The Girl in the Cellar

Miss Silver #32

by Patricia Wentworth

NA

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

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

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

[Cynthia Corral · Rating 3 out of 5]

LOL.
OK, this was a pleasant little "cozy mystery", the last one written by Patricia Wentworth before she died at 83 (1961). I think it's supposed to take place in the 1950s, but the characters behave more like turn of the century or earlier. Everyone is very prim and proper, the women don't appear to have a lot of strengths or rights, and the men are very much in control.

The story is about a young woman who awakens from a faint in a dark basement but doesn't know who she is or remember the dead girl on the floor or how she got there.

Pluses: Very heavy on female characters, and a good sprinkling of the good, bad and helpless. Most of the women go out of their way to help out our amnesiac, and Miss Silver is full of sense and connections - though she doesn't do much but sit calmly by and knit.

Minuses: There is a lot of repetition of lines, and I mean a LOT of repetition over and over and over. If there was no repetition the book would be less than a third of its already short length. Also, when poor Anne finally gets her memory back and we come to understand the whole story, it turns out to be a collection of the most cockamamie, improbable and coincidental events I've ever heard. The suspension of disbelief required here cannot be overstated.

But I took the end with good humor. It was a fast read, and I enjoyed, for the most part, trying to figure out the mystery. I wouldn't recommend it outright, but I wouldn't advise anyone against reading it either.

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Girl in the Cellar (1961) by Patricia Wentworth, a young woman regains consciousness in the dark on what she soon realizes are the steps of a cellar. She doesn't know where she is or how she got there....In fact, she's not even sure of who she is. All she knows is her name is Anne (but Anne what?) and that if goes to the bottom of the staircase she will find a dead body. She finds a flashlight in what she believes is her handbag and discovers that she's right. But her bout of amnesia doesn't allow her to identify the girl (who has been shot) or remember anything at all before coming to herself on the steps. She knows she must get away quickly--but where should she go?

In a daze, she leaves the house and gets on a bus where fate intervenes. Miss Silver, that former governess turned detective, notices the dazed young woman and invites her to join her for tea. Through her gentle leading, Anne finds a letter in the handbag that indicates that she is Mrs. James Fancourt and she was on her way to stay with her new husband's relatives. But how did she get in the cellar? Was she involved in the girl's death. What happened to cause her to lose her memory? And is she really who the letter says she is?

Miss Silver urges her to go the relatives as planned, but the house isn't the expected haven. Jim Fancourt's relatives have never met his wife, so they can't help her remember. And the feeling of dread which gripped her in the cellar isn't shaken--it takes on reality when a strange, threatening man appears. Fortunately, Jim Fancourt seems to be an ally and Miss Silver hasn't abandoned her. The three will work on the problem in their separate ways--bringing an end to Anne's fears (and light on her past) and unraveling the mystery of the girl in the cellar.

This is Wentworth's final book with Miss Silver. Using a favorite stratagem (amnesia), she weaves a convincing tale of fear and mystery. Anne's gradual recovery of her memory is plausible and the suspense is built up quite nicely. Admittedly, there are quite a few coincidences along the way--from the identity of the murdered girl (and Anne's real identity) to the strangers who happen along to help Anne at all the right moments. But the story is solid and even at her advanced age, Wentworth spins a good tale.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the last in the Miss Silver series and much like the first in the series, it didn't hold the charm that many of her other books have. I wonder if she was ill or if her editors even took an unfinished manuscript and published it. The story was disjointed and unpolished. I was surprised that the book had been written/published in 1961 because the book was filled with references to things well out of date by then like gas lamps and candles beside the bed.

Anyway, my advice if you are new to the series is don't start with this book and don't ever read the first book.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

It looks like many of the Goodreads reviewers did not think this was one of Patricia Wentworth's best in the Miss Silver mysteries, but I rather liked it in spite of some short-comings and coincidences. It had a really different twist on who the criminals were and why. I did feel a little sad that, with this reading (listening to the Isis audio recording), I had come to the end of the 32-book series. Since I did get all of the series as audiobooks, I will probably give them all a listen again sometime in the future.

[Mo · Rating 2 out of 5]

All of Ms. Wentworth's usual tropes are here. Two young people instantly fall into love with each other, for no discernable reason. The hero is gruff, the heroine young, breathless and frightened.

Even though these novels were becoming a bit repetitive, I'm still bummed that I've come to the end of the series. These books were quick, delightful reads.

[Antonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

a nice traditional crime story. a woman comes to on a staircase and at the bottom of it lies a dead girl. she finds a letter in a handbag and goes to the address, then her supposed husband turns up and things start happening - some thoughtless spinsters and do-no-gooders thrown in for good measure.
it seemed to hop about a bit and sometimes i could not follow the motivation of the people at times. occasionally i was put out by the sudden changes of perspective. too many coincidences as well but hey, it was all made worth it for the romance... who would not want a strong jim to take care of one...
liked the descriptions of life at the time, that was nice. back then when lady's companion was still a proper job. overall, a pleasing read but not an author i would particularly seek out again.

