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Weekend with Death
This thriller from the author of the Miss Silver Mysteries offers fascinating insight into the British mindset during World War II
While waiting for a train connection, Sarah Marlowe is drawn into a conversation with an elderly woman who is also traveling alone. For the past five years, Emily Case has lived in Italy as companion to a wealthy aristocrat. She tells Sarah an incredible tale of being entrusted with a package by a stranger dying of a stab wound. Soon afterward, on the train to London, Sarah discovers the selfsame package in her own handbag. The next day, she learns Emily has been murdered.
The police are asking all potential witnesses to come forward, but Sarah is afraid to lose her position as secretary to the president of the New Psychical Society. Then she makes an alarming discovery. Forced to rely on a seductive stranger she isn't sure she can trust, Sarah must outwit someone who will do anything to retrieve the contents of the mysterious package . . . someone who has killed before and won't hesitate to strike again.
Beloved crime writer Patricia Wentworth layers romance, adventure, and gothic intrigue in this exciting thriller.
While waiting for a train connection, Sarah Marlowe is drawn into a conversation with an elderly woman who is also traveling alone. For the past five years, Emily Case has lived in Italy as companion to a wealthy aristocrat. She tells Sarah an incredible tale of being entrusted with a package by a stranger dying of a stab wound. Soon afterward, on the train to London, Sarah discovers the selfsame package in her own handbag. The next day, she learns Emily has been murdered.
The police are asking all potential witnesses to come forward, but Sarah is afraid to lose her position as secretary to the president of the New Psychical Society. Then she makes an alarming discovery. Forced to rely on a seductive stranger she isn't sure she can trust, Sarah must outwit someone who will do anything to retrieve the contents of the mysterious package . . . someone who has killed before and won't hesitate to strike again.
Beloved crime writer Patricia Wentworth layers romance, adventure, and gothic intrigue in this exciting thriller.
213 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1941
127 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Wentworth
162 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 32 reviews
July 4, 2016
WEEKEND OF DEATH is a novel of it's time, set during World War II. Note it is NOT a Miss Silver novel.
It is a novel of almost Gothic overtones, set in a run down English country house that has no electricity or running water. Sarah Marlowe goes there for the weekend with her employer, Wilson Cattermole and his eccentic sister Joanna, in pursuit of ghostly emanations.
Sarah finds herself with people who are prepared to murder for the papers she is carrying. In fact she knows that at least one person, the woman who gave them to her in a train station two nights earlier, has already died and she is not sure who in the house she can trust.
Like many Golden Age stories this is a tale full of coincidences which the reader just has to accept as "normal". Sarah Marlowe is one of those young women who don't like being told what to do, and constantly gives in to curiosity.
It is a novel of almost Gothic overtones, set in a run down English country house that has no electricity or running water. Sarah Marlowe goes there for the weekend with her employer, Wilson Cattermole and his eccentic sister Joanna, in pursuit of ghostly emanations.
Sarah finds herself with people who are prepared to murder for the papers she is carrying. In fact she knows that at least one person, the woman who gave them to her in a train station two nights earlier, has already died and she is not sure who in the house she can trust.
Like many Golden Age stories this is a tale full of coincidences which the reader just has to accept as "normal". Sarah Marlowe is one of those young women who don't like being told what to do, and constantly gives in to curiosity.
May 6, 2019
In the early 1940s, a book reviewer named Carlton Smith wrote of "Weekend With Death" that "he was not one to read it late at night." Mr. Smith was writing for "Esquire" magazine. He added that it was "absolutely terrifying." I would agree with both remarks.
Miss Wentworth's novels were for the most part cosies though that term was not used at the time she was writing. "Weekend" slips out of this category into a spy/horror story. It has a scene in the haunted wing of an old house that I had to skim because I did not take the late Mr. Smith's advice and did read it after dark.
The set up is that Sarah Marlowe is trapped in a station waiting room because her train is late. There she is accosted by a fellow traveler (BTW the waiting room is ladies only) whom all experienced travelers dread, someone who does not wish to listen and does wish to talk. Miss Case has had an adventure and dearly wants to share it with our heroine. Unfortunately for Sarah, Miss Case shares a little more.
Soon every bad guy in England knows that Sarah Marlowe has some very important papers and they are willing to kill to get them. In a perfectly logical way, she ends up in an isolated house in the country and hence to high, almost deadly adventure.
