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Miss Silver #26
The Benevent Treasure
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.
353 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
216 people are currently reading
500 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Wentworth
165 books524 followersPatricia 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
September 14, 2019
This is one of Patricia Wentworth’s best “Miss Silver” novels yet. It has a mysterious, eerie, even spooky atmosphere that is, in part, due to the big old house where the elderly Miss Benevents live. They have invited their great-niece, Candida, to stay with them after her elderly aunt on “the other side” of her family passes away.
The legend of the Benevent Treasure is intriguing – especially the fact that anyone who attempts to ‘raid’ the treasure ends up dead. Candida is not comfortable at all in her new situation as she feels a measure of hostility from one of her aunts and is immeasurably sorry for the other one. Even though she grows fond of one of her aunts, she can’t help but feel a need to leave. Except she has nowhere to go.
Wonderfully crafted, and highly entertaining, this novel is satisfying on every level. Exploring Patricia Wentworth’s series featuring Miss Silver from the very first book in the order they were written has been so rewarding.
I have enjoyed experiencing the process of Patricia Wentworth’s writing progress. Although her writing has been good from the first, Ms Wentworth’s writing has taken the reader to higher levels over the last three or four novels. This is one of those bonuses I seek when reading, and it is so gratifying to experience the writer’s journey at the same time that I enjoy my involvement in the novels.
This was actually on August’s list and I didn’t quite get there. However, I still have hope that I will be able to fit September’s Miss Silver novel in later this month.
The legend of the Benevent Treasure is intriguing – especially the fact that anyone who attempts to ‘raid’ the treasure ends up dead. Candida is not comfortable at all in her new situation as she feels a measure of hostility from one of her aunts and is immeasurably sorry for the other one. Even though she grows fond of one of her aunts, she can’t help but feel a need to leave. Except she has nowhere to go.
Wonderfully crafted, and highly entertaining, this novel is satisfying on every level. Exploring Patricia Wentworth’s series featuring Miss Silver from the very first book in the order they were written has been so rewarding.
I have enjoyed experiencing the process of Patricia Wentworth’s writing progress. Although her writing has been good from the first, Ms Wentworth’s writing has taken the reader to higher levels over the last three or four novels. This is one of those bonuses I seek when reading, and it is so gratifying to experience the writer’s journey at the same time that I enjoy my involvement in the novels.
This was actually on August’s list and I didn’t quite get there. However, I still have hope that I will be able to fit September’s Miss Silver novel in later this month.
April 10, 2024
This was my favorite in the series so far.The actual mystery was such a good puzzle, and in retrospect I see that the clues were all there.This is my favorite trope a big, scary house a prominent family, and a bunch of little mysteries as well as the main murder. Patricia Wentworth is SO underrated and these Miss Silver mysteries are filled with well drawn characters that are real- each mystery is unique and the background is always intriguing. If you're a Christie fan or like the show Midsommer Murders, this one is definitely worth checking out and so is the entire series I feel the need to add these don't have to be read in order and now that I look back I don't think it's wise to start with the first one 'the Grey Mask' as I feel it's mediocre at best and if I had started with it, I wouldn't have gone on although, that's only my opinion. There are many to choose from, this one has my 5 star recommendation!
August 10, 2021
Miss Silver used her strongest expression of disapproval. She said, “Dear me!”
This is the first Patricia Wentworth mystery I’ve read and I picked this one, the 26th in the “Miss Silver” series, for its Gothic vibes. Unlike a puzzle mystery with a big reveal at the end, we hang out with the heroine and figure things out along with her. It reminded me a bit of a Mary Stewart novel in that way. Creepy old house, scary old ladies, secret passages hidden by bookcases…all the Gothic candy. But I didn’t get quite as much sensory detail as I wanted and didn’t FEEL the atmosphere to the max, so 4 stars instead of 5.
[Olivia] sat very upright, her plain dead black relieved against the white brocaded chair. She had her embroidery-frame upon her lap, and a needle threaded with scarlet silk in her hand. There were three handsome rings on the third finger. They crowded one another, but the diamonds flashed bravely.
Recommended for fans of old-fashioned mysteries and Gothic suspense. I’m looking forward to reading more by Patricia Wentworth.