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

I first read this book decades ago, and I must admit I liked it better then. Today, I notice just how repetitive it is; the girl who has lost her memory goes over what little she remembers of when she came to herself over and over again, word-for-word. Then she tells Our Hero about it, using the same words. Then he tells it at least twice to other people--to the point that it felt like page-filler.

Then there are the many coincidences--nearly all the "nice" people in the book know Miss Silver and have dealt with her, even a girl that the Girl meets quite by chance on the streets of London! When we got to the long-lost relations meeting by chance, I was unsure whether to roll my eyes or laugh, so I did both.

[Miriam Smith (A Mother’s Musings)]

I'm disappointed to have given up on this book so soon (chapter 3) after being given it from an elderly neighbour with a promise to read it, but although the story seems interesting I just can't read it comfortably. Written in 1961 and I think set in the 50's the writing is very repetitive, sentences often drawn out with repetitive wording when they could be a lot shorter. I understand that Patricia Wentworth writes cosy mysteries and I've no doubt I would have enjoyed the plot but unfortunately the style of writing wasn't for me.

[Rachel Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in one sitting. A good entryway back into reading.

[Gisela · Rating 1 out of 5]

This started so well, the first few chapters were absolutely gripping then it just completely ran out of steam, such a shame.

[Ram Kaushik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably one of the weakest efforts by Patricia Wentworth. Definitely felt undercooked and more like a children's mystery.

[Sharla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sadly, this is the last in a series I have enjoyed. This one is less believable but more suspenseful than the previous books. Patricia Wentworth has generally been good about tying up loose ends but not so much in this one. One aspect was not clear at all in the end. Still, it was another strong entry in a series that I hate to see end. Overall these books are great golden age puzzle type mysteries with a dash of romance thrown in for just enough spice without being overpowering. Settings are pleasingly atmospheric and characters come to life on the pages. Maybe I will start over and read them all again.

[Michael Bafford · Rating 1 out of 5]

A pretty poor thriller, not a mystery really as most of the book follows Anne who has lost her memory, apparently due to her finding a body in a dark cellar in an empty house. She is threatened throughout the book by master criminals who are able to trace her wherever she flees. Although in the final scenes the reader wonders how? Master criminals? Hardly.

Patricia Wentworth's final book, published the year she died, aged 82. This may explain the multiple repetitions. At one point, near the end, Ms. Silver asks to see Anne's bag, Jim, the hero, replies "there is nothing there" - he uses the same expression six times in two pages. Naturally Ms. Silver persists and solves the whole case by finding a scrap of paper in the bag.

Phooey

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anne knows two things: She can't remember anything but her first name, and she just found a dead girl. Fortunately, Anne meets Maud Silver, who recommends checking her purse. That indicates that Anne is Mrs. James Fancourt and is expected by his aunts in the country. The mystery grows, involving, eventually, Scotland Yard's Frank Abbott as well as Miss Silver and James Fancourt himself, who has never seen Anne before. Wentworth leaves a lot of loose ends, but the suspense is high enough that you'll probably not notice until you close the book.

[Katie Hilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the last of the Miss Silver mystery series. This is an intriguing thriller in which the protagonist is suffering from severe shock, so devastating that she has lost her memory from the moment she awoke from a faint, staring at a body in a cellar. The girl is assisted by Miss Silver, who sees her on the bus and realizes she is in very dangerous mental condition. Through a series of coincidences, the girl later comes to rely on Miss Silver's assistance as she tries to escape from captors, still desperately trying to establish her own identity. A fascinating read.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A frightened young woman becomes conscious standing in the dark above the murdered body of an unknown girl. She has no memory before that. Wentworth successfully puts us in her place as she tries to find safety and divine who her real friends are. This tense, scary story relies for its impact on our inner knowledge of the heroine, who takes the name Anne. Again, her appeal is a major factor in gluing us to the story.

[RuthG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Years ago I read many of the Miss Silver mysteries and perhaps this one, as well. I remembered liking them a great deal, but this time I was somewhat disappointed. The mystery was simpler than I would have preferred and Miss Silver was in it a lot less than I would have liked. Even the descriptions of the time and place were not as complete as I remembered as Wentworth's style. It was worth reading as a light, simple cozy but not as a complex mystery.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

An unfortunate ending to this series; certainly the weakest of the lot. It's not a spoiler to say that the main character has amnesia for most of the book. There are hints of plot at the beginning that turn out to be nothing at all, and the "mystery" is wrapped up in about a page and a half of disjointed information that doesn't really match up with much else that happened earlier. Very odd.

