The Chinese Shawl

Miss Silver #5

by Patricia Wentworth

Traveling to war-torn London to collect her inheritance, Laura Fane falls in love with a wounded RAF pilot and incites the jealousy of a wicked cousin, and when the pilot is murdered, Laura turns to Miss Silver for help. Reissue.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Cozy Mystery, British Literature, Golden Age Mystery, Cozy

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Patricia 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.

Reviews

[Jaline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patricia Wentworth does it again. Written in 1943, the fifth book in her Miss Silvers series kept me turning pages as fast as I could. When other commitments made me set the book down, one part of my mind was still thinking about the characters in the book, puzzling over the mysteries, sifting through motives and opportunities to figure out whodunit.

The majority of this novel takes place in an English country manor during a weekend party. Miss Silver is there on a different matter and when she resolves it, the family ask her to stay to help resolve the bigger problem that arises.

The writing is terrific, with descriptions, plots, and characters knitted as perfectly as Miss Silvers’ work on a friend’s baby bootees. This was a great reading experience for me and I look forward to the sixth book on next month’s reading list!

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a complete and utter pleasure to read this fifth entry in the long-running series, especially after the ghastliness of the fourth. Took about four hours to get sucked in, bash the touchscreen of my Kindle in a fever of impatience to see if I was right about the perp (missed it), and bask in the glow of Miss Silver as she first came to my attention. (My first-ever Miss Silver was The Catherine Wheel back in the late 1970s.)

The real reason series readers read the series is to visit with old friends. Miss Silver, to this point, hasn't been a solid character in the stories. She's developed the mannerisms (that effin' cough) by now, and Author Wentworth now begins to fill in the character that will carry the books through more than 20 entries to come.

If you're just starting to think about reading these books, I'd recommend starting here. Miss Silver is finally herself, not merely a collection of tics and crotchets. Nothing from earlier books, nothing of significance, is needed to appreciate the storytelling voice and the newly developed manner of Miss Silver being in the picture from the start, as it is in more modern series mysteries.

Now about that storytelling voice...I've been schooled recently on how very unladylike it is of me to express disapprobation of female storytellers' failings as I see them. I will herewith attempt to mold my distastefully male grunts of dissatisfaction and displeasure into a more lady-friendly tone.

Author Wentworth is a person of a particular time, one in which ladies were either hard and evil or soft and good. Women, that is to say the serving class female, could be both hard and good (or soft and evil, which is far far more common {pun intended} for them to be) but only because theirs was a, well, a tougher row to hoe than a lady's was. So ladies were always attempting to marry or kill someone of either, often both, genders. Coupling up is de rigueur in a Miss Silver mystery. The sleuth is a former governess and therefore is hard and good, and frequently acts as a distressed, helpless, lovely young lady's proxy in the scuffling conflicts of quotidian battles to secure her money and her man.

This is jarring to my sensibilities. I don't think it makes the books unreadable, as do some other bygone horrors like racism and homophobia; but I am not a woman and I don't know what would make a story unreadable to one. As Author Wentworth began her career as a 1920s romance novelist of the Mills & Boon/Harlequin school I am inclined to roll my eyes and pass on by the ridiculous guff. There are countervailing pleasures in this read. Ma'at is maintained here by the perp being caught, the lovers being united, the benefits of class and cash being ladled into the bowls of the Best Sort, Our Kind of People.

Socially regressive it might be, well it certainly is if I'm even somewhat honest, but a pleasure it also is. Seeing the patterns we've grown up treading upheld is a validation of our conditioning. It's a good thing for society when someone so far outside the norm as to be a murderer is prevented from killing again. In this case, the murderer kills twice; the second murder is one of those where the reader is expected to murmur "well, shame on them but really asking for it means no complaining when one gets it," and pass on.

So that, dear reader, is what I most want you to know before launching your good self onto these placidly stormy waters.