This is the first Patricia Wentworth mystery I’ve read and I picked this one, the 26th in the “Miss Silver” series, for its Gothic vibes. Unlike a puzzle mystery with a big reveal at the end, we hang out with the heroine and figure things out along with her. It reminded me a bit of a Mary Stewart novel in that way. Creepy old house, scary old ladies, secret passages hidden by bookcases…all the Gothic candy. But I didn’t get quite as much sensory detail as I wanted and didn’t FEEL the atmosphere to the max, so 4 stars instead of 5.
[Olivia] sat very upright, her plain dead black relieved against the white brocaded chair. She had her embroidery-frame upon her lap, and a needle threaded with scarlet silk in her hand. There were three handsome rings on the third finger. They crowded one another, but the diamonds flashed bravely.
Recommended for fans of old-fashioned mysteries and Gothic suspense. I’m looking forward to reading more by Patricia Wentworth.
January 17, 2017
An intriguing mystery involving an ancient British country home, a long-missing aide to two little old ladies, and their legendary treasure. Spoiler alert: the treasure is found, but not before tragedy strikes again.
July 12, 2010
A number of lovely ladies from the cozy mystery group on Goodreads recommended reading Patricia Wentworth. They said, “If you like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, you’ll love Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver.” Well, having recently read a little Agatha Christie and quite enjoying it, I simply had to try Patricia Wentworth. These ladies were absolutely correct. I love Miss Silver and I adore Patricia Wentworth’s writing. This was a fun mystery with eccentric aunts, a hidden treasure, and even a little romance. I will definitely be reading more Patricia Wentworth.
January 22, 2009
Number 26 in the Miss Silver series.
If you fancy a good British mystery story and like little old ladies who can somehow remain unobtrusive yet solve the crime, then I would suggest you try this series.
The story begins with a short prelude. Here we meet Candida Sayle, who will become the main character in due time, who is then 15 and has gone to a seaside hotel to wait for a friend who is delayed. She decides to take a walk along the beach, and is told by two other guests at the place that it shouldn't be a problem since there won't be a high tide for another two hours. Well, as it turns out, they were wrong, and she finds out only too late when she is stranded on a cliff as the tide comes in. Along comes help, though, in the form of Stephen, who is out birdwatching and hears her cries for help.
Fast forward five years, and we now meet the older Candida, whose guardian-aunt has just died and left Candida with no prospects. So as luck would have it, she receives a letter from a great-aunt, the sister of her grandmother, inviting her to come and stay with her (Olivia) and her sister (Cara) at a house called Underhill. So off our heroine goes and almost immediately strange occurrences begin that end in murder. Luckily for all involved, Miss Silver just happens to be visiting a cousin in the area, but she is also there to investigate the disappearance some time back of a young man named Alan Thompson. Eventually the two storylines, of course, merge, making for one hell of a good mystery story. I would love to say more, but it would just spoil it for anyone else who wishes to read this book!
Miss Silver is no Miss Marple, but she does get the job done. People who like cozies would like her, but the prose is a bit wordy and a bit dated, so it might put off some readers. Overall, not too bad.
If you fancy a good British mystery story and like little old ladies who can somehow remain unobtrusive yet solve the crime, then I would suggest you try this series.
The story begins with a short prelude. Here we meet Candida Sayle, who will become the main character in due time, who is then 15 and has gone to a seaside hotel to wait for a friend who is delayed. She decides to take a walk along the beach, and is told by two other guests at the place that it shouldn't be a problem since there won't be a high tide for another two hours. Well, as it turns out, they were wrong, and she finds out only too late when she is stranded on a cliff as the tide comes in. Along comes help, though, in the form of Stephen, who is out birdwatching and hears her cries for help.
Fast forward five years, and we now meet the older Candida, whose guardian-aunt has just died and left Candida with no prospects. So as luck would have it, she receives a letter from a great-aunt, the sister of her grandmother, inviting her to come and stay with her (Olivia) and her sister (Cara) at a house called Underhill. So off our heroine goes and almost immediately strange occurrences begin that end in murder. Luckily for all involved, Miss Silver just happens to be visiting a cousin in the area, but she is also there to investigate the disappearance some time back of a young man named Alan Thompson. Eventually the two storylines, of course, merge, making for one hell of a good mystery story. I would love to say more, but it would just spoil it for anyone else who wishes to read this book!
Miss Silver is no Miss Marple, but she does get the job done. People who like cozies would like her, but the prose is a bit wordy and a bit dated, so it might put off some readers. Overall, not too bad.
