isn’t until chapter twenty-two that she heads for Greenings. She suspects someone is trying to profit from the first murder, perhaps through blackmail, and implores the person to reveal to her what they know, before it is too late. And then it is too late, and the watersplash has claimed a second victim. To the consternation of Susan, everything keeps pointing to Edward, who had much to gain. She eventually realizes that the Miss Silver who has come to stay in Greenings, is Miss Maude Silver, the detective. And she seeks her help, unbeknownst to Edward. That sets the wheels in motion for an exciting conclusion. As with most of the Miss Silver books, the romance doesn’t reach its zenith until the case is wrapped up.
This is a good, solid entry in the series, which showcases Wentworth’s ability to set the table for murder, and then slowly get to the bottom of it all. On the romance side, I liked Susan much more than Edward in this one, so didn’t find it quite as charming as some of the others. All in all, however, a very solid English village mystery cozy firmly rooted in the Golden Age of crime fiction. One person who had experience observing Miss Silver work on another case, put it this way:
“She mightn’t have been there at all for all the notice she got. She just goes back to her 15 Montague Mansions and keeps knitting until another case comes up.”
The return of James Reardon’s nephew, Edward, a man who had been thought dead, to the tranquil, picturesque English village of Greenings, is the catalyst for two murders in this cozy and involving Miss Silver mystery. Greenings is a quaint village which hasn’t yet been swallowed up by the larger town of Embanks. Retaining its Vicarage, and the quaint watersplash on Halfpenny Lane, there is something rustic about the place. But Edward’s return, and the inheritance he did not receive, will send quiet shockwaves throughout the village, leading to not one murder, but two:
“No. A watersplash is not usually deep enough to drown anyone. If a man and a girl manage to bring it off on two successive Fridays, the long arm of coincidence would seem to be doing a record stretch, and when both the man and the girl are mixed up with a missing will — well, it does begin to look as if someone has been busy.” — Inspector Frank Abbott, to Miss Maud Silver
Wentworth is always marvelous in creating atmosphere. She imbues Greenings with the cozy English village lifestyle, then gradually shows the reader the turmoil beneath the genteel tranquility. So successfully does she immerse us in the events surrounding Edward’s return, including the lovely Susan, whose yearning for Edward goes way back, we scarcely notice it isn’t until chapter thirteen that Miss Silver is introduced into this story of unexplained death, missing wills, blackmail, and unrequited love.
It is one of the wonderful things about Wentworth’s Miss Silver series that she made the aged, ever-knitting, gentle yet observant Miss Silver so unobtrusive. They really aren’t “Miss Silver mysteries” in the same way that Christie wrote Miss Marple mysteries. They are more Wentworth mysteries of English village life, in which Miss Silver eventually appears and helps solve the goings on — usually with Inspector Frank Abbott’s help. Invariably, Miss Silver, who seemed to have friends and relatives everywhere, would find someone she could visit near the scene of the crime. Due to her unobtrusive and kind demeanor, villagers would confide both gossip and facts to Miss Silver which they would not the police, who were outsiders.
Not only does Miss Silver not enter the picture until chapter thirteen, but it isn’t until chapter twenty-two that she heads for Greenings. She suspects someone is trying to profit from the first murder, perhaps through blackmail, and implores the person to reveal to her what they know, before it is too late. And then it is too late, and the watersplash has claimed a second victim. To the consternation of Susan, everything keeps pointing to Edward, who had much to gain. She eventually realizes that the Miss Silver who has come to stay in Greenings, is Miss Maude Silver, the detective. And she seeks her help, unbeknownst to Edward. That sets the wheels in motion for an exciting conclusion. As with most of the Miss Silver books, the romance doesn’t reach its zenith until the case is wrapped up.