I do hope that was better than my raw and honest responses have proven to be.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always think of Patricia Wentworth as "Christie lite," though I don't mean that as an insult. Wentworth is a good writer and writes good mysteries, but she's definitely second rank. She's not as good as Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Arthur Conan Doyle, or Erle Stanley Gardner. Her characters just don't come to life like theirs do, and Miss Silver, for all her excellent detecting, is no Miss Marple, the other spinster detective she is most compared to. Despite appearances, Miss Silver is not a ripoff of Miss Marple. She first appeared in "Grey Mask" in 1928, two years before Miss Marple made her debut in "Murder at the Vicarage." However, it was another nine years before her second appearance in "The Case is Closed," which makes me wonder if Wentworth returned to Miss Silver after seeing the success of Miss Marple.

"The Chinese Shawl" was published in 1943 and was the fifth Miss Silver book. Unlike Erle Stanley Gardner, who avoided dating his books, Wentworth places "The Chinese Shawl" firmly during World War II. Several male characters have either served in the military or are currently serving. There is also mention of bombings and evacuees. Laura Fane has turned 21, which means she is now of age. Her parents died when she was five, and she was raised by relatives. She is the owner of the Priory, a stereotypical country house, but the current residents are her distant cousins - Agnes Fane, Lucy Adams, and Tanis Lyle. Laura's father Oliver Fane was engaged to Agnes, but broke up with her when he met Laura's mother, Lilian. In a rage, Agnes took a wild ride on her horse - think Gerald O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind" - and had a nearly fatal accident, which has confined her to a wheelchair ever since.

Agnes is very well off and has completely taken over the Priory, which she leases from Laura. She has raised her younger cousin, Tanis Lyle, a spoiled, utterly self-absorbed, and heartless young woman who enjoys playing with people's lives. Agnes wants to buy the Priory, so she can leave it to Tanis. However, Laura is reluctant to part with Priory, even though she has never visited it. Agnes invites Laura to visit, presumably so she can apply more pressure regarding the possible sale of the Priory. To make matters worse, Tanis is doing her best to get her claws into Carey Desborough, the young man that Laura loves. However, Tanis is not monogamous - she is also toying with Alistair, whose girlfriend Petra is becoming increasingly volatile over the situation, and Tim Madison, whose wife Sylvia appears to be on the edge of hysterics. Tanis is by far one of the most reprehensible characters in Wentworth's novels. Wentworth does an excellent job of raising the tension to an unbearable level. Then, of course, everything comes to a head early one morning.

This is a good, though not great mystery. The romance between Laura and Carey was too quick to start and got very serious way too soon, and the characters are rather two-dimensional. I had a trouble telling the Maxwell brothers apart. However, the setting and history are both well done. It is also fun to watch Miss Silver humble a few pompous characters. An enjoyable read for a summer afternoon. Like Christie, it's not gory and can be enjoyed by all ages.

[Susan's Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? I love a tinge of romance in my murder mysteries!



I'm an old softie. These modern, stark, violent thrillers leave me feeling so despairing.



Patricia Wentworth's novels rarely leave you feeling despondent and fed up with this big bad world. Yes, you will encounter many a depraved and "Rotten In Denmark" type character in her stories, but justice is eventually done, thanks to the likes of Miss Silver - whom I adore!



The Chinese Shawl is highly recommended for its quaint main character, setting and overall dramatic appeal.
Enjoy - I certainly did!

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Laura Fane is invited to visit her aunt Agnes at the Priory, a rambling manse annexed to the ruins of a church. Laura is the true owner of the Priory, but her aunt leases it from her and wants to purchase it outright. Laura is apprehensive about the visit and that, as it turns out, is an accurate premonition. Within days of Laura's visit - where she is joined by various friends and family members - a murder occurs. Miss Maud Silver is also visiting and is called upon to investigate by two distinct parties: her old friend Agnes Fane and one of her former pupils, now a member of the police.

You probably expect I will say that Miss Silver solves the crime and saves the day. Not really...she claims to have identified the killer but apparently sits on that information long enough that another murder occurs and a third is only narrowly avoided. In this outing Miss Silver is more of a supporting player than a key participant.

That said, it is still an entertaining tale from Patricia Wentworth (who can nearly always be counted on for that). It has a spooky old house, romance, drama, a brazen villainess, long-held family grudges and a decent mystery. What more could any mystery reader desire?

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story begins – as do many of the stories from Miss Silver’s casebook – with a young woman who is not quite as secure, not quite as sure of her position, as she would like to be.

