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Touch and Go
“I know what we’ll do. We’ll play Devil-in-the dark.”
When Sarah Trent was engaged as governess to seventeen-year-old Lucilla Hildred, she didn’t bargain for a series of sinister occurrences—scary noises, the nocturnal rattle of claws against glass, a sabotaged bicycle. Then there is a neighbouring burglary, leaving a set of muddy footprints—but whose?
Sarah comes to suspect that someone is trying to kill the orphaned Lucilla, sole heir to a fortune. Is it visiting American John Brown, or could Lucilla be playing a deceptive game of her own? Someone is poised, waiting like a snake to strike, and Lucilla may not be the only prey…
Touch and Go was originally published in 1934 (original UK title: Devil in the Dark). This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1934
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232 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Wentworth
165 books517 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 - 24 of 24 reviews
August 16, 2019
When life got busier than I wanted, when I didn't have much time or concentration for reading, I prescribed myself one of Patricia Wentworth's stand-alone stories, and it was just what I needed.
This is a book with many ingredients that will be familiar if you've read the author before; but there are also some interesting variations that give this book exactly the balance I wanted between familiar and different.
There are two heroines.
Seventeen year-old Lucilla Hildred is the heiress to a large estate and a great deal of wealth, and she is very nearly alone in the world. Her father died in the Great War, she has just lost her mother and step-father in a car crash, and now her guardians are two much older cousins. They had to take her away from her school, her headmistress had insisted they do so, because more than one unexplained fire had broken out in her bedroom. That worried them, and they thought it best to appoint a young woman who would be both governess and companion, to watch over their charge.
Sarah Trent was that young woman. She came from a good family, she had been well brought up and well educated, but she was alone in the world and had to earn her own living. She said exactly the right things to Lucilla's anxious Aunt Marina - who explained that she was a distant cousin with the courtesy title of aunt at considerably more length than she needed to - more and was delighted to accept the post.
She met her new charge on the way home, when Lucilla tumbled out of the hedge and very nearly went under the wheels of her car. She didn't know then that Lucilla that wasn't Lucilla's first near miss; because it was sometime later that the young's lady's other guardian - Uncle Geoffrey, who had a son the same age as Lucilla, who he rather hoped she might marry - told her what had happened at school.
That worried her, as did a number of other incidents that she would witness.
Sarah and Lucilla became great friends, but Lucilla would never confide in her about what was happening and she would never give any account of certain things that concerned Sarah.
There were three young men - and I suspected that there would be a hero for each heroine. The first was a visitor to the area who had asked if he might paint in the grounds of the big house; the second was a young relation of Sarah's previous employer who had become a friend and wanted to see how she was settling into her new job; and the third was Lucilla's cousin, whose father was making plans for the pair.
As the story played out and I found out more I really wasn't sure who to cast in each role, and I changed my mind a few times as the plot twisted. There were some developments that I could predict, but there were also some wonderful surprises, and I didn't work out everything until the very end.
I probably should have worked it out, but the story stays close to Sarah, I learned things as she did, and I didn't want to step away from her. She was a wonderfully independent and spirited heroine, who was quite ready to go out and do whatever she could to sort things out, and I liked her enormously.
I also loved her car - The Bomb - a wonderful character in its own right.
The evocation of the time and place is very well done; and I was particularly taken with the contrast between the gilded lifestyle of the Hildred family and the dark shadows cast by what was going on and by what has happened in the Great War.
This book is more romantic suspense than vintage crime. I am quite certain that Miss Silver would have worked out what was going on in no time flat, and sorted out Aunt Marina's knitting - she dropped a ridiculous number of stitches - but I had no reason at all to regret her absence.
The story and the characters were engaging, the psychology was interesting, and I was very impressed with how much Patricia Wentworth could do with a very small, tight cast.
The final act was a little contrived, the romance had the author's usual failings, but it was wonderfully dramatic and it was satisfying. My only real complaint is that the ending was a little too quick, and I would have liked to stay with Sarah for just a little bit longer to see more more reaction and to actually see what I thought would happen next.
I'm not sure that this is my absolute favourite Patrician Wentworth stand-alone - I loved Silence in Court and I loved Kingdom Lost - but they are quite different and so I really don't want to choose between them.
I'll just say that this was definitely the right book at the right time.
This is a book with many ingredients that will be familiar if you've read the author before; but there are also some interesting variations that give this book exactly the balance I wanted between familiar and different.
There are two heroines.