This is a good, solid entry in the series, which showcases Wentworth’s ability to set the table for murder, and then slowly get to the bottom of it all. On the romance side, I liked Susan much more than Edward in this one, so didn’t find it quite as charming as some of the others. All in all, however, a very solid English village mystery cozy firmly rooted in the Golden Age of crime fiction. One person who had experience observing Miss Silver work on another case, put it this way:
“She mightn’t have been there at all for all the notice she got. She just goes back to her 15 Montague Mansions and keeps knitting until another case comes up.”
September 28, 2023
جای شگفتی است در عصری که "زنان در چنبر مردسالاری اسیر بودند،" نویسندگان بریتانیایی درخشانی همچون کریستی، لراک و ونتورث در عرصهی ژانر معمایی و کارآگاهی ظهور میکردند. ولی امروز فوقش لوسی فلی نصیبمان میشود. تازه فلی انصافا مستعدتر از خیلیهای دیگر است
April 12, 2014
The title of this Miss Silver was so familiar to me, and some bits and pieces as well, that I'm sure I must have read it years ago. And yet I had forgotten enough (most things in fact) that it was like picking up a new book. Patricia Wentworth is less widely known and appreciated than Agatha Christie; I don't know of a single film made from any of her books. Perhaps this is because the romance element is rather more evident in the Miss Silver books. In this instalment, Our Hero isn't even really a suspect; though Our Heroine fusses gently about the possibility of his being arrested, the police have him out of the running from the start. The puzzle is well constructed--how could anyone crossing the watersplash in a place they know well drown in a scant 8 inches of water, let alone two people in one week? Cui bono? There's a missing will as well as a missing 5 years of the hero's past, just to spice things up.
Miss Silver is the ultimate period-cosy in the Jane Marple style; hardly startling as they are contemporaries in age, background and habits. However Miss Silver is a professional detective; it's an important difference--and one that makes her involvement in so many mysteries with so many bodies rather more believable than Miss Marple's blundering into murder after murder. (I always used to wonder why it was no one tumbled to the fact that Jane Marple and Jessica Fletcher were actually serial killers, given the way people drop like flies wherever they go.)I was amused to realise that her police inspector friend bears a striking physical resemblance to Lord Peter Wimsey, though without the what-ho-cads silly ass manner.
A good, comfy read with pleasant puzzle attached and rather more believable modus operandi than most of Agatha's output. No need for arcane poisons here--Wentworth knows that many murders do take place in "idyllic" rural settings, and for the most mundane of reasons, using whatever means are to hand. Being from a small rural town myself, I can attest to this. Even in the 80s few people locked their doors at night, as there was no vandalism aside from a bit of washing-up liquid in the fountain during Homecoming week; there were, however, a few horrific murders in the town annals. For one particularly sensational spousal homicide, the general verdict was, "He had it coming. Wonder what took her so long?"
Miss Silver is the ultimate period-cosy in the Jane Marple style; hardly startling as they are contemporaries in age, background and habits. However Miss Silver is a professional detective; it's an important difference--and one that makes her involvement in so many mysteries with so many bodies rather more believable than Miss Marple's blundering into murder after murder. (I always used to wonder why it was no one tumbled to the fact that Jane Marple and Jessica Fletcher were actually serial killers, given the way people drop like flies wherever they go.)I was amused to realise that her police inspector friend bears a striking physical resemblance to Lord Peter Wimsey, though without the what-ho-cads silly ass manner.
A good, comfy read with pleasant puzzle attached and rather more believable modus operandi than most of Agatha's output. No need for arcane poisons here--Wentworth knows that many murders do take place in "idyllic" rural settings, and for the most mundane of reasons, using whatever means are to hand. Being from a small rural town myself, I can attest to this. Even in the 80s few people locked their doors at night, as there was no vandalism aside from a bit of washing-up liquid in the fountain during Homecoming week; there were, however, a few horrific murders in the town annals. For one particularly sensational spousal homicide, the general verdict was, "He had it coming. Wonder what took her so long?"
