Hired to trace Anna Ball, who has vanished, Miss Maud Silver encounters an eccentric art colony, bank robberies and counterfeiting. As with other Miss Silver mysteries, the story relies on character development. Nadia May reads clearly and distinguishes individuals well; her British voice is ideal for this genteel period thriller (1951). Agatha Christie fans will enjoy this one. The narration is speeded up to fit six cassettes, but it is not hard to follow.
When Car Fairfax starts his mysterious new job, his sole duty seems to be to dine in expensive restaurants, but soon some odd coincidences and dangerous deceits open his eyes to the truth.
This is one of some 30 Miss Silver mysteries which Patricia Wentworth wrote during her lifetime. It concerns money motivated marriages and has a complex plot, full of suspense. The author has a large and devoted readership in both Britain and America.
Ninguna ley impide que una famosa actriz, con mucho dinero y alg?n que otro remordimiento, quiera sentirse acompa?ada en su vejez, tras retirarse de la escena. Pero el sentido com?n debiera de impedir que, a cambio de no estar solo, una vieja rica reuniera en una solitaria mansi?n rural a un conjunto de parientes par?sitos dispuestos a quedarse en exclusiva con su herencia. Porque as? pasa lo que pasa: se empieza con envidias, rivalidades y rencores y se termina por encontrar cad?veres flotando en el estanque de la finca.
Four years ago Charles Moray had been jilted at the altar by Margaret Langton. Four years later he returns to London to find his ex-fiancee mixed up in a vicious plot involving kidnap and worse.
Immediately on her arrival at Ladies’ House, Ione Muir realizes that all is not right with her newly married sister, Allegra. The town of Bleake is charming, but the medieval manor house itself-known by a sinister local legend as Ladies’ Bane-is full of gloomy depths and twisting staircases. Her brother-in-law, Geoffrey Trent, intends to purchase the expensive property, with which he is clearly infatuated, although his wife seems frightened by it. But it is soon obvious that Allegra is under the constant influence of narcotics. Miss Silver, hired by Allegra’s godmother to investigate Geoffrey’s finances, is the first to suspect foul play when his mischevious young ward, Margot, dies in a mysterious accident. Her keen intellect and uncanny understanding of human nature help Miss Silver to reveal the ominous forces that are at work in this strange household.
Things had never been quite the same at Latter End since Lois had taken over. Suddenly life seemed to be an endless succession of bitter family rows, which Lois invariably won. But when Lois Latter is murdered, it's shocking to discover just how many people might have wished her dead.
When James Lessiter returns to Lenton after many years to claim his family estate, his reappearance opens old wounds never healed. Then he is found bludgeoned to death by a fire poker and the suspects are too numerous to count. Thank heavens Miss Silver is in town to visit a friend.
A chance encounter restores Giles Armitage to his fiancee, but the shipwreck has left him with amnesia, and their happiness is threatened by Carola Roland. So when Carola is murdered, Giles is the chief suspect and it takes all Miss Silver's ingenuity to unravel the real significance of the crime.
When Gay Harkwicke and her fiance, Algy, investigate the mysterious Mr. Zero, who is blackmailing Gay's cousin, Algy ends up becoming the prime suspect in a messy murder, and Gay must find the true culprit.
James and Carmona Hardwick are spending the summer playing host to numerous friends and relatives in an old Hardwick family residence by the sea.The arrival of Alan Field, a devastatingly handsome though shady figure from Carmona's past, destroys the holiday atmosphere in the old house and replaces it with a mounting tension, culminating in murder.Fortunately, Miss Silver is present to unravel the complex mystery and seek out the murderer amongst them.
When Columba and Janetta Pilgrim think it unwise to leave their ancestral home after their brother suffers a fatal fall only days after talk of selling it, and Roger Pilgrim barely escapes two nearly fatal "accidents," Miss Maud Silver is called in to look into the case.
When a mysterious suicide follows an outbreak of poison pen letters in the quiet village of Tilling Green, Detective Inspector Frank Abbott of Scotland Yard dispatches Miss Silver to investigate. Disguised as a vacationer, the retired governess stays with Renie Walsh, the town gossip, and learns of the marital and financial difficulties among the Reptons at the Manor House as well as all the petty details of life among the other village inhabitants.It soon becomes apparent to Miss Silver that the suicide was murder and that there is a vicious and demented killer at work. The officious letters still come, exposing or accusing, and the terror mounts with two more seemingly unconnected murders. Miss Silver almost becomes a fourth victim, but outwits the killer with her usual straight-spined aplomb.
Assumed dead, Lady Anne Jocelyn meets varying degrees of welcome when she returns from Occupied France to her old life in England. Though her husband Sir Philip is not overjoyed to see her, he agrees to a trial reunion. But a murder raises his doubts, and then a second and third send Miss Silver to a curious consideration of life after death.
Another case for retired governess turned private detective, Miss Silver. After the death of her guardian, Jenny Hill inherits Alington House. But the present owners, distant relations of Jenny, plan to cheat her out of her inheritance.
Taken in by her two great-aunts, Candida Sayle fears she may become the next victim of the Benevent Treasure, which is said to bring death to anyone who touches it, while Miss Silver investigates the death of a former Benevent employee.
Ross Craddock was just the type to be murdered. The new landlord of Craddock house, he begins by giving eviction notice to his aunt Lucy. He threatens the doorman with dismissal. He makes a violent and unwelcome pass to his cousin Mavis. He is vindictive and spiteful and ends up dead. The suspects include Lee who may have walked in her sleep and killed him out of unconscious fear. Or Peter who may have found Ross' advances to Mavis unbearable. Or aunt Lucy who unexpectedly came back. Or possibly Bobby who was still in love with Mavis and furious that she was seen with Ross. The answer is yet another Wentworth twist. I love her characters and she weaves their personal lives in with the mystery and gives us a treat.
Who was William Smith? And why was Mavis Jones so horrified to see him? The war had robbed William of his memory, and no one expected him to ever find out who he really was. So when he began work at Evesleys Ltd, why was his life so instantly in danger?
It began with an advertisement in the paper requesting descendants of the late innkeeper to stay for a weekend at the inn. They arrived eager, a mixed assortment, but one of them got hideously murdered bringing the inn's stormy past to focus. Maud Silver was sent to investigate.
On New Year's Eve, 1940, James Paradine makes a speech to his family. Valuable documents have disappeared and the culprit has until midnight to confess. A few minutes after twelve James is dead and it is up to retired governess turned private detective Miss Silver to solve the mystery.
When she found the body of her beloved Uncle Jonathan, Georgina stooped to pick up the revolver, thus becoming the prime suspect. But there was also the missing fingerprint – the showpiece of Uncle Jonathan's collection, apparently acquired from a self-confessed murderer, who was still at large.
And then all at once they were in the dark together, for the moon went out suddenly like a blown candle. She had dropped into a bank of clouds that rose from the clouding west. The wind blew a little chill, and as suddenly as the light had gone, David, too, was gone. One moment, so near-touching her in the darkness-and the next, gone-gone noiselessly, leaving her shaking, quivering.
Althea Graham's hypochondriac mother seldom visitsthe gazebo- yet she is found dead in it one morning.The Graham estate had once enjoyed a rural view, butnow the grounds are part of suburban London and thegazebo is an anachronistic summerhouse. Scotland Yardbecomes suspisious of Althea and her fiance, thedashing foreign correspondent Nicholas Carey, becausethe death of her mother frees them to be married atlast. Miss Silver is fortunately a friend of Althea'sand comes to the rescue, complete with knittingneedles, a gentle smile, and the preception of a mindreader.