Seventeen year-old Lucilla Hildred is the heiress to a large estate and a great deal of wealth, and she is very nearly alone in the world. Her father died in the Great War, she has just lost her mother and step-father in a car crash, and now her guardians are two much older cousins. They had to take her away from her school, her headmistress had insisted they do so, because more than one unexplained fire had broken out in her bedroom. That worried them, and they thought it best to appoint a young woman who would be both governess and companion, to watch over their charge.
Sarah Trent was that young woman. She came from a good family, she had been well brought up and well educated, but she was alone in the world and had to earn her own living. She said exactly the right things to Lucilla's anxious Aunt Marina - who explained that she was a distant cousin with the courtesy title of aunt at considerably more length than she needed to - more and was delighted to accept the post.
She met her new charge on the way home, when Lucilla tumbled out of the hedge and very nearly went under the wheels of her car. She didn't know then that Lucilla that wasn't Lucilla's first near miss; because it was sometime later that the young's lady's other guardian - Uncle Geoffrey, who had a son the same age as Lucilla, who he rather hoped she might marry - told her what had happened at school.
That worried her, as did a number of other incidents that she would witness.
Sarah and Lucilla became great friends, but Lucilla would never confide in her about what was happening and she would never give any account of certain things that concerned Sarah.
There were three young men - and I suspected that there would be a hero for each heroine. The first was a visitor to the area who had asked if he might paint in the grounds of the big house; the second was a young relation of Sarah's previous employer who had become a friend and wanted to see how she was settling into her new job; and the third was Lucilla's cousin, whose father was making plans for the pair.
As the story played out and I found out more I really wasn't sure who to cast in each role, and I changed my mind a few times as the plot twisted. There were some developments that I could predict, but there were also some wonderful surprises, and I didn't work out everything until the very end.
I probably should have worked it out, but the story stays close to Sarah, I learned things as she did, and I didn't want to step away from her. She was a wonderfully independent and spirited heroine, who was quite ready to go out and do whatever she could to sort things out, and I liked her enormously.
I also loved her car - The Bomb - a wonderful character in its own right.
The evocation of the time and place is very well done; and I was particularly taken with the contrast between the gilded lifestyle of the Hildred family and the dark shadows cast by what was going on and by what has happened in the Great War.
This book is more romantic suspense than vintage crime. I am quite certain that Miss Silver would have worked out what was going on in no time flat, and sorted out Aunt Marina's knitting - she dropped a ridiculous number of stitches - but I had no reason at all to regret her absence.
The story and the characters were engaging, the psychology was interesting, and I was very impressed with how much Patricia Wentworth could do with a very small, tight cast.
The final act was a little contrived, the romance had the author's usual failings, but it was wonderfully dramatic and it was satisfying. My only real complaint is that the ending was a little too quick, and I would have liked to stay with Sarah for just a little bit longer to see more more reaction and to actually see what I thought would happen next.
I'm not sure that this is my absolute favourite Patrician Wentworth stand-alone - I loved Silence in Court and I loved Kingdom Lost - but they are quite different and so I really don't want to choose between them.
I'll just say that this was definitely the right book at the right time.
January 23, 2024
Sarah is hired to be governess to seventeen year old Lucilla, who is an orphan and lives with her amiable guardian, cousin Geoffrey. Strange accidents befall Lucilla, and Sarah is not sure that they really are accidents. But if not - who could be causing them? Lucilla will come into money when she is 21 - if she lives that long.
This is quite an entertaining novel of suspense with some likeable characters. Sarah is intelligent and resourceful, Lucilla is imaginative and romantic. Then there is Sarah’s would be suitor, Ran , a somewhat comic Frenchman who says ‘ma foie’ a lot, and the mysterious John Brown, is he what he seems? Not a Miss Silver book, but still enjoyable.
This is quite an entertaining novel of suspense with some likeable characters. Sarah is intelligent and resourceful, Lucilla is imaginative and romantic. Then there is Sarah’s would be suitor, Ran , a somewhat comic Frenchman who says ‘ma foie’ a lot, and the mysterious John Brown, is he what he seems? Not a Miss Silver book, but still enjoyable.
June 13, 2018
Sarah Trent has been hired as a companion/governess to Lucilla by her guardians. Lucilla is an orphan who and heir to the Hildred fortune. One uncle having gone missing, presumed dead and her father and other uncle also dead. Lucille has had a couple of lucky escapes and someone seems to be threatening her life, one or two strangers have appeared on the scene too. Can Sarah find out who is after her and help her out.
