Patricia Wentworth The Case of William Smith (1950)
This is by far my favourite book in the 'Miss Silver' series. It made it worth it to throw all my reading plans into disarray when I decided to binge on as many of Patricia Wentworth's 'Miss Silver' series that I could get on the Kindle (a lot). And I had to read them in order... Some I had read before; some I think I had read before: but their gentle plots about unrequited love with headstrong yet helpless heroines and tall, strong heroes - interspersed with clever murders - blended together into a sort of comforting mash of golden age English crime. No surprises, very little gore and lots of gloves and hats.
In The Case of William Smith we have a hero with an inconvenient loss of memory, and a heroine (a proper neat and dainty young lady) done out of her rightful inheritance. There are scheming relatives and bitchy office managers, country-houses with mysterious carvings, and plenty of dismal misty weather, making it easy to push the wrong people under buses and thus make the murderer think up more and more elaborate schemes.
A perfect cosy read. Lie back and think of England.
Rating: 5/5.
If you liked this... the earlier Miss Silver books are cosier than the later (and the last one in the series The Girl in the Cellar should be avoided at all costs).
I see that they are being reissued with less girly covers
(but not for Australian Kindle owners).
I've never even heard of Patricia Wentworth! Golden age English crime fiction? Good heavens, where have I been (reaching for my Kindle.)
ReplyDeleteThe first one (Grey Mask) is a bit weak, but then there's a solid stream of hits until the last couple in the series (and the last one is basically unedited thoughts). The early ones are low in violence; the rough stuff gradually increases through the series. I don't think she had such a good handle on social change as Agatha Christie did, for instance.
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