Patricia Wentworth

Step into the intricate world of intrigue and suspense with Grey Mask, the first installment of Patricia Wentworth's celebrated Miss Silver Mysteries series. Originally published in 1928, this novel introduces readers to Miss Maud Silver, a retired governess turned private detective, whose sharp mind and unassuming demeanor make her one of crime fiction's most enduring sleuths. The story begins when Charles Moray returns to England after a four-year...

A tale of memory loss and murder starring a sleuth who “has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot” (Manchester Evening News).
 She awakes in a dark place. A young woman with a shattered memory, she knows neither who she is nor how she came to be in this abandoned house. All she possesses is a faint sense that someone is lying dead at the foot of the stairs. Horrifyingly,...

A gardener’s death sends a country house into a frenzy, and a governess-turned-sleuth digs in to the case: “Miss Silver is marvelous” (Daily Mail).
  Edward Random returns to Deeping a forgotten man. Although raised in the village’s manor house, he is no longer wealthy—the result of a quarrel with an uncle, which left him out of the old man’s will. For years Edward’s name has...

The “marvelous” British-governess-turned-sleuth investigates a disappearance in a village near a top-secret government research facility (Daily Mail).
 Jenny Maxwell is a bright young child. After an automobile accident leaves her barely able to walk, she retreats into a world of fantasy, devouring novel after novel of steamy romance. Now she has begun to write, and for a twelve-year-old she shows great promise....

When a British industrialist is murdered on New Year’s Eve, his wealthy family members are the prime suspects.
  Though they share a manor house, the Paradines are not close, and their patriarch does nothing to discourage the petty jealousies that divide wealthy families. A cold figure, James Paradine prefers work to his relations, but on New Year’s Eve he convenes the household. Valuable plans have been stolen from his...

Miss Silver comes to the aid of Scotland Yard when a village is turned upside-down by cruel anonymous letters: “A first-rate storyteller” (The Daily Telegraph).
 It is through her friend Frank Abbott, of Scotland Yard, that Miss Silver first learns of the anonymous letters. A widowed cousin of his, living in a small country village, is being tortured by an unknown author who insinuates that the young...

When a controlling old woman is murdered, her caretaking daughter is the prime suspect: “Miss Silver is marvelous” (Daily Mail).
 Althea Graham might have had a life of her own, had it not been for her mother. But when her father died she inherited her bitter, temperamental parent along with the house, and she has borne that burden ever since. She nearly escaped once, but her engagement to Nicholas Carey caused...

A scientist flees Germany—but meets death in a little English village: From “a first-rate storyteller” (The Daily Telegraph).
  Michael Harsch’s life has never been easy. A German Jew, he fled his country when Hitler came to power, escaping the concentration camps by the skin of his teeth. His wife and daughter were not so lucky, and he vowed revenge on the Fuhrer through science. He set to work on...

A clever British mystery about a jewel collector, a criminal, and a governess-turned-sleuth, from “a first-rate storyteller” (The Daily Telegraph).
 He cannot say why, but Lewis Brading is an uneasy man. A collector of valuable jewels, he has taken the utmost precautions to safeguard what is most precious to him. He houses his gems in a concrete annex, protected by a reinforced steel door, the latest...

Governess-turned-sleuth Miss Silver must follow a trail of poison-pen letters to save an heiress from murder.
Rachel Treherne has always had a steady head on her shoulders; it’s why her late father named her the sole trustee of his considerable fortune. But the decision galled a number of Rachel’s relatives, including her married older sister, her socialist nephew, and her father’s ambitious young cousin.
Rachel...