September 4, 2012
I had never heard of Patricia Wentworth before and I started off excited about finding another! British! 30s! Mystery writer! but then I read the entire book and realized that it was not a mystery at all (unless, I guess, you are considerably mentally disadvantaged and manage to miss the giant clues that she keeps hitting you over the head with) but instead is one of our old friends, a classic Women Fleeing Architecture Gothic Romance. And in fact there is actual architecture to be fled, although she doesn't do this quickly enough to avoid being tied up in a secret part of it. That right there is the problem with this book and so many of the genre: the old Amityville Horror conundrum, which is to say, if blood is running down the walls and a spectral voice is groaning geeeeetttttt ooooouuuuuttt then anyone, I mean anyone, would get the fuck out and fast, too.
Well, the heroine here, when confronted with the world's creepiest relatives in the form of two identically dressed elderly great aunts who already tried to kill her once when she was a teenager (which she has, like, forgotten despite the fact that it's the whole first chapter of the book and where she gets saved for the first time by her True Love Dudley Do Right clone) doesn't leave the terrifying house. No, she hangs out in Sketchyville, Creep Acres waiting to be murdered. Why? Why would she not leave like any sensible person? Because then there would be no plot, or, let's be honest, vague facsimile thereof.
Still, it's a fun read. Old British mystery/gothic writers could actually write and it all flies along nicely with little sharp sentences spiced with Wodehousian period slang, so, you know, ripping yarn, what?
Well, the heroine here, when confronted with the world's creepiest relatives in the form of two identically dressed elderly great aunts who already tried to kill her once when she was a teenager (which she has, like, forgotten despite the fact that it's the whole first chapter of the book and where she gets saved for the first time by her True Love Dudley Do Right clone) doesn't leave the terrifying house. No, she hangs out in Sketchyville, Creep Acres waiting to be murdered. Why? Why would she not leave like any sensible person? Because then there would be no plot, or, let's be honest, vague facsimile thereof.
Still, it's a fun read. Old British mystery/gothic writers could actually write and it all flies along nicely with little sharp sentences spiced with Wodehousian period slang, so, you know, ripping yarn, what?
January 21, 2016
The Benevent Treasure is best classified as a novel of suspense. There is a murder in the last quarter of the book, but by that point the reader is so engrossed in the goings on at Underhill that it really just serves to heighten the drama.
Underhill is the name of the ancient house in the English countryside built by Ugo di Benevento upon his arrival in Britain from Italy. It was in that house that he hid his treasure...and it is whispered that it remains there to this day. It is into this setting that Candida Sayle sets foot, the last in the line of the Benevents. Upon the invitation of her elderly aunts, she arrives at Underhill and almost immediately finds danger and intrigue. Something is very wrong at Underhill...
Patricia Wentworth has produced a great thriller that keeps the reader guessing. It has everything a good book or movie could want: a heroine, a hero, a romance, a sprawling old manse filled with secret passages and talk of treasure, strong supporting characters and tight plotting. Oh, Miss Silver is here, but she is more of a bystander than a direct participant in the action.
The ending is particularly satisfying as it took the form of those paragraphs some movies have letting the audience know what happened to the various characters months after the action ends. This should be utilized by more authors!
Underhill is the name of the ancient house in the English countryside built by Ugo di Benevento upon his arrival in Britain from Italy. It was in that house that he hid his treasure...and it is whispered that it remains there to this day. It is into this setting that Candida Sayle sets foot, the last in the line of the Benevents. Upon the invitation of her elderly aunts, she arrives at Underhill and almost immediately finds danger and intrigue. Something is very wrong at Underhill...
Patricia Wentworth has produced a great thriller that keeps the reader guessing. It has everything a good book or movie could want: a heroine, a hero, a romance, a sprawling old manse filled with secret passages and talk of treasure, strong supporting characters and tight plotting. Oh, Miss Silver is here, but she is more of a bystander than a direct participant in the action.
The ending is particularly satisfying as it took the form of those paragraphs some movies have letting the audience know what happened to the various characters months after the action ends. This should be utilized by more authors!
February 1, 2013
Atmospheric mystery. A bit slow in the middle but the last part of the book really took off and I enjoyed it very much.
Will have to say that having read a few Miss Silver mysteries, I found that she usually doesn't show up till half way or even near the end of a story to solve the mystery. She tends to take in all the information and does internal processing so the reader does not see her methods of how she comes to the conclusion. I find this all a bit frustrating. And that cough. From day one it got on my nerves.