March 24, 2014
Pleasant Miss Silver story. Very typical of the knitting, demure, older sleuth. Interesting characters though they are a bit one-dimensional.... maybe, two. The gossipy small village with all the undercurrents usually present. Atmospheric church and watersplash setting. Whodunit really easy to figure out.
January 8, 2020
The drunken gardener is the first to drown at the watersplash. The lovely young nurse is the second. Wentworth sets up the story so that it seems obvious who is the killer, but it's not hard to see past her camouflage and identify the real killer. There's a missing will and a tender romance, but few surprises in this late Miss Silver work.
January 20, 2020
A small village, scandal, gossip and the return of a prodigal son (well stepson and nephew)
A well written, gentle mystery that ticks all the boxes! A really enjoyable read and nice to find a new author and a new female crime hero!
A well written, gentle mystery that ticks all the boxes! A really enjoyable read and nice to find a new author and a new female crime hero!
June 10, 2020
Classic Miss Silver in every way!
February 1, 2021
Another excellent cosy mystery from the pen of Patricia Wentworth. I must admit, I am a huge Miss Silver fan, she compares favourably to Miss Marple - but is an entirely different sort of detective. I look forward to reading/listening to many more of these brilliant stories. Diane Bishop is also a good narrator who makes listening a pleasure.
January 1, 2019
A cosy mystery with all of Wentworth's basic ingredients: lost wills, missing cousins, long-suffering and deserving heroines, spoiled invalids, maids who inherit money and marry bounders . . . The list goes on but in the end Ms. Wentworth presents a delightful mystery where Miss Silver explains all to the ever-adoring Frank Abbott.
June 24, 2017
Unfortunately, my tablet died and took all of my notes on this novel with it.
June 25, 2022
So you were right, but I still don’t know how you got there. You know, the Chief really does suspect you of at least white witchcraft. I don’t think it would surprise him if you were to fly out of the window on a broomstick. So if you don’t want me to share his views, perhaps you will tell me just what it was that made you sure enough to take the risk I ought never have allowed you to take last night.
February 15, 2020
A very enjoyable read. Miss Silver reminds me of a younger, more active Miss Marple with her gentle probing and insights into human nature. Thee author writes engagingly, and there is a sweet love interest to round out the mystery.
October 19, 2024
Definitely one of the better Wentworths I've read recently
April 28, 2025
Another classic Patricia Wentworth reread for me. I love these cosy vintage detective stories and am generally very forgiving of their faults, but I'm giving this one just two stars partly for the disappointing romance element (always a very important part of a Miss Silver story) and partly for a certain unoriginality of murderer.
It's the male lead I object to most. Edward Random is that Patricia Wentworth mainstay, the man who stormed away from his home, went missing for years, and has now returned. Edward left impetuously at eighteen after a quarrel with his uncle and has now returned to the manor-house and village where he grew up. Despite describing himself as an exile, he has a complacent certainty about how good it feels to belong somewhere, a place where 'the men of your blood have played their part in the shaping of things for centuries...' Here he's managing to be both smugly aristocratic and sexist at the same time.
Edward is both smugly superior and self-pitying, convinced that he has it harder than anyone else he knows. Despite his insufferable Byronic air of gloom and doom, Edward is however admired by two different girls, bright, vivacious Clarice Vane and sensible Susan. I find the contrast between these two girls entertaining.
On the character front, Edward's stepmother Emmeline is also a delight, so long as you love cats as much as she does. A refreshing break from the evil stepmothers of many stories, including some of PW's, Emmeline is warm-hearted, charming and kind, devoted to Edward and to her enormous brood of cats. She more or less saves the narrative for me.
In short, this is one for Miss Silver completists but not a classic of the collection.
It's the male lead I object to most. Edward Random is that Patricia Wentworth mainstay, the man who stormed away from his home, went missing for years, and has now returned. Edward left impetuously at eighteen after a quarrel with his uncle and has now returned to the manor-house and village where he grew up. Despite describing himself as an exile, he has a complacent certainty about how good it feels to belong somewhere, a place where 'the men of your blood have played their part in the shaping of things for centuries...' Here he's managing to be both smugly aristocratic and sexist at the same time.