Laura Fane was an orphan who would be coming into a significant inheritence on her 21st birthday, and as that day was drawing near she had to travelled to London, to visit the family solicitor.

I loved Laura from the start. She had grown up in a quiet country home but she loved the ‘bubbles’ and ‘glitter’ of London that she discovered with her cousins and their friends. She had the confidence to make her own decisions and express her feelings and opinions, and she had the grace to want others to understand and be happy.

Laura knew that coming into her inheritance would force her to deal with a tricky family situation.

Her father had jilted a cousin to marry her mother after a whirlwind romance. The jilted woman had never married, and she continued to live in the family’s country house that Laura owed but had never seen. She was wealthy and wanted to buy the house so that she could leave it to the orphaned niece she had raised; but Laura wasn’t at all sure that she wanted to sell the home that was one of the few links she had with her parents, sight unseen!

Tanis Grey, that orphaned niece was the dark to Laura’s light. She was a young, charming and utterly irrestible femme fatale. I found her a little less convincing as a character than Laura, and I couldn’t quite believe that she wreeked the havoc that she did, but I understood the kind of woman she was very well.

When she was invited to a house party at her own country home, Laura had mixed emotions. She wanted to see the house but she wasn’t at all sure that she wanted her first visit to be in a party at somebody else’s invitation; and she knew that it would uncomfortable that her hostess would want an answer to a question that she would be either unready or unable to give.

Laura did go to the party, she fell in love with the house, and she found herself at the centre of a murder mystery when the Chinese shawl that she had inherited from her mother was used to silence a gun. She was the prime suspect, and she was horribly aware that she might have been the intended victim.

The story twisted and turned beautifully, and I was completely caught up in it alongside Laura. Even though I knew that Patricia Wentworth always looks after her heroines, there was a real sense of jeopardy because she is so good at holding her reader in the moment.

She is also very good at clothes, and she was able to use that talent to the full in this book. Houses and furnishings were just as well done and I know that I would recognise Laura’s family home and all of the party guests if I was taken there.

Miss Silver was one of those guests, invited because she was an old friend of one of the older members of the family. She wasn’t asked to investigate the mystery, but of course she was concerned, she asked questions, she watched carefully, and she was ready to do whatever she could to help.

She identified the murderer and so did I; but she the evidence led her to her conclusion whereas instinct and my knowledge of Miss Silver’s earlier cases led me to mine. That didn’t matter, because I don’t read Patricia Wentworth’s books for clever plotting and surprising outcomes, I read them to be caught up in a mystery alongside a lovely heroine.

I enjoyed the inevitable romance in this book, and I particularly loved the dash of the gothic in this one.

The psychology underpinning this story isn’t as interesting as it was in the previous Miss Silver book, but it is interesting; and there was more than enough that was right about this book – and not much at all that was wrong – allowing me to say that it is among my favourites to date and that I am eager to read more.

[Les Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is how a book of this genre should be written. I have read over 2,000 books of this genre, and I put this book in my top 20. I will most likely read it again (this is reserved for very few books).

[Tristram Shandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Nothing in human nature is incredible. Some things are harder to believe than others, that’s all.”

The Chinese Shawl (1943) is my second encounter with Miss Maude Silver, the elderly private detective, who features in 32 mystery novels written by Patricia Wentworth, and when I compare it with my first one, The Wicked Uncle (1947), there are some striking similarities:

1. Both novels are mainly set in some kind of manor, with the victim, the murderer, a handful of suspects and the indefatigable Miss Silver ensconced in its rooms. This time, Miss Silver is a guest of one of the family members from the very start.

2. In both cases there are two murders, the last one as a result of blackmail gone awry.

3. Both The Chinese Shawl and The Wicked Uncle have a young lady as the protagonist through whose eyes most of the story is told, and in either case there is also a romantic subplot between the heroine and a young man, ending in this case with the rather funny exhortation, ”Snap out of it, darling, and kiss me! We’re wasting time.”

4. In neither of the two novels did Miss Silver make a very vivid impression on me, though. She may be a brilliant sleuth and a keen thinker, but as a character, she is by far the paler one when compared with Miss Marple, whom she predates by a few years. Yet, there is none of Miss Marple’s wry and misleading dowdiness about her.