The other characters in this book were interesting. Combined together made up for some interesting personality conflicts and contributions towards the crime.
I'm glad I read this but am sorry that as a reader I wasn't privy to Miss Silver's thought process on how she comes up with the solution to the many crimes she solves.
Will have to say that having read a few Miss Silver mysteries, I found that she usually doesn't show up till half way or even near the end of a story to solve the mystery. She tends to take in all the information and does internal processing so the reader does not see her methods of how she comes to the conclusion. I find this all a bit frustrating. And that cough. From day one it got on my nerves.
The other characters in this book were interesting. Combined together made up for some interesting personality conflicts and contributions towards the crime.
I'm glad I read this but am sorry that as a reader I wasn't privy to Miss Silver's thought process on how she comes up with the solution to the many crimes she solves.
Read
January 30, 2018This started well and certainly held my interest until the end, but I'm not quite sure why Miss Silver's assistance was required, as there wasn't really much of a mystery and it was quite clear from the start what was going on. I did enjoy the entertainingly homicidal Miss Olivia.
March 31, 2012
Candida Sayle has one incredibly memorable event as a young girl. Invited to the coast with a friend's family but arriving before them, she asks about the tide. Two elderly women note her name and tell her the tide will not rise until 11 p.m. She walks upon the beach, only to be stuck on the cliff side when the tide begins to rise much earlier. Fearing death, she calls out for a time. Stephen Eversly happens to hear her and pulls her up to safety, though they cannot get back to the inn until the next morning. Much her senior, he protectively holds her until dawn.
This is one of the best openings to a book I've read in a long time, and though this particular motif (young woman stuck on the side of a cliff in danger of drowning) returns in several Wentworth books, it's particularly effective here. Plus, it's incredibly romantic, and I was so sad that it appeared Stephen and Candida would never meet again.
But five years later, a lot has changed.The last of Candida's relations has died, and she has no options until two great-aunts reach out, past a family dispute, to ask Candida to visit. Eccentric and co-dependent, the Misses Cara and Olivia Benevent make Candida uncomfortable, especially after she has a dream that these two women were the same who nearly drew her to her death on the coast five years earlier. As Candida sees more of her aunts and learns of the Benevent Treasure and its terrible curse, she becomes more and more afraid of the Benevent home and family.
As usual with a Miss Silver book, the star here is not Maud Silver. Instead, Wentworth writes a novel of characters: Candida, an innocent but intelligent young woman. Olivia Benevent, who I swear is very similar in demeanor to Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca. Cara Benevent, a poor soul who only wants love but who has been browbeaten by Olivia for so many years, she is withdrawn and skittish.
Miss Silver comes in - only when called and takes charge of the situation, knitting needles in hand, rising to the occasion in the final pages of the book. If you haven't read Miss Silver yet, don't let the knitting needles deter you. Yes, she knits with them, but mostly she uses them as a way to disarm her clients, who are usually hesitant to talk to her, whether it's because they feel silly or that they shouldn't discuss family business with a stranger.
Read this: and be prepared to be drawn into the wilds of England with missing secretaries, a mysterious legend, and a healthy dose of romance.
This is one of the best openings to a book I've read in a long time, and though this particular motif (young woman stuck on the side of a cliff in danger of drowning) returns in several Wentworth books, it's particularly effective here. Plus, it's incredibly romantic, and I was so sad that it appeared Stephen and Candida would never meet again.
But five years later, a lot has changed.The last of Candida's relations has died, and she has no options until two great-aunts reach out, past a family dispute, to ask Candida to visit. Eccentric and co-dependent, the Misses Cara and Olivia Benevent make Candida uncomfortable, especially after she has a dream that these two women were the same who nearly drew her to her death on the coast five years earlier. As Candida sees more of her aunts and learns of the Benevent Treasure and its terrible curse, she becomes more and more afraid of the Benevent home and family.
As usual with a Miss Silver book, the star here is not Maud Silver. Instead, Wentworth writes a novel of characters: Candida, an innocent but intelligent young woman. Olivia Benevent, who I swear is very similar in demeanor to Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca. Cara Benevent, a poor soul who only wants love but who has been browbeaten by Olivia for so many years, she is withdrawn and skittish.
Miss Silver comes in - only when called and takes charge of the situation, knitting needles in hand, rising to the occasion in the final pages of the book. If you haven't read Miss Silver yet, don't let the knitting needles deter you. Yes, she knits with them, but mostly she uses them as a way to disarm her clients, who are usually hesitant to talk to her, whether it's because they feel silly or that they shouldn't discuss family business with a stranger.
