Miss Silver Comes To Stay (1996) - Plot & Excerpts
Just when I think I've really delved into the Golden Age of mystery writing, that I've read a wide array of authors, and met the most important characters in the genre; I realize something very important, I'm only getting started. Patricia Wentworth and her knitting detective, Miss Silver, have popped up on my radar before. I'm sure that both Yvette of in so many words... and Bev of My Reader's Block have reviewed her books before. My first experience with Miss Silver, was a parodied version of her that appeared in Marion Mainwaring's Murder in Pastiche. It wasn't my favorite book, I normally don't like parodies, but it pushed me in the direction of finally getting to meet the real Miss Silver for myself.Now that I've met her, I'm feeling a little let down. I'm not sure if it's the author's writing style, the character herself, or maybe just this book. I'm pretty sure it's not the style, because it's similar in tone to Agatha Christie and Mary Roberts Rinehart, both of whom I adore. Nor do I think it's the character of Miss Silver. In many ways she reminds me of Jane Marple and others of her ilk. And who doesn't love Jane Marple. So that leaves me with the book itself leaving me a bit cold, but I'm not really sure that's all that fair either.The mystery was a pretty standard English murder mystery. The local lord is found dead in his study, bludgeoned to death with a fireplace poker. The cast of suspects includes a local woman he was engaged to, a young man who's wife he stole away, and a woman accused of stealing from his family. The murder victim himself was a jerk to the nth degree,and deserved his fate. What of Miss Silver, I'm really not sure actually, she was barely in the story. And there lies my problem with the book. I'm not really sure who Miss Silver is as a character. Much like Hercule Poirot in The Mystery of the Blue Train, the main character is rarely on the scene. Miss Silver does solve the case, I just wish I had got to know her better. I have one more Miss Silver book waiting to be read, so I'm hoping I have another chance to get to know her. If not, I'm not sure this will be a series I revisit very much. Part of what I love about this era in mystery writing are the detectives, they are all strange and eccentric, so I want more character. If I can't get it from Patricia Wentworth, it's time to move on to those I can get satisfaction from.
I read this for a book club that I'm just joining. It's a murder mystery set in the late 1940's. The writing was fine - very old fashioned etc. etc. in keeping with the times. My Silver is a sort of old lady detective with sleuthing abilities that all the characters marvel at given her career as a governess.I didn't guess the murderer right off so that's something.I didn't dislike it terribly - it just wasn't very intriguing for me and thus probably won't be a series that I'll read again.I went and looked at the author profile and that gave me a better understanding of the book. I kept thinking it reminded me of the Agatha Christie series about Jane Marple and now I see that people do make that comparison.Patricia Wentworth born November 10, 1878 in Mussorie, Uttarakhand, Indiadied January 28, 1961gender femalegenre Mystery & ThrillersAbout this author edit dataPatricia 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
What do You think about Miss Silver Comes To Stay (1996)?
I think what I like about this series is that it's a lot easier to figure out who's going to be clobbered than who the killer is. The murder victims are so nasty, that it's not much of a care when they do get done in. The reader is made to feel far more for the main suspects, which I did in this one.Overall a good, solid traditional mystery. The one thing that I have found annoying so far is that when Miss Silver disapproves of what someone is saying or doing, she coughs. I mean, she must cough like a TB victim, she coughs so much. It gets to the point where i just skip over the cough to get to the clues.
—Grey853
This book is average. Wentworth is no master of prose, but neither is she terrible. Her mystery is sadly bereft of the usual suspense a murder mystery has because she eliminates too many suspects as she goes. Her protagonist isn't much. Miss Silver's main talent exists in getting people to trust her enough to tell he what's going on, which I suppose is a talent, but it puts her well below the Miss Marples of the world. She never really sleuths.There were small annoyances in this one. I grew extremely weary of reading "Miss Silver coughed." Miss Silver is always coughing--sometimes in a meaningful way, and sometimes for no reason. Couldn't Wentworth think of a better distinguishing character trait for her title character? I guess she knits, too...I see my review has been mainly negative to this point, so let me stress that for all the above faults, I never wanted to give up on the book, and some of the characters are likable. It has a decent end, but not the exciting, "One of the people in this room is guilty!" scenes that I enjoy so much. I don't discourage you from reading this one, and neither do I encourage you to read it. I probably won't read more Wentworth any time soon.
—Nathan Eilers
Not a great read. The writing was bland. The mystery was lacking. The suspects were eliminated as suspects as you read so the suspense was lacking. And Miss Silver didn't do much but talk to a few people and gain their confidence. A decent DCI should have been able to do the same and not need her to solve the case (but this mystery lies on the whole premise that the Chief Constable was completely baffled and only lead aright because of Miss Silver). So, not that great and no need to read more by Patricia Wentworth.
—Sarah