These early Wentworth mysteries are good fun, on the whole,but there is not much substance to them. A bit of light entertainment.
These early Wentworth mysteries are good fun, on the whole,but there is not much substance to them. A bit of light entertainment.
September 18, 2020
Dated but clever
Young governess, beautiful ward, dead and missing uncles, a plotting guardian, and an unknown stranger...... lots of good period language and vocabulary. Justice prevails and romance takes the day.
Young governess, beautiful ward, dead and missing uncles, a plotting guardian, and an unknown stranger...... lots of good period language and vocabulary. Justice prevails and romance takes the day.
August 30, 2017
J'ai beaucoup aimé l'intrigue, qui malgré quelques longueurs, m'a captivée jusqu'à la fin. C'est mon premier livre de cette auteure et ce ne sera sûrement pas le dernier.
November 13, 2016
APRIL 26, 2016
Dean Street Press announces the first ten Patricia Wentworth novel reissues will be out on May 2. This is part of a major project to republish all 33 of her non-Miss Silver mysteries, some of which haven't been in print or available for many decades. The remaining 23 will be published in a further two batches in June and July.
The first ten include the four Benbow Smith mysteries, featuring the eminence grise Benbow Smith, and his loquacious parrot Ananias. The first batch also includes SILENCE IN COURT from 1945 which is an exceptional courtroom mystery.
Patricia Wentworth (Dora Amy Elles). I only chanced upon Patricia Wentworth after seeing this book was a free download for the kindle app. It is a Golden Age Mystery those classic murder mystery novels of the 1920s and 1930s.
I enjoyed the gentle language & style of writing with a little bit of romance along the way. The strange happenings were intriguing & kept me wanting to turn the page. I did think it odd that the 'child' was 17 & mostly acted as tho 7 yet wants a man to 'make love to her' (this phrase obviously had a different meaning in 1934).
I also felt the ending was rather sudden after the suspenseful build up.
Dean Street Press announces the first ten Patricia Wentworth novel reissues will be out on May 2. This is part of a major project to republish all 33 of her non-Miss Silver mysteries, some of which haven't been in print or available for many decades. The remaining 23 will be published in a further two batches in June and July.
The first ten include the four Benbow Smith mysteries, featuring the eminence grise Benbow Smith, and his loquacious parrot Ananias. The first batch also includes SILENCE IN COURT from 1945 which is an exceptional courtroom mystery.
Patricia Wentworth (Dora Amy Elles). I only chanced upon Patricia Wentworth after seeing this book was a free download for the kindle app. It is a Golden Age Mystery those classic murder mystery novels of the 1920s and 1930s.
I enjoyed the gentle language & style of writing with a little bit of romance along the way. The strange happenings were intriguing & kept me wanting to turn the page. I did think it odd that the 'child' was 17 & mostly acted as tho 7 yet wants a man to 'make love to her' (this phrase obviously had a different meaning in 1934).
I also felt the ending was rather sudden after the suspenseful build up.
November 15, 2016
Excellent!
This romantic suspense story is one of Wentworth's very best and will keep you on the edge of your seat as you read. The hero is one of my favorites so far, having now read about half of her books. A very satisfying tale of an heiress on peril and the intrigue surrounding her and those closest to her.
This romantic suspense story is one of Wentworth's very best and will keep you on the edge of your seat as you read. The hero is one of my favorites so far, having now read about half of her books. A very satisfying tale of an heiress on peril and the intrigue surrounding her and those closest to her.
June 25, 2021
Exceptional! Enjoyed this one very much, loved the little insights in to human nature and character, surprised by the racist lines a few times--those I do not condone or applaud and put them down to the author's racism--I hope she changed her views.
June 12, 2023
An Excellent book
A delightful story set about 16 years after the first world war with well described characters. The prose is beautiful. There is a lovely mystery, several chilling murder attempts and a romance. Thoroughly enjoyable.
A delightful story set about 16 years after the first world war with well described characters. The prose is beautiful. There is a lovely mystery, several chilling murder attempts and a romance. Thoroughly enjoyable.
May 31, 2025
3.5 for the pure enjoyment of a Wentworth, but it's a bit formulaic if you've read loads of Wentworth - but isn't that part of what we look for? This one has it in spades, and a touch of The Case of William Smith, which is one of my favorite Miss Silver titles (this one is not a Miss Silver title).