Read this: and be prepared to be drawn into the wilds of England with missing secretaries, a mysterious legend, and a healthy dose of romance.
November 2, 2019
Reminiscent of an Agatha Christie, but more of a thriller than mystery. Set in a British small town with a Miss Marple-like character in Miss Silver.
November 4, 2022
Thrilling beginning as young Candida Sayle hangs from a cliff above a rising tide. Five years later, her beloved cousin who raised her dies. Destitute and untrained, she accepts an invitation to stay with her great-aunts. A chance remark from one of the minor characters reveals to the reader that Candida may be in a perilous position. Fortunately, the young man who saved her from the cliff reappears, as does Miss Silver.
June 20, 2024
Fast-paced and creepy with occasional light moments from the obligatory romance plot lines and a bit of humor from the more amiable characters. This Miss Silver is really a bit more of a thriller than a mystery. There really is never any mystery about who the villain of the story is, it is more a matter of what will happen and if that person will ever get their comeuppance.
May 15, 2018
26 in a series is long past when I would expect it it go off the boil, but no Wentworth found us yet another character to truly dislike and wish dead. Yes they are formulaic but who cares when you are checking the page number and complaining that someone isn’t dead yet each time.
September 28, 2021
3.5 STARS!!!!!!
I love Miss Silver mysteries. I love the premise of this one. But there were so many things about the characters that frustrated me. The main female heroine had me nearly ready to shake her by the end. The reveal of the murderer/murderers was wishy-washy and lost all of its heft. The motives were not well explored or handled; as a matter of fact one of them seemed to have been for absolutely no reason, and the other seemed to be for a reason that was pretty insipid. It is an interesting study in family pride, greed, and the result of living under either abuse or ill treatment for years. But honestly, the way that these people just WOULD NOT TALK ABOUT THINGS was infuriating. It’s not uncommon for people to be afraid to speak to the police for one reason or another. But even when it was proven to be completely safe to do so, one of the characters just won’t. They just refuse. There also is no real resolution. There are two, to me, obvious murders and there there is also an obvious murderer, but the way that it’s handled just felt like a cop out. And then everything tied up all nicely at the end with a bow. Miss Silver, herself, was excellent as usual, and played as far larger role as she was on the spot from pretty close to the beginning, and she was dealing only with local police instead of with our more well known Abbott and Lamb or even March. I really enjoyed her processes. I just felt like the overall mystery could have been handled much better.
I love Miss Silver mysteries. I love the premise of this one. But there were so many things about the characters that frustrated me. The main female heroine had me nearly ready to shake her by the end. The reveal of the murderer/murderers was wishy-washy and lost all of its heft. The motives were not well explored or handled; as a matter of fact one of them seemed to have been for absolutely no reason, and the other seemed to be for a reason that was pretty insipid. It is an interesting study in family pride, greed, and the result of living under either abuse or ill treatment for years. But honestly, the way that these people just WOULD NOT TALK ABOUT THINGS was infuriating. It’s not uncommon for people to be afraid to speak to the police for one reason or another. But even when it was proven to be completely safe to do so, one of the characters just won’t. They just refuse. There also is no real resolution. There are two, to me, obvious murders and there there is also an obvious murderer, but the way that it’s handled just felt like a cop out. And then everything tied up all nicely at the end with a bow. Miss Silver, herself, was excellent as usual, and played as far larger role as she was on the spot from pretty close to the beginning, and she was dealing only with local police instead of with our more well known Abbott and Lamb or even March. I really enjoyed her processes. I just felt like the overall mystery could have been handled much better.
January 20, 2020
This may be the worst Miss Silver I have read. It it is not as tediously repetitious as "The Fingerprint",
but it is strange from a number of viewpoints. It most closely resembles a pseudo-Gothic pantomime..
The author is good at beginning stories, and, here, the opening scene on a cliff is very arresting; however, thereon it is all down hill or, perhaps, "Underhill" since that is the name of the house in which most of the "action" takes place.
One of my difficulties is that there is no real sense of the period in which this book is set. The publication date is variously given as 1953/54/56, and there are references which place it in the post-WW2 era, but the ethos is firmly one of Victorian melodrama, albeit in modern dress.