Edward is both smugly superior and self-pitying, convinced that he has it harder than anyone else he knows. Despite his insufferable Byronic air of gloom and doom, Edward is however admired by two different girls, bright, vivacious Clarice Vane and sensible Susan. I find the contrast between these two girls entertaining.
On the character front, Edward's stepmother Emmeline is also a delight, so long as you love cats as much as she does. A refreshing break from the evil stepmothers of many stories, including some of PW's, Emmeline is warm-hearted, charming and kind, devoted to Edward and to her enormous brood of cats. She more or less saves the narrative for me.
In short, this is one for Miss Silver completists but not a classic of the collection.
August 28, 2023
To misquote another writer: "To lose one villager in the watersplash may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness." Fortunately, Miss Silver is on hand to prove that neither drowning is due to misfortune or carelessness, but to murder!
The plot is fairly easy to solve - there are really only a couple of realistic suspects and their behaviour in the early stages of the novel makes it obvious who is the real killer. So this book is not for those who like to be kept guessing up until the final page! Instead, it is for those who like to immerse themselves in a novel of village life and its inhabitants. The account of the vicarage work party is pitch perfect, and I especially enjoyed Mrs Ball, the vicar's wife, who conscientiously tries to 'love everybody', but finds some people much harder to love than others! Emmeline - surely the original 'crazy cat lady' and her cats add some comic touches.
I also found the obligatory Wentworth romance to be one of the better ones. Susan is pretty, but she is also a strong woman, and it's her character that attracts Edward more than her looks.
And he does actually ask her to marry him instead of telling her that she will! While some reviewers have complained about the lack of romance between them, I disagree. We are told at the start of the novel that he had been infatuated with another women seven years earlier, and his love for Susan is clearly contrasting with that. "The magnificent and ridiculous ecstasy of eighteen? It doesn't last...I love you quite a lot...I can't think of having a home without you...to me it does mean everything I thought I was never going to have - everything that seemed to have dried up in me - everything that you've brought back and called to life again." They make a nice couple and probably have far more chance of a long and happy marriage than those Wentworth couples who get married after knowing each other for a week!
The book is let down a little by the ending, which I felt was needlessly dramatic, but otherwise, it's a fun read.
The plot is fairly easy to solve - there are really only a couple of realistic suspects and their behaviour in the early stages of the novel makes it obvious who is the real killer. So this book is not for those who like to be kept guessing up until the final page! Instead, it is for those who like to immerse themselves in a novel of village life and its inhabitants. The account of the vicarage work party is pitch perfect, and I especially enjoyed Mrs Ball, the vicar's wife, who conscientiously tries to 'love everybody', but finds some people much harder to love than others! Emmeline - surely the original 'crazy cat lady' and her cats add some comic touches.
I also found the obligatory Wentworth romance to be one of the better ones. Susan is pretty, but she is also a strong woman, and it's her character that attracts Edward more than her looks.
And he does actually ask her to marry him instead of telling her that she will! While some reviewers have complained about the lack of romance between them, I disagree. We are told at the start of the novel that he had been infatuated with another women seven years earlier, and his love for Susan is clearly contrasting with that. "The magnificent and ridiculous ecstasy of eighteen? It doesn't last...I love you quite a lot...I can't think of having a home without you...to me it does mean everything I thought I was never going to have - everything that seemed to have dried up in me - everything that you've brought back and called to life again." They make a nice couple and probably have far more chance of a long and happy marriage than those Wentworth couples who get married after knowing each other for a week!
The book is let down a little by the ending, which I felt was needlessly dramatic, but otherwise, it's a fun read.