Yet, there is a certain charm about both books, even though the young heroine and her lover can be excluded from the circle of suspects from the very outset – something that Agatha Christie would have never dreamt of because in her novels everyone can turn out to be the murderer. Nevertheless, in this story of a family conflict, in which a femme fatale proves anything but bullet-proof and a whole shoal of young men and women can be ascribed with a motive for killing her, the plot is twisted as well as plausible. In a way, it is so plausible that, when you put all the hints together, you could have solved it on your own.

All in all, The Chinese Shawl is an easy read, not as memorable as the Christie plots, but good enough while you are reading it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free download available at Faded Page.

3* Grey Mask (Miss Silver, #1)
4* The Case Is Closed (Miss Silver, #2)
4* Lonesome Road (Miss Silver, #3)
4* The Chinese Shawl (Miss Silver, #5)
3* Miss Silver Deals With Death (Miss Silver, #6)
3* The Clock Strikes Twelve (Miss Silver, #7)
4* The Key (Miss Silver, #8)
4* She Came Back (Miss Silver, #9)
4* Pilgrim's Rest (Miss Silver, #10)
3* The Case of William Smith (Miss Silver, #13)
4* Eternity Ring (Miss Silver, #14)
4* Miss Silver Comes to Stay (Miss Silver, #15)
2* The Ivory Dagger (Miss Silver, #19)
4* Out of the Past (Miss Silver, #23)
3* The Benevent Treasure (Miss Silver, #26)
2* A Marriage Under the Terror
2* Beggar's Choice
4* The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith: A Golden Age Mystery
TR Danger Point (Miss Silver, #4)
TR Latter End (Miss Silver, #11)
TR Wicked Uncle (Miss Silver, #12)
TR The Catherine Wheel (Miss Silver, #16)
TR The Brading Collection (Miss Silver, #17)
TR Poison in the Pen (Miss Silver, #29)
TR Devil's Wind
TR The Fire Within
TR The Black Cabinet
TR Danger Calling
TR Run!

[Mo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that you can read one of these novels over the course of an evening.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very so-so read for me. I’m not quite sure what slowed it up so much, especially after I zipped through the previous Miss Silver. I did very much enjoy Miss Silver’s presence in the story and how much she’s in it in the second half. But the other characters never really came to life for me. And the trope of the beautiful sophisticated woman who drives men mad with love and/or jealous rage is annoying. I did guess the murderer! This happens so rarely that I hope you’ll forgive me mentioning it. 😂

[Annabel Frazer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patricia Wentworth's Golden Age detective stories, starring the inimitable Miss Silver, may not have the well-worked out puzzles of Agatha Christie but they offer all the same period charm of the clothes, the houses, the cars, the dialogue. They also ladle on the Gothic atmosphere and the emotional drama.

The Chinese Shawl is one of my favourites. While Miss Silver plied her detective trade both before and after the Second World War, this story is set right in the middle of the conflict, and the details around Air Force men home on leave, black-outs, evacuees and so on add a particular poignancy and tension to the storyline.

The story opens as Laura Fane, a charming young girl who has just come of age, is enjoying her first London dance, at a grand hotel. Laura has just come into her inheritance and would no doubt be being 'brought out' if this wasn't the war. As it is, she's simply enjoying a party with her kindly 'connections' the Maxwells (Patricia Wentworth's stories are filled with distant cousinships which create useful bonds and allow the young heroine to be conveniently chaperoned when needed). At the party, Laura meets her 'cousin' who she has never met before, the glamorous Tanis Lyle, and also the dashing fighter pilot Carey Desborough. Both of these encounters will become important to her.

The characters meet next at the Priory, the country home of Tanis's elderly 'cousins' Agnes and Lucy, although the house actually belongs to Laura. We discover that Tanis is that classic Wentworth character, the heartless allumeuse who lures in men but doesn't really want them. Not only Carey Desborough but Alastair Maxwell has been entrapped, to the misery of Alastair's spirited fiancee Petra. It's an unpromising recipe for a house party and the melodrama is heightened by the bitter history between Agnes Fane and Laura's father Oliver Fane (they were, of course, cousins).

