Bøker av Patricia Wentworth

When she found the body of her beloved Uncle Jonathan, Georgina instinctively stooped to pick up the revolver, thus becoming the prime suspect. Georgina stood to inherit a large fortune when her uncle died. But her uncle had a second secret will and the beneficiary is the wide-eyed ingenue Mirrie Fields. But there was also the puzzle of the missing fingerprint. It was the showpiece of Uncle Jonathan's collection. He had acquired it from a self-confessed murderer, who was still at large. When the old man was shot, the print had been torn from its album. Was the missing fingerprint the clue to the murderer's identity? Maud Silver is determined to find out.

It's nearing the end of WWII, and Michael Harsh has been working for the government on a secret project for years. Finally he is ready to hand over the formula. But the next morning he is dead. It looks like suicide. Only Miss Silver knows it's murder.

New Year's Eve, 1940, is unusual for the Paradine family. Departing from tradition, James Paradine makes a speech that changes the course of many lives. Valuable documents have disappeared. A member of the family has taken them. The culprit has until midnight to confess and return the papers. A few minutes after twelve James Paradine is dead. It is left to Miss Silver to disentangle the threads that bind the Paradine family in a strange web of dislike, hatred and fear.

Charming men can be the most dangerous . . .Jenny is 18 when her guardian is killed and her wealthy relations the Forbes invite her to stay. Consoled by the affectionate attentions of their little girls and the charming elder son, she starts to find her feet again.Then she overhears a private conversation and realises she is in terrible danger. Terrified and bewildered, Jenny flees from the village, desperately hoping her enemies will forget all about her. But she's wrong . . .

Nothing much ever seemed to happen in the sleepy village of Hazel Green apart from the occasional tea-party, spiced with local gossip. Until Maggie Bell went out one evening for a breath of fresh air and never came back. Could Maggie's disappearance be linked to security leaks at the nearby Air Ministry? Or is a sinister scheme being hatched closer to home? Miss Silver is called in to solve the mystery just as a second person goes missing ...

To the innocent visitor the picturesque village of Greenings would appear to be a haven of tranquility. But every place has its secrets and beneath the calm surface lurk hidden resentments and dangerous passions. When a man is found lying face down in a nearby watersplash, the verdict is death by misadventure. But Miss Silver happens to be in the neighbourhood and she suspects foul play ...

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.

CLASSIC GOLDEN AGE MYSTERY PERFECT FOR FANS OF AGATHA CHRISTIEMiss Silver must foil a plot to murder a beautiful young heiress'Ranks with the best of the golden-age detectives' Daily MailFurious at being jilted at the altar by his once-fianc Margaret Langton, Charles Moray left England behind him. Now, four years later, he returns to his family home, only to find it unlocked and with a light burning in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, Charles soon discovers that a criminal gang has been using his house to plan a vicious crime. The target is the beautiful Margot Standing, who is due to inherit a considerable fortune. And what's more he recognises the voices of one of the conspirators - his lost love Margaret Langton.How did Margaret come to be involved? And who is the terrifying masked man who has her in his thrall? Charles contacts Miss Silver to unravel the mysteries of the case and, if she can, save Margot Standings life. 'A first-rate storyteller' Daily Telegraph'You can't go wrong with Miss Maud Silver' Observer'Miss Silver is marvellous' Daily Mail'Better than Miss Marple' Mary Stewart'A particular favourite' Andrew Taylor 'Miss Wentworth's plot is ingenious, her characterization acute, her solution satisfying' Scotsman'Miss Silver has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot' Manchester Evening News

A classic mystery novel from one of the mistresses of the genre.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, needless to say, invariably won.More than one person at Latter End found themselves stretched to the limit by Lois and her bullying, and it was only a matter of time before somebody snapped. It was unthinkable of course . . . but if anyone ever murdered Lois Latter, it would be very embarrassing to discover just how many people might have wished her dead.

Martin Brand's relatives are furious that he's left his large estate to his niece, Marion, whom he had only met once. And Marion is upset that she has to share her new home with Martin's family. Then a body is found on the beach wearing her coat. Fortunately Miss Silver is on the scene.

For Althea Graham, suffering the whims of her malevolent invalid of a mother, the old family home is a prison. So when two strangely competitive offers for the Graham's house are made to her it suggests that house may hold some dark rewarding secret. Then old Mrs Graham is found murdered in the gazebo ...

A bloody curse fells four...Judy Elliot, meeting an old friend, Detective Sergeant Abbott tells him that, having been left the custody of her motherless little niece, she is taking a domestic job in the country with a family named Pilgrim. Frank is appalled, mysterious deaths have been taking place there. A curse is on the house of Pilgrim's Rest and by the time Miss Silver investigates she has four murders to solve.

Murder on haunted ground . . .Mary Stokes was walking through Dead Man's Copse one evening when she saw, in the beam of a torch, the corpse of a young woman dressed in a black coat, black gloves, no hat and an eternity ring set with diamonds in her ear. But when she and Detective Sergeant Frank Abbott went back to the wood the body had vanished.This would have been mystery enough for Miss Silver to solve if a woman had not also reported that her lodger had gone out on Friday dressed in a black coat, black beret, black shoes and large hoop earrings 'set all round with little diamonds like those eternity rings.' She never came back...

The Catherine-Wheel had once been a home for pirates and smugglers, but now is looked like it was harbouring a murderer.There was a certain heavy air of intrigue and mystery emanating from the old inn high on the cliff top. The Catherine-Wheel had once been a home for pirates and smugglers, but now is looked like it was harbouring a murderer.It had begun with an advertisement in the paper requesting descendants of the late innkeeper, Jeremiah Taverner, to stay for a weekend at the inn. They had arrived, a mixed assortment, to the family reunion eager to discover the secrets of their ancestry. But one of them had been hideously murdered, bringing the inn's stormy past into frightening focus.Scotland Yard, already suspicious of dope smuggling in the area, sends Maud Silver to investigate before the fireworks start to fly.

No one would ever have guessed that Paulina Paine was deaf, and that her ability to lip-read was astonishing. So the two men who met one day during the showing of a new art exhibition did not realise until too late that the middle-aged tweedy figure sitting out of earshot could understand every word they said. And it had been no ordinary conversation. In fact, Paulina was so shaken by its implications that she went to see Miss Silver straight away. As the violence escalates, Miss Silver finds herself at a very tense house party where all the guests are linked in some way to Paulina. And one of them is a killer ...

There is a curse on the Benevents . . .Somewhere among the dust and cobwebs of the sinister Benevent Mansion lies the legendary Benevent treasure. But a terrible death has been prophesied for whoever uncovers it.When Candida Sayle is invited to visit her elderly maiden aunts, she dismisses such gloomy thoughts. But as Candida begins to discover the family's dark secrets she puts herself in grave danger.Thankfully Miss Silver has investigative skills of her own.

James Cray was always a cruel man . . .When he was 21 James Lessiter told Henrietta Cray that he loved her before all things and so broke Catherine Lee's heart. But James has a side to him that most people do not see. When the engagement is broken off noone is sure why and Rietta refuses to explain.Twenty years later James returns to the village an extremely wealthy man. Rietta is still unmarried and Catherine is a penniless widow living in a cottage on the Lessiter estate.Trouble is inevitable, for Catherine has started to sell some of the valuable contents of the cottage to keep up a lifestyle she cannot afford but James has his suspicions and is looking forward to exposing her. He has always enjoyed seeing someone else suffer whatever the cost.