The good news is that I have read every single Miss Silver book and can now move on to something else!

[Esther Hemmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Head scratcher

You do not figure out why or how till much later. It feels like you are also stuck in the black mist with the main character. Great quick read

[Sep · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Miss Wentworth's more terrifying mysteries starts with a bang as a young woman awakens in a cellar, finds a dead woman nearby, staggers out of the house, and realizes that she has amnesia.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patricia Wentworth is the pen name of Dora Amy Elles, who was born in British India in 1877. In all, she wrote sixty-six novels, thirty-two of them in the Miss Silver series. I stumbled into the Miss Silver stories when I read "The Case of William Smith" 1948, which was number thirteen. I liked it well enough to go back to the start of the series and read "Grey Mask" 1928. I've subsequently read all of the books in order--except William Smith--and I've just finished book 32, "The Girl in the Cellar," 1961. The Miss Silver series of books spans more than thirty years, and #32 was published just months before her death. This review is as much about the series as it is about book 32.

The dates of each story is important in that they are all written contemporaneously. Each story is set in the time in which it was written. However, our protagonist doesn't seem to change at all, although she's obviously aged some thirty years from series beginning to ending. Miss Maud Silver is a former governess and teacher, to which referred as "the scholastic profession." Somewhere during the early inter-war period in southern England, Miss Silver enters a new profession--Private Enquiry Agent. You guessed it, she's a private investigator.

We're never told exactly how she made that remarkable transition, but throughout the series of stories there are several references to the case of the poison caterpillars, but we're never told any details. Unlike some other "P.I.s," Miss Silver has a close working relationship with the police force, including a rural county force and Scotland Yard inspectors. In fact, one young Detective Inspector, Frank Abbott, and she share a strong friendship and deep respect for one another.

In each of the Miss Silver stories, the characters unique to them play a significant role, often telling us far more of the story than Miss Silver. The Girl in the Cellar is one of those stories in which Miss Silver is only involved in the periphery, although the part she plays is significant.

Our story begins as a young woman awakes in the dark. She can't see anything but, more importantly, she can't remember anything. She doesn't know where she is or how she got wherever it is. It's about this time that she realizes she can't even remember who she is.

She feels around her and discovers a handbag. Is it hers? She doesn't know, but for some reason she believes there's a torch (flash light) in it and a quick search finds it. It's then that she realizes she on bare concrete stairs, about half way down them, and that there's a woman's body lying at the bottom. She doesn't know who it is, or why she's there, but somehow she senses that she's dead.

Everything that happens thereafter is a process of our heroine/protagonist running from some unknown fear, trying to remember or learn who she is, and just as importantly, what she was doing on the cellar steps with a dead woman. One of the first encounters she has is on a bus fleeing the scene where she meets Miss Maud Silver. Chance encounters with Miss Silver play a recurring part in her stories, and on this particular meeting Miss Silver helps decide what to do next. They are aided in this process by what appears to be a letter of introduction that ultimately takes the girl in the cellar several other key players in our story.

I'm not going to tell you all of the plot. You'll have to discover it for yourself. What I will tell you is that I enjoyed this story even more than I have many of the others. Wentworth's characters are amazingly well crafted for us, and she's a master of using their dialog to define who they are in the society of the time. Every novel is a balancing act of plot movement or action with the background information and inner emotions of the characters. Wentworth often errs a little on the side of too much detail, but the action catches up with it in the end.

Each of the Miss Silver books works as a stand alone story if you choose. Not everybody is as obsessive as I am about binge reading them in order from start to finish. Either way, you'll enjoy coming to know Miss Silver as much as I have. Sadly, I don't have any more Miss Silver stories to read.

Happy reading.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Girl in the Cellar (Miss Silver, #32) by Patricia Wentworth.

Anne comes to consciousness as one awakening from a deep sleep. She finds herself sitting on steps...steps leading down to a cellar. she doesn't remember how or why she's there but then she notices someone lying at the foot of these same steps.

This was an astonishing and quite moving emotional battle one young lady has with loss of memory. Anne cannot for the life of her remember anything . Her last name, her family or her familiarity with any town or home-all is just a blank. That's where our story begins. It's not a short story but this author does a steadfast job of letting us go through this vulnerable situation with Anne at Anne's pace.

This book was unlike any other Miss Silver I've read. to some it will seem too repetitive, but that's the way in reality it must surely be for someone attempting to recollect their identity.

[Tandis]

.