To this recipe add murder and lots of dashes of romance. Miss Silver is for once already in situ, as an old friend of Agnes and Lucy - we thus get some unexpected glimpses of her past. And the plot races along entertainingly. I enjoy the different ways that the dashing young men and their girlfriends respond to the threat that Tanis represents. Patricia Wentworth's rigour with plots is not always top-notch, but she can certainly create appealing and distinctive characters.

If you love Agatha Christie for her precise, ingenious plots, perhaps pass Patricia Wentworth by. But if you love Christie for the fun characters and period detail, you might well enjoy the Miss Silver books and this one is a good place to start.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I waver between 2.5 stars and 3 for this installment. At least all the Silver novels are standalones, and while this book is reasonably well plotted, some how it seems rather detached. Not "superficial", but somehow neither the characters nor the situations seemed engaging enough. Perhaps they didn't engage the author, either.

It's the classic house-party mystery, though set in the WW2 years. Rationing and blackouts and the draft get a passing mention, but the war is very much "out there somewhere." This same cool detachment applies to the story itself. A beautiful young actress who enjoys playing with women's friendship and men's affections is not liked by many, and is trusted by none. Hardly surprising then, when she turns up as the cadavre du jour. Miss Silver is there, but again, she is background, almost uninvolved until the end. Her participation in the case consists only in talking to Inspector Randal, one of her previous nursery charges. There's a police sargeant named Stebbins...I wonder if his first name was Purley? (Rex Stout joke).

I was a bit surprised that a young ingenue is the main character instead of Miss Silver; we see all the direct action through her eyes, while Miss Silver knits up the recaps in the tiresome tell-not-show ending. Perhaps it's because this was a wartime novel, but the romance, along with jealousy and spite and romantic betrayal, took up far more page-time than the actual case. And of course the killer is "unhinged"--they must be. How could a British subject voluntarily behave in such a barbaric fashion unless they were mad? Not in Miss Silver's world.

Could have been better. The time and place are beautifully evoked, but the characters were like photos in a glamorous fashion magazine: brittle, posed and too stylised to be real people.

[Evelyn Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

If you're new to Wentworth mysteries, you're going to love this one, and if you haven't read it in a while don't waste anymore time. My suggestion is to avoid any reviews that have spoilers! You'll want to enjoy the intricate twists and turns of the story. As always in Wentworth's suspense novels, there's a delightful romance at the heart of it. Fun read! I stayed up long after bedtime to finish it.

[Tuesdayschild · Rating 4 out of 5]

2021: Repeat late-night listen. Because I absolutely knew where this was going, and that it would work out for many of the characters, in the end, I just settled back and enjoyed the story.
Whew! Tanis is a piece of work.
Cousin Agnes reaped all that she had sowed via hurt and hatred.

[Julie Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the Miss Silver novel I'd give to someone to try first. It is the fifth written, though they really are all stand alone mysteries. Here there is a very interesting protagonist in Laura Fane. There is also a true villainess who you can't wait to have murdered (not a spoiler - it's clear from the moment you meet her just who is going to be murdered - I itched to do it myself). It is the first time there's been a house party where the characters are all introduced in such a way that they are easy to identify later and to keep track of in the resultant murder investigation. I did guess who did it but that is just because of the sheer unlikeliness of the person — it made them a natural suspect.

Most enjoyable.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable Miss Silver mystery.

[Hella · Rating 4 out of 5]

echt lekker spannend, sfeervol, en met een onverwachte ontknoping

[Scot · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sort of traditional cozy I enjoy. We are at an English country manor home for a weekend party, but there are strong undercurrents of tension. Laura, our heroine, a kind orphan girl who is just coming into her inheritance at the age of 21, will be the owner of the family home, which currently houses an interesting collection of relatives from another branch of the family that had been feuding with her father. Laura, in fact, has never seen the manor before, and its current residents are concerned what might happen to them in the future. Throw into the mix a would be Hollywood film star cousin Tanis who is gorgeous, selfish, vindictive, and quite effective at seducing men to do whatever she wants--and she wants to make Laura, and anyone else who crosses her, miserable. UH oh--I think someone is going to end up dead this weekend. . .

Miss Silver is just over there in the sitting room, crocheting in the corner, a guest of one of the older spinster relatives at the manor. But make no mistake--she's keeping track of everything!