Read
January 23, 2022This is yet another of Wentworth's books based on an imaginative premise. As usual in her books, there's an interesting cast of mostly related characters, and there's much that really isn't as it seems. There's a slightly unbelievable twist toward the end, but in all, it's an enjoyable book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2023
I have yet to meet a Patricia Wentworth book I haven’t loved. Touch and Go is indeed another delightful quick read. She combines mystery and romance in such a way that each is given equal and what's-going-to-happen attention. Thank you, Patricia, for being so prolific.
September 25, 2023
One of her better ones
I had told myself I wasn’t going to read any more Wentworths because I was tired of the silly flappers. Well , this one’s not so silly (just a bit) and the main character has a head on her shoulders. Good ending !
I had told myself I wasn’t going to read any more Wentworths because I was tired of the silly flappers. Well , this one’s not so silly (just a bit) and the main character has a head on her shoulders. Good ending !
December 12, 2018
3 1/2 stars
April 2, 2020
A particularly enjoyable Wentworth novel. Interesting characters with painful pasts that have shaped but not destroyed them.
Read
August 7, 2020Nicely creepy and keeps you guessing...
October 13, 2020
Patricia Wentworth does a great job of getting you interested in her characters. While her stories are not nearly complex as Agatha Christie, they certainly remind me of them.
February 19, 2023
This is one of the best of Wentworth's romantic suspense novels that I've read.
June 6, 2023
Fun read. Quick and easy. Just enough plot twists to stay engaging.
September 4, 2023
Pretty sure I've read this a long time ago, can't remember a damn thing. Pretty sure it was great, though: Patricia Wentworth usually is.
June 25, 2025
Enjoyable. Sarah Trent is slightly different from most of Wentworth’s heroines.
May 6, 2023
With the recent death of her uncle, Lucilla has become quite rich, and as mystery reader knows heiresses are prime candidate for murder. Yet, yet, time again Lucilla escapes with her life. . .
Written in 1934, "Touch and Go" is a mystery about who is trying to kill Lucilla or is she the one causing all of her near accidents as an attention getting device. Much of the book is from the point of view of Sarah Trent, hired companion and governess. A Frenchman, an American and a cousin named Ricky form the obligatory group of young, single men that appear most often in Wentworth mysteries.
Miss Wentworth wrote a contemporary in 1934 but today it gives us a wonderful slice of the past. Lucilla's father and his two brothers fought in World War I and its affects are still grieved. Her father died. One uncle disappeared. The third uncle came home, probably shellshocked (though they never use that term) and spent the rest of his life in a hospital. Cars are so new that one of Lucille's elderly relatives forbids her to ride in them. (Bicycles, without helmets, are considered safer.) Even the ending is very "protect the family's good name" sort of thing that Miss Silver kicks to smithereens in later books.
Written in 1934, "Touch and Go" is a mystery about who is trying to kill Lucilla or is she the one causing all of her near accidents as an attention getting device. Much of the book is from the point of view of Sarah Trent, hired companion and governess. A Frenchman, an American and a cousin named Ricky form the obligatory group of young, single men that appear most often in Wentworth mysteries.
Miss Wentworth wrote a contemporary in 1934 but today it gives us a wonderful slice of the past. Lucilla's father and his two brothers fought in World War I and its affects are still grieved. Her father died. One uncle disappeared. The third uncle came home, probably shellshocked (though they never use that term) and spent the rest of his life in a hospital. Cars are so new that one of Lucille's elderly relatives forbids her to ride in them. (Bicycles, without helmets, are considered safer.) Even the ending is very "protect the family's good name" sort of thing that Miss Silver kicks to smithereens in later books.
January 16, 2016
Appréciable surtout pour l'ambiance, l'élégance et les personnages.
Il se passe un truc quand on ouvre un roman de Patricia Wentworth, c'est dépaysant, charmant, guindé et indémodable.
L'histoire se déroule dans une maison familiale, dans la campagne anglaise. Une jeune héritière est suspectée de folie, ou tenterait-on de la zigouiller pour s'emparer du magot ?!
Simple, mais efficace.
Il se passe un truc quand on ouvre un roman de Patricia Wentworth, c'est dépaysant, charmant, guindé et indémodable.
L'histoire se déroule dans une maison familiale, dans la campagne anglaise. Une jeune héritière est suspectée de folie, ou tenterait-on de la zigouiller pour s'emparer du magot ?!
Simple, mais efficace.
September 25, 2022
One of my favorite Patricia Wentworth's. I loved the
suspenseful story and the characters.
suspenseful story and the characters.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews