Miss Silver Comes to Stay

Miss Silver Comes to Stay (written in 1949) is the 15th in the Miss Silver series. Like many of the books from the Golden Age authors, it is as much an exploration of the changes morals of post-war British life as it is a mystery novel. In Miss Silver Comes to Stay, the lead character goes to visit an old friend from school in the sleepy town of Melling. What she finds instead is a story of a prodigal son, star-crossed lovers, and a series of unfortunate events that lead inevitably to murder. This book is a good example of the strong elements of Wentworth as a writer. I read it with a great deal of pleasure, and suspect that other fans of the Golden Age Detective writers will do so as well. Wentworth may not be as strong as some of her contemporaries (I prefer Christie, Marsh, and Sayers myself) but her books deserve their longevity and would warmly recommend them to mystery fans.

I've been reading and in some cases re-reading the Miss Silver series, and I must say that I enjoyed this one as much as any of them. It's classic Miss Silver - a little English village, an unpopular landowner, and a whole slew of possible murderers when that unpopular landowner gets murdered. It takes Miss Silver to unravel the plot (just as efficiently as she unravels her wool). There are lots of twists and turns and a few red herrings thrown in. Pretty good stuff!

Inviting Miss Silver for a visit seems tantemount to requesting a murder. In this post WW II story, a quiet English village is thrown into a tizzy when the local grande dame dies and her son returns to arrange her affairs. There is also a plethora of people who have a reason for wanting to see him dead.Miss Silver in a happy coincidence is visiting an old school chum in the same village; therefore, she is near at hand to use her skills for ferreting out the truth, when a murder does occur. Published not long after the end of WW II, Ms. Wentworth does a better than average job in this particular mystery. Her starcrossed couples are nicely drawn and the mystery is not badly set up.

Funny how in small English villages, people's memory seem to be especially long and sharp. When the wealthy James Lessiter is murdered, there's no lack of suspects, including the girlfriend he dumped many years ago.Greatly entertaining, with surprising plots and ending.