March 6, 2016
The Greenings village gossip has a lot to say about the return of an outcast nephew who has lost his inheritance. And then there’s a nurse returning to care for a new patient, and a distant cousin coming to catalog a family library in the local mansion. When a drunken farm worker drowns crossing a stream, the village gossip takes a new focus. All in all, this is a suspenseful, cleverly plotted story, although one character’s unreasonable behavior, crucial to the plot, becomes a little unbelievable.
This may be my favorite of Miss Silver’s little English villages for its great collection of characters and observations. The humorous side of the story includes a stepmother devoted to her ever-growing family of cats and the difficulties of the new vicar’s wife dealing with their new parishioners.
“Mrs. Ball [the vicar’s wife] always agreed with everyone unless her conscience intervened. It did so now…She did try to love all her neighbors, but she found it very difficult to love Miss Blake. One just had to go on trying.”
This may be my favorite of Miss Silver’s little English villages for its great collection of characters and observations. The humorous side of the story includes a stepmother devoted to her ever-growing family of cats and the difficulties of the new vicar’s wife dealing with their new parishioners.
“Mrs. Ball [the vicar’s wife] always agreed with everyone unless her conscience intervened. It did so now…She did try to love all her neighbors, but she found it very difficult to love Miss Blake. One just had to go on trying.”
April 4, 2014
I stumbled upon this author this past month and have read 3 of her Miss Silver novels so far. I will continue to look for them. Hopefully at the library, but if I have to, I will buy ebook versions. Because they work well for those times when I am unhappy with what is on the shelves locally.
Miss Silver must be a second cousin once removed from Miss Marple. They share that detective gene - the one that allows them to be hyper alert to nuance and details. There are some repeat characters, but be prepared to meet and remember a cast of at least 10 people in each story.
By the way, I looked up watersplash, and from what I could deduce, it is a stream running across a seldom used country lane. One that does not require a bridge, but rather a few stepping stones. And be prepared for other arcane and interesting words that aren't in common usage here in the States, or for that matter in the 21st century.
Miss Silver must be a second cousin once removed from Miss Marple. They share that detective gene - the one that allows them to be hyper alert to nuance and details. There are some repeat characters, but be prepared to meet and remember a cast of at least 10 people in each story.
By the way, I looked up watersplash, and from what I could deduce, it is a stream running across a seldom used country lane. One that does not require a bridge, but rather a few stepping stones. And be prepared for other arcane and interesting words that aren't in common usage here in the States, or for that matter in the 21st century.
August 23, 2012
I may mark it down when I finish, but right now it is like an Angela Thirkell novel except with a murder mystery happening. I am in love.
Finished, and it was quite satisfactory. Wentworth did very very interesting things with references to Victorian novels; I suspect there might be a more direct parallel I can track down between the plot in this book involving Arnold, Edward & the will, and something by Trollope. It is a tempting thing to write a paper about someday, a sort of Victorian afterlife.
It also occurs to me to wonder if the paintings on Miss Silver's walls reflect anything thematic, since they do seem to change over time, and of course my pet WHH's Awakening Conscience gets mentioned in one of them (maybe 'Miss Silver Deals with Death'?)
Finished, and it was quite satisfactory. Wentworth did very very interesting things with references to Victorian novels; I suspect there might be a more direct parallel I can track down between the plot in this book involving Arnold, Edward & the will, and something by Trollope. It is a tempting thing to write a paper about someday, a sort of Victorian afterlife.
It also occurs to me to wonder if the paintings on Miss Silver's walls reflect anything thematic, since they do seem to change over time, and of course my pet WHH's Awakening Conscience gets mentioned in one of them (maybe 'Miss Silver Deals with Death'?)
November 28, 2017
This is the first Miss Silver I've read in years, and I have to say that I enjoyed it more before Miss S entered the story. Wentworth wasn't a bad writer at all, but her detective is so predictable that all inventiveness and interest seemed to end with a thud when she showed up. I'm of two minds about the world Wentworth's novels inhabit: part of me loves the coziness and the other part is skeptical as to whether it actually ever existed. The Watersplash was first published in 1954, which was late in the writer's career, and very late for cozy villages, but by then she was pretty much writing to a formula. I actually figured out who the murderer was long before the end, which I usually don't do.