The plot is ludicrous. An almost-penniless great-niece, Candida Sayle is invited to stay at the family mansion by two great-aunts straight out of caricature. She is, of course, the heir to the family estate and fortune, tied up in an outrageously unlikely will. The plot does not so much thicken as go mouldy, unravelling in the most predictable way.
Miss Silver does little by way of detection. There are oodles of romance.Having set up an unfeasible scenario, Wentworth obviously found difficulty resolving it...and indeed apart from a couple of weddings, essentially there is no solution.
Only for dedicated completists.
but it is strange from a number of viewpoints. It most closely resembles a pseudo-Gothic pantomime..
The author is good at beginning stories, and, here, the opening scene on a cliff is very arresting; however, thereon it is all down hill or, perhaps, "Underhill" since that is the name of the house in which most of the "action" takes place.
One of my difficulties is that there is no real sense of the period in which this book is set. The publication date is variously given as 1953/54/56, and there are references which place it in the post-WW2 era, but the ethos is firmly one of Victorian melodrama, albeit in modern dress.
The plot is ludicrous. An almost-penniless great-niece, Candida Sayle is invited to stay at the family mansion by two great-aunts straight out of caricature. She is, of course, the heir to the family estate and fortune, tied up in an outrageously unlikely will. The plot does not so much thicken as go mouldy, unravelling in the most predictable way.
Miss Silver does little by way of detection. There are oodles of romance.Having set up an unfeasible scenario, Wentworth obviously found difficulty resolving it...and indeed apart from a couple of weddings, essentially there is no solution.
Only for dedicated completists.
November 14, 2013
Another excellent mystery, as usual.
September 21, 2020
Benevent Treasure
1956
We're back to the great beginnings that the Miss Silver books were known for, and the book progressed well until it started rehashing bits from previous books, even with direct quotes of text and dialog. It is as if a ghostwriter wrote this book (and the previous one) in the series, or as if the writer ran out of steam and started recycling.
Miss Silver enters the story early on, and the characters are interesting enough, with the usual country house setting, but the story is less a murder mystery, and more of a Gothic romance with two couples this time. The story seems a bit Scoobie-Do, much like the other book in the series that it resembles “The Catherine Wheel”. Don't expect surprises or twists.
As with all the Wentworth books, there are one or two interesting quotes. I noticed this one, since in relates well to a family I know: “That kind of tyranny
does things to people—they either break away, or it breaks them. Or they turn into
tyrants themselves as soon as they get a chance...”
1956
We're back to the great beginnings that the Miss Silver books were known for, and the book progressed well until it started rehashing bits from previous books, even with direct quotes of text and dialog. It is as if a ghostwriter wrote this book (and the previous one) in the series, or as if the writer ran out of steam and started recycling.
Miss Silver enters the story early on, and the characters are interesting enough, with the usual country house setting, but the story is less a murder mystery, and more of a Gothic romance with two couples this time. The story seems a bit Scoobie-Do, much like the other book in the series that it resembles “The Catherine Wheel”. Don't expect surprises or twists.
As with all the Wentworth books, there are one or two interesting quotes. I noticed this one, since in relates well to a family I know: “That kind of tyranny
does things to people—they either break away, or it breaks them. Or they turn into
tyrants themselves as soon as they get a chance...”
December 28, 2023
This book begins with a dramatic incident - fifteen year old Candida is stranded up a cliff with the tide coming in, having been misinformed of the time of high tide. Luckily she is rescued. Then we fast forward five years. Candida’s grandmother was cast off by her family because she married beneath her. Now Candida’s aged great aunts want her to go and stay with them, since she is now the heir to the estate. Candida realises that her Benevent great aunts are the women who gave her the wrong information about the tides that nearly killed her five years earlier. Oddly, this doesn’t seem to put her off staying with them. So she stays, and things get more and more sinister, but still Candida refuses to budge. This one is not really a mystery, since we pretty much know who the villain is from the beginning. It is more of a sort of gothic thriller.
May 19, 2019
In this phase of the Miss Silver series, formidable old ladies are playing a heavy role. The heroine of the story is interesting when we first meet her, as a 15-year-old caught unawares by a rising tide, but her grown-up self is less capable - and by the end, a bit silly. But an enjoyable story nonetheless, with all you could wish for: a mysterious hidden treasure with a curse, an old house with mysterious passages, old family retainers, and an autocratic aunt who does not like the suitor her niece prefers ... and Miss Silver, visiting a cousin in the neighborhood who knows all the participants.