Reading Miss Wentworth reminds me of an England where girls of a certain class, who did not marry and therefore have the support of a husband, ended up as private secretaries or companions and were very dependent on the good will of their employers. Sarah is such a girl and her precarious financial situation justifies decisions that a modern reader might deride.
Miss Wentworth's novels were for the most part cosies though that term was not used at the time she was writing. "Weekend" slips out of this category into a spy/horror story. It has a scene in the haunted wing of an old house that I had to skim because I did not take the late Mr. Smith's advice and did read it after dark.
The set up is that Sarah Marlowe is trapped in a station waiting room because her train is late. There she is accosted by a fellow traveler (BTW the waiting room is ladies only) whom all experienced travelers dread, someone who does not wish to listen and does wish to talk. Miss Case has had an adventure and dearly wants to share it with our heroine. Unfortunately for Sarah, Miss Case shares a little more.
Soon every bad guy in England knows that Sarah Marlowe has some very important papers and they are willing to kill to get them. In a perfectly logical way, she ends up in an isolated house in the country and hence to high, almost deadly adventure.
Reading Miss Wentworth reminds me of an England where girls of a certain class, who did not marry and therefore have the support of a husband, ended up as private secretaries or companions and were very dependent on the good will of their employers. Sarah is such a girl and her precarious financial situation justifies decisions that a modern reader might deride.
January 26, 2019
I'm thrilled to renew my acquaintance with this story, two decades on from when I found it in my school library. It was under a different name (Unlawful Occasions - the American title?) and I've occasionally searched for it on Ebay since, but here it is, part of the recent paperback reprint of all the non-Miss Silver Patricia Wentworths, which I absolutely applaud.
That said, many of these books were written early on before Miss Silver brought some discipline to the PW style and a lot of them are pretty silly - romances with missing heiresses, gangs and people marooned on deserted islands. There must have been a market for this stuff for adults once.
Weekend With Death (I think I preferred the other title) is one of the better ones along these lines, with no missing heiresses, people who have lost their memories or desert islands. It's written and set in the war, which means SPIES. Like professional gangs, spies are a convenient source of motives and peril for both Wentworth and her contemporary Agatha Christie and are rarely a badge of quality in either author's books. Creating a proper whodunit with a multiplicity of possible motives and suspects takes far more skill, something Christie is far better at, to be fair.
So we have a girl on a railway platform who encounters a fluffy old lady who is uneasy because she in her turn encountered a dying man who entrusted her with a secret package. So far, so The Secret Adversary. The package makes a handy MacGuffin which everyone can pursue for the rest of the story without any of the twists and cleverness of The Secret Adversary. Nonetheless, Sarah Marlowe makes a charming heroine and her adventures are fun to follow.
.
When all's said and done, Weekend With Death is not going to win any prizes but it's entertaining enough to be worth an evening's reading in front of a roaring fire with buttered crumpets.
That said, many of these books were written early on before Miss Silver brought some discipline to the PW style and a lot of them are pretty silly - romances with missing heiresses, gangs and people marooned on deserted islands. There must have been a market for this stuff for adults once.
Weekend With Death (I think I preferred the other title) is one of the better ones along these lines, with no missing heiresses, people who have lost their memories or desert islands. It's written and set in the war, which means SPIES. Like professional gangs, spies are a convenient source of motives and peril for both Wentworth and her contemporary Agatha Christie and are rarely a badge of quality in either author's books. Creating a proper whodunit with a multiplicity of possible motives and suspects takes far more skill, something Christie is far better at, to be fair.
So we have a girl on a railway platform who encounters a fluffy old lady who is uneasy because she in her turn encountered a dying man who entrusted her with a secret package. So far, so The Secret Adversary. The package makes a handy MacGuffin which everyone can pursue for the rest of the story without any of the twists and cleverness of The Secret Adversary. Nonetheless, Sarah Marlowe makes a charming heroine and her adventures are fun to follow.
.
When all's said and done, Weekend With Death is not going to win any prizes but it's entertaining enough to be worth an evening's reading in front of a roaring fire with buttered crumpets.