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura Fane is approaching her 21st birthday, when she will come into possession of the Priory, the country house that belonged to her father, who died when she was five. For the past twenty years it has been leased to cousin Agnes Fane, who was in love with Laura’s father before he jilted her to run off with Laura’s mother. Now Agnes Fane has invited Laura to come and stay at the Priory, she is hoping to persuade Laura to sell it to her, so she in turn can leave it to her beautiful ward, Tanis, another cousin, whom she has brought up. There are several other guests at the Priory, including a couple of young men who are smitten with the lovely Tanis. Also among the guests is Miss Silver, so you know trouble cannot be far behind. An enjoyable mystery, with Miss Silver playing a more active role than in some of the earlier books.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laura Fane has never known her family on her father's side. Her long-dead parents eloped, breaking his engagement to his cousin Agnes, and estranging Laura from her kin. Agnes has long rented the only thing of value that Laura owns, the family estate, and now wants to buy it since Laura is finally of age. Laura has met and fallen in love with air hero Carey Desborough, who was engaged to her cousin Tanis, a beautiful woman who wants attention and acclaim. Tanis organizes a small house party where murder is an uninvited guest. Fortunately for all--except one--Miss Maud Silver is visiting her old school friend Lucy, Agnes' companion.

[Andrea Hickman Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love the Miss Silver series. I can't say that I prefer her to Miss Marple, but there are aspects of her character that I like better than Miss Marple. This is a most enjoyable book, though I have to say that I thought it was perfectly obvious what the thing about the shawl was. I was not, however, sure of just who the murderer was until the very end and even then I wasn't absolutely certain until the confession. This is definitely worth reading and I would enjoy reading it again knowing what I know about characters and motivations and so on. Though I'd still like to know why the two portraits were hung in the bedroom.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Miss Silver mystery but it won't be my last. Oddly enough, Miss Silver was a secondary character in the book with the main focus on Laura Fane and her connections. This was set during the war and is a house party mystery (one of my favorites). This author was recommended when I was buying some Dorothy Sayer novels at Amazon the other day and I was able to get the book from my library.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in a mansion used in part for evacuees from London during WWII, this British murder mystery is one of the better ones in the writer's Maud Silver series. The interplay between Miss Silver and the investigating officer is well thought out and somewhat livelier than in most other series entries. Romance again is a critical element and the character of the villain is the same as in other series entries.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read, though I must admit I wanted the person who got killed, to get killed a bit earlier! The "detective" here is a bit omniscient and also has info that she doesn't share with the audience until she makes a statement ... so it's not a story where you try to solve the crime seeing what the detective sees. Also, it was more a story about one woman who has this incredible control over men and wrecks so many lives with it.

Interesting writing, but as a mystery it was just okay.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miles better than its immediate predecessor despite the "love at first sight" between Laura and Carey.
Lots of passion and intrigue and plenty of suspects.
Not quite the best but certainly an interesting read with some good human psychology at work.

3.5 stars

[Eileen Lynx · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good I read it in one gulp. It’s so interesting to read a mystery set in WWII that was also written in WWII. Not only do the characters not know what the outcome of the war would be but neither did the author. This changes the whole flavor of the story.

[Franziska Self Fisken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I regard Patricia Wentworths as comforting, hot-water-bottle books: a blend of a clever crime story with more than a little dash of romance too. Miss Silver is a retired, old-fashioned, governess-turned- enquiry agent and her skillset matches those of Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple.

[Jane Monacova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Очень милый, непритязательный детектив в стиле мисс Марпл.
Действие происходит во время войны, в загородном доме убивают красавицу, которая не задумывается ни о чьих чувствах, кроме своих. Мотивы есть у всех, возможность тоже. Суперинтенданту помогает его гувернантка, ныне работающая частным детективом- Мод Сильвер вечно вяжет детские вещи, наблюдательна и особо никуда не лезет, весьма приятная особа, что можно почитать и другие ее расследования.

[Jacob Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

Patricia Wentworth continues to be hit or miss for me. She either hits it out of the park, or she somewhat bores me. This plot had a great twist at the end and a few solid moments throughout, but the pacing was so drab and had me worried the entire thing would be a snooze fest as it took about a third of the book for the murder in the murder mystery to happen. I still liked it well enough by the end, but yeah, not a favorite at all