August 11, 2019
This story started out with extreme creepiness, establishing that the heroine was entering the household of two old ladies who mysteriously tried to engineer her death some years before for no known reason. But as with other Wentworth tales, the creepiness isn't sustained and you get to feeling that all the atmosphere doesn't live up to its potential. Yet it's a good enough story, well told. I'd give it two and a half stars but rounded up to three because there are other books I would definitely judge more harshly, and I will go on reading Patricia Wentworth's tales.
March 19, 2022
I've been on a Miss Silver reading jag lately, and I wonder what my rating for this book would have been if I came to it cold. It suffers from so recently having read Vanishing Point, which is a shorter, tighter version of this: nice young woman lives in a creepy old house with a creepy old aunt in a village where someone has recently gone missing. This version of it is too leisurely in the middle and wraps up much too quickly. Which is not to say this book is bad: it has atmosphere for days.
July 27, 2022
This was an old fashioned whodunnit, not exactly sure when it was set, but I would say the 1930s. The story was akin to an Agatha Christie, but not a fast paced.
Some of the characters were great- especially evil Aunt Olivia, but I felt more could have been done with the plot. The basic homeless niece and family treasure with a curse story, is always a good place to start, but I thought too many parts of the story were left hanging at the end.
I enjoyed it, but wouldn't be rushing to read any more in the series- having said that, if some one gave me a copy I would read it!
Some of the characters were great- especially evil Aunt Olivia, but I felt more could have been done with the plot. The basic homeless niece and family treasure with a curse story, is always a good place to start, but I thought too many parts of the story were left hanging at the end.
I enjoyed it, but wouldn't be rushing to read any more in the series- having said that, if some one gave me a copy I would read it!
January 15, 2021
I've always loved the "Golden Age" crime fiction of writers such as Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, et al but this was my first "Patricia Wentworth" novel.
It won't be my last!
I loved Miss Silver, & after having been reading modern books for quite sometime now it was like going home as I was absorbed into the writing style.
Re-read January 2021
It won't be my last!
I loved Miss Silver, & after having been reading modern books for quite sometime now it was like going home as I was absorbed into the writing style.
Re-read January 2021
Want to read
January 12, 2010I obtained this actual edition with the creepy skele-hand on the cover!!
November 10, 2023
This might have been five stars if only the heroine didn't have the typical Wentworth heroine penchant for swooning. Miss Silver is in top form; it's always so funny how stereotypically 50's Feminine all the heroines in these books are, when Miss Silver always gives the impression that she could stare down a charging bull and have him chastened and following at her heels in about a minute. It's a particular shame in this book that the early promise of a spirited and capable girl as the heroine is shown in the first chapter doesn't quite get fulfilled when the character grows up.
So - there's an interesting villain (who while awful, would have been an absolutely gruesome horror if she'd been written today), hidden tunnels, a bit of a rake who I kept expecting to be in the frame, lots of knitting, and some vivid scenes that lift this above the general scrum of almost-mass-produced-cozyish-mystery. Wentworth's writing - can I say sparkled? Is that too old-fashioned a compliment? (Or too Twilight?) Some of the later books in the series feel more as if they were written automatically, to pay the bills and keep the publisher happy. This one felt like Patricia Wentworth was enjoying herself thoroughly. The solution to the underlying older mystery was pretty plain from the jump, but that didn't take away any of the fun (and it was another thing that would have been blood curdling if written now). From a terrific opening scene (with a really nice reveal lying in wait a few chapters later), to the "romantic" Mr. Tampling (I love him) ... oh, why not. Five stars it is. Candida was entitled to a bit of light-headedness.
So - there's an interesting villain (who while awful, would have been an absolutely gruesome horror if she'd been written today), hidden tunnels, a bit of a rake who I kept expecting to be in the frame, lots of knitting, and some vivid scenes that lift this above the general scrum of almost-mass-produced-cozyish-mystery. Wentworth's writing - can I say sparkled? Is that too old-fashioned a compliment? (Or too Twilight?) Some of the later books in the series feel more as if they were written automatically, to pay the bills and keep the publisher happy. This one felt like Patricia Wentworth was enjoying herself thoroughly. The solution to the underlying older mystery was pretty plain from the jump, but that didn't take away any of the fun (and it was another thing that would have been blood curdling if written now). From a terrific opening scene (with a really nice reveal lying in wait a few chapters later), to the "romantic" Mr. Tampling (I love him) ... oh, why not. Five stars it is. Candida was entitled to a bit of light-headedness.