December 18, 2023
James Random has died, leaving his entire estate to his brother Arnold, since their nephew Edward, who disappeared five years previously, has been assumed to be dead. But then suddenly Edward returns, and Arnold seems worried for some reason. And then the peaceful village of Greenings is further disturbed when someone drowns in the watersplash. And Edward comes under suspicion. As things start to look bad for Edward, Miss Silver arrives in the village to investigate. A very enjoyable village mystery, Miss Silver is not as vivid a character as Miss Marple, but she is pleasant and sensible and it is always nice to spend a few hours in her company.
January 2, 2014
this is a great series. Miss Maude Silver is one of those "detectives" who are very understated and smart. Two people are murdered at a watersplash (a ford across a stream) in a small village. Maude Silver comes to town at the request of a friend to look into the deaths. She finds other mysteries also, a man who was thought to be dead who reappears after five years and a missing will. With information she agins from the village gossip and talk soon Maude is solving the mystery. I highly recommend the whole series. It is well written and intelligent.
May 29, 2014
If you enjoy Miss Marple
If you enjoy Miss Marple
I have finally found another detective similar to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. She knits, she gossips, and always know who did it. 's Wentworth did not quite weave a intricate mystery as Dame Agatha since I was pretty sure who did it about halfway through the book, but it was still a good read. I've read all the Christie books at least 5 times so I'm glad to find a new series.
If you enjoy Miss Marple
I have finally found another detective similar to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. She knits, she gossips, and always know who did it. 's Wentworth did not quite weave a intricate mystery as Dame Agatha since I was pretty sure who did it about halfway through the book, but it was still a good read. I've read all the Christie books at least 5 times so I'm glad to find a new series.
May 19, 2017
I love Miss Silver, and once again, she did not disappoint. I did figure out the killer about halfway through, but that may be because I've read so many of Wentworth's books, and she is a bit of a formula writer.
October 17, 2018
Although I found the mystery slightly predictable, the characters and setting were well done. I felt fully the small town atmosphere. The healing of the family relationship at the heart of the story was unexpected and particularly pleasing and touching.
January 1, 2018
One of my favourite books by Wentworth
April 6, 2019
A decent read, rather charming. A bit too obvious but good.
September 11, 2020
Countryside setting again in this Miss Silver novel, with a large country house, making the books resemble TV's “Midsomer Murders” (and several of the Miss Silver plots may have been “lifted” for the series).
There is the usual large cast of characters young and old, with a few familiar types for readers of Patricia Wentworth's series. There is never a great surprise by the guilty, in the end, but I suppose the pleasure is in getting there.
As with most of the Miss Silver novels, the elderly detective joins the story quite a way in, and begins her work without a client. We follow first the local Inspector, who gets more info from his wife than from the people involved, via gossip (a TV's “Midsomer Murders” favorite, to upset the policeman). Later, Inspector Abbott, Miss Silver's personal Scotland Yard policeman, joins the case.
There are quite a few large blocks of description and dialog, and while there are some in her previous books, they seem to be excessive in this one, slowing the story for the reader. There is a good ending of case for Miss Silver with some excitement, and solid romantic ending for the romantic duo.
I had the feeling in the last few books in the series that the author was catering to her American readers with romanticized portrayals of rural England, which only reinforced the link to TV's twee “Midsomer Murders”. Lots of tea and scones, fruit cake, great houses, cottages, the Vicar and Vicarage, village characters...that sort of thing.
There is the usual large cast of characters young and old, with a few familiar types for readers of Patricia Wentworth's series. There is never a great surprise by the guilty, in the end, but I suppose the pleasure is in getting there.
As with most of the Miss Silver novels, the elderly detective joins the story quite a way in, and begins her work without a client. We follow first the local Inspector, who gets more info from his wife than from the people involved, via gossip (a TV's “Midsomer Murders” favorite, to upset the policeman). Later, Inspector Abbott, Miss Silver's personal Scotland Yard policeman, joins the case.