[Marilyn Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Girl in the Cellar was the last Miss Silver book, written in 1960. The story has a cool Russian 1960s premise. I stayed up late to finish the mystery, but I'm not sure it was worth the night's rest. First, the repetition of everything to everyone was maddening. She could have cut at least 100 pages. The extra felt like a filler. We get it! You told us. Do we have to hear it again when Miss Silver is told? The conclusion was Meh! And worst of all, Miss Silver is not as present as she could be. Still, a Miss Silver mystery is still a Miss Silver mystery. When she arrives at the scene, everything gets better.

[Lynne Tull · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Wentworth wins the prize for interesting filler to stretch out a story. There is a lot of repetition about our heroine and circumstances in the story. Just when I started skipping through most of it, she threw in a new character(s) and then I had to pay attention again. As is her habit, she throws in a little 'love at first sight' to add romance to the story. This mystery kept me guessing until the end. Recommend.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young woman wakes up in a cellar with a dead young woman and no memory of who she is or what has happened. She runs into Miss Silver on the bus who helps her figure out what to do next. She goes to an address on a letter in her purse and ends up meeting a wonderful young man. But there are still scares in store for her. Can she recall what is going on before it's too late?

Well-written mystery.

[Jim Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since I started reading Ruth Rendell’s mysteries a few years back, I’ve gained a new respect for a genre I’d been very dismissive of. Now I’m trying to find other mystery writers (especially female and British) to explore. This was the first book I’ve read by Patricia Wentworth and I was instantly hooked. Like Rendell’s works, there seems to be more going on here than simply a mystery to solve. In fact, in this book, the solution is probably the least interesting thing about it. It exists as a kind of fever dream with a main character who has lost her memory after a horrible murder. There are strong feminist elements (the only people who seem able to help her are women), and a fairy tale quality to it—a quest to find oneself rather than letting the charming prince take care of it. There are strange repetitions of conversations and events, and a syntax, which isn’t old fashioned as much as it is just odd. This gives the book an otherworldly feel, almost reminding me of the works of Angela Carter. The ending is a disappointment, and the sleuth (Miss Silver) is strangely absent for most of the book—the mystery format doesn’t really seem to interest the author at all; it’s almost an afterthought. But I’m intrigued by Wentworth’s writing and will continue to search out her other books.

[Therese Van Arsdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first thing I must admit is that there are times when Maud Silver annoys me. The quotations, the dowdy late Victorian/Edwardian fashion sense. The quick as a flash romances. Those hairnets! Ick. Still, the novels can be intriguing puzzles. This is the second Miss Silver story I've come across that features amnesia. The other, The Case of William Smith, was too easy to solve this one is more complex since the motives for the crime aren't disclosed until the latter part of the novel. When Anne wakes up in a cellar a few steps above the body of a dead girl not knowing how or why she is there, she makes her way along London streets and meets Miss Silver, a detective. Miss Silver sends her to the address she finds in the handbag Anne doesn't believe is hers to stay with people who may or may not be the relations of a man who may or may not be her husband. Confused, feeling that nothing is right, Anne tries to remember how she got into the cellar with no success. When the "husband" visits his relatives he decides to help Anne recover her memory and asks Miss Silver for assistance.

There is a wonderful feeling a menace throughout this novel that makes the story hang together. It is an enjoyable cosy and a good last stand for Miss Silver.

[BookScout · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I was going to like this novel - a mystery from the Golden Age of detective fiction, Wentworth was a contemporary of Agatha Christie, but it wasn't long before I discovered why Christie is still widely celebrated and Wentworth isn't.

It isn't so much the plot that is the poblem, it begins quite promisingly; a girl wakes up in a cellar with a dead body and she has lost her memory. The problem lies with the writing and the high melodrama. Wentworth feels the need to keep repeating the plot far too frequently through the characters' dialogue, word for word. This makes the reading somewhat tedious. The high melodrama, weak minded female protagonist and romantic subplot serve to make this book indigestible. Maybe it just hasn't aged well and doesn't hold any appeal for a modern audience nurtured on realism, police procedurals and graphic prose. The 'detective' Miss Silver makes a relatively small appearance, unlike Miss Marple or Poirot would and I would have enjoyed getting to know her more. In this book she spends most of her time knitting...

Think I'll stick to Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Josephine Tey.

[Roberta · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been floating in a pool of syrup reading these Miss Silver mysteries. They are all very similar, stock characters, repetitive descriptions, overbearing men, good girls, bad girls, and baby doll girls. The attitudes reflect the times. A comfortable belief that the English class system is inherently correct and that lower class people either know their place and are comfortable in it or are cheap, shoddy and immoral. Still it's been relaxing to retreat to these formulaic reads after reading policy or research papers during the day.

This last one is the worst of the lot. It seems that Wentworth was tired of her Miss Silver. It's dashed off and sillier than the rest and there's a whole plot section tossed in near the end that goes nowhere and serves no purpose. Maybe she wrote it this way so her readers wouldn'tpine?