January 21, 2024
Candida Sayle is alone in the world with very little money so a letter out of the blue from her estranged great aunts is more than welcome. The letter suggests that the family rift could be healed if Candida comes to stay with Olivia and Cara at their country house, Underhill. Candida soon finds that the Benevent sisters really want to take over her life and control all aspects of it and she starts to wonder whether it was Olivia and Cara who led her into danger when she was a school girl by telling her the wrong time for high tide leaving her stranded half way up a cliff. Candida is pleased to meet Stephen, an architect working in the area who was the person who rescued her from the cliff. It is Stephen's presence which makes her stay at Underhill. Miss Silver is staying with a distant cousin not far from Underhill and has been asked to look into the disappearance of the Benevent sisters' former secretary Alan Thompson. It is not long before Miss Silver is staying at Underhill and discovering more and more about what has happened there in the past. The Benevent Treasure is one of the best of Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver stories in my opinion. There are some very dark psychological undercurrents at work and nothing is quite what it seems. Candida is a very likeable character and I wanted things to work out well for her. Derek, the Benevent sisters' current secretary is a light weight who nevertheless has a good insight into his own weaknesses. Cara and Olivia are masterpieces. This is a fascinating story where the murders and the murderer's motives will keep the reader guessing until close to the end of the book.
June 27, 2020
Number twenty-six in the Miss Silver series is heavy on Gothic romance and the villains are v ery obvious. Maud still shows up with her knitting, playing a crucial role at crucial moments, but a lot of the heavy lifting here is done by the hero and heroine, whom we meet in a Prologue with credited allusion to Perseus and Andromeda. (Don't let that scare you off if you never read Edith Hamilton or Bullfinch, it's in a very Edwardian sort of a setting, on a cliff at the beach.
The tale concerns a great-niece taken in by two very creepy aunts (well, at least the spindlier one is creepy--the littler one is just pathetic) after the aunt she has nursed through chronic illness has finally died. They live in a ghastly house built into the side of a hill. There are troubled servants, things that go bump in the night, a legend of a missing treasure, a family curse, and of course a skeleton or two. The heroine could inherit all the family money if the right people die. But she seems like such a nice girl, and the architect is besotten. If you like Tudor architecture you might enjoy this novel, too.
The tale concerns a great-niece taken in by two very creepy aunts (well, at least the spindlier one is creepy--the littler one is just pathetic) after the aunt she has nursed through chronic illness has finally died. They live in a ghastly house built into the side of a hill. There are troubled servants, things that go bump in the night, a legend of a missing treasure, a family curse, and of course a skeleton or two. The heroine could inherit all the family money if the right people die. But she seems like such a nice girl, and the architect is besotten. If you like Tudor architecture you might enjoy this novel, too.
September 3, 2024
Candida Sayles receives a letter from her great-aunt Olivia Benevent, inviting Candida to come live with Olive and her sister, Cara. Candida has lived with her Aunt Barbara Sayles for the last few years, as a caregiver, but Barbara has died.
Having no training that would help her get a job, Candida accepts the offer. Besides, she may find out about the cause of the rift between her grandmother, who Candida is named for, and why it never was reconciled.
While living with the Benevent sisters, Candida learns more than she imagined about the family history, the inheritance to the next in line, the Benavent Treasure and the curse on it.
Miss Silver is asked to look into the disappearance of a young man who worked for the sisters three years ago. It seems he might have known a little too much about the family secrets.
Miss Silver is also asked to look into Candida’s welfare by Stephen Eversley, who finds himself falling for Candida.
The personalities, relationships, family secrets, curse and history provide quite a tangled web for Miss Silver to unravel and another enjoyable read in the Miss Silver series.
Having no training that would help her get a job, Candida accepts the offer. Besides, she may find out about the cause of the rift between her grandmother, who Candida is named for, and why it never was reconciled.
While living with the Benevent sisters, Candida learns more than she imagined about the family history, the inheritance to the next in line, the Benavent Treasure and the curse on it.
Miss Silver is asked to look into the disappearance of a young man who worked for the sisters three years ago. It seems he might have known a little too much about the family secrets.
Miss Silver is also asked to look into Candida’s welfare by Stephen Eversley, who finds himself falling for Candida.
The personalities, relationships, family secrets, curse and history provide quite a tangled web for Miss Silver to unravel and another enjoyable read in the Miss Silver series.
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