There are quite a few large blocks of description and dialog, and while there are some in her previous books, they seem to be excessive in this one, slowing the story for the reader. There is a good ending of case for Miss Silver with some excitement, and solid romantic ending for the romantic duo.
I had the feeling in the last few books in the series that the author was catering to her American readers with romanticized portrayals of rural England, which only reinforced the link to TV's twee “Midsomer Murders”. Lots of tea and scones, fruit cake, great houses, cottages, the Vicar and Vicarage, village characters...that sort of thing.
May 20, 2022
This is far and away the best of the Miss Silver series I have read recently. Although first published in 1951, it has the feel of an earlier era, perhaps the 1930s, with plenty of servants even in middle-class households, and a general atmosphere of deference to class and authority, as well as a rather quaint reference to Bolsheviks.
Maud Silver serves the ends of justice with her sub-Marple methodology, always being in the right place, with the appropriate personal connections, and forever knowing the answers in advance of her probing questions.
Here we have two murders, questions of inheritance, blackmail, and the obligatory romance between a strong, tight-lipped young man and a feisty young woman. It is set, Christie-fashion, in a gossipy English village, full of interfering women, and strangely devoid of men.
The characterisation is strong, since the lack of real plot allows plenty of time for it. The murderer is very easy to spot, and the hoary staples of the communal typewriter and the telephone party-line are both used to good effect.There are lots of secrets. As Miss Silver says :-
" '... It is only a guilty person who can afford to be silent. The investigation of a murder is always handicapped by the fact that so many people have something which they would prefer to hide.’"
Enjoyably predictable.
3.5 stars.
Maud Silver serves the ends of justice with her sub-Marple methodology, always being in the right place, with the appropriate personal connections, and forever knowing the answers in advance of her probing questions.
Here we have two murders, questions of inheritance, blackmail, and the obligatory romance between a strong, tight-lipped young man and a feisty young woman. It is set, Christie-fashion, in a gossipy English village, full of interfering women, and strangely devoid of men.
The characterisation is strong, since the lack of real plot allows plenty of time for it. The murderer is very easy to spot, and the hoary staples of the communal typewriter and the telephone party-line are both used to good effect.There are lots of secrets. As Miss Silver says :-
" '... It is only a guilty person who can afford to be silent. The investigation of a murder is always handicapped by the fact that so many people have something which they would prefer to hide.’"
Enjoyably predictable.
3.5 stars.
May 23, 2021
Blackmail, a heir back from the dead, and murder makeup this Miss Silver story.
In Greenings, there are too many secrets and too many people willing to blackmail others for them. When one man threatens another with blackmail in the church late at night, he's found dead in a watersplash the next morning. Another person has overheard this threat and uses it for her own good. The wife of the murdered man saw something, but she's not speaking. At least, not until Miss Silver gets involved and pieces the story together. When a second person is found dead in the same watersplash, murder and not accidental drowning is now suspected, and Miss Silver is determined it will be the last.
Such a great read and quick to get through. The plot and characters are engaging, and Miss Silver's deductions are always fun to follow. I continue to recommend this series and this author to fans of historical mysteries based in the English countryside. :)
In Greenings, there are too many secrets and too many people willing to blackmail others for them. When one man threatens another with blackmail in the church late at night, he's found dead in a watersplash the next morning. Another person has overheard this threat and uses it for her own good. The wife of the murdered man saw something, but she's not speaking. At least, not until Miss Silver gets involved and pieces the story together. When a second person is found dead in the same watersplash, murder and not accidental drowning is now suspected, and Miss Silver is determined it will be the last.
Such a great read and quick to get through. The plot and characters are engaging, and Miss Silver's deductions are always fun to follow. I continue to recommend this series and this author to fans of historical mysteries based in the English countryside. :)
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