January 26, 2018
Free. | Wentworth's mysteries are fluff reads for me. A simple read of an evening that I know will end satisfactorily. So I do enjoy them, but I simply can't understand how anyone reading them can be taken in by them for a moment. The whole plot is laid bare from the very beginning, and the "twist" is always so obvious as to be laughable. This one has one of the author's most creative attempted murder tactics, and the seance is unusual for her works. Having Henry in the book at all was questionable, but I suppose someone needed to be the recipient of the info about Paul Black.
September 20, 2020
I usually really like Patricia Wentworth’s books but in this one the main character was so stupid and the coincidences so unlikely I just couldn’t finish it.
September 10, 2025
Stretching your Golden Age mystery horizons beyond Agatha Christie!
Weather conditions, traveling circumstances and pure coincidence placed Sarah Marlowe in the train waiting room with a rather timorous young woman who would soon be murdered for the contents of her handbag. But the murderers would soon discover that the package had been surreptitiously handed off to Sarah Marlowe and, in her turn, Sarah Marlowe would come to realize that the villains would not hesitate over a second murder to get it back.
First published in 1941, WEEKEND WITH DEATH is a step beyond the traditional cozy mystery that I was expecting. An interesting, dare I say unique, blend of one quarter murder mystery, one quarter gothic horror, one quarter espionage thriller and one quarter romance, WEEKEND WITH DEATH also breaks ground outside the cozy mystery genre by placing the heroine in more obvious, genuine peril for her life – a much more modern flavor, if you will. As an added bonus, that danger arises entirely credibly from circumstances surrounding the heroine’s normal conduct as opposed to having her march down some ridiculously contrived path of amateur detection. The single weak point, in my opinion at least, arose from Wentworth simply dropping Sarah Marlowe’s erstwhile lover, Henry Templar, out of the plot completely. Not that it had anything to do with the ultimate outcome of the novel, but it certainly was a plot line left completely unresolved for no apparent reason.
Well, never mind that! WEEKEND WITH DEATH deserves a recommendation to all mystery lovers. I’ll certainly be looking for further titles by Ms Wentworth.
Paul Weiss
Weather conditions, traveling circumstances and pure coincidence placed Sarah Marlowe in the train waiting room with a rather timorous young woman who would soon be murdered for the contents of her handbag. But the murderers would soon discover that the package had been surreptitiously handed off to Sarah Marlowe and, in her turn, Sarah Marlowe would come to realize that the villains would not hesitate over a second murder to get it back.
First published in 1941, WEEKEND WITH DEATH is a step beyond the traditional cozy mystery that I was expecting. An interesting, dare I say unique, blend of one quarter murder mystery, one quarter gothic horror, one quarter espionage thriller and one quarter romance, WEEKEND WITH DEATH also breaks ground outside the cozy mystery genre by placing the heroine in more obvious, genuine peril for her life – a much more modern flavor, if you will. As an added bonus, that danger arises entirely credibly from circumstances surrounding the heroine’s normal conduct as opposed to having her march down some ridiculously contrived path of amateur detection. The single weak point, in my opinion at least, arose from Wentworth simply dropping Sarah Marlowe’s erstwhile lover, Henry Templar, out of the plot completely. Not that it had anything to do with the ultimate outcome of the novel, but it certainly was a plot line left completely unresolved for no apparent reason.
Well, never mind that! WEEKEND WITH DEATH deserves a recommendation to all mystery lovers. I’ll certainly be looking for further titles by Ms Wentworth.
Paul Weiss
January 4, 2024
This entire book reads like a fever dream.
On the one hand, you have the historical aspect of a book that was published during WWII actually set in the period. The war is something that looms in the background, with its effects on civilian life on the homefront having passing references. The book description was correct, it is a fascinating insight into the British mindset during the war.
On the other hand, this plot is insane.
Our heroine receives a mysterious package from an elderly woman while waiting for her train. The next day, our heroine learns that this elderly woman has been murdered and the police are asking for all potential witnesses to come forward. Our heroine is terrified to come forward because she is scared of losing her job. What is her job you ask? She's the secretary to the president of the New Psychical Society. It only gets more insane from there.
I was intrigued at the beginning because the initial premise felt plausible enough. Unfortunately, this is also just one of those books that rely on fortuitous coincidences for the plot to happen. For me, it takes the tension and suspense out because you know that everything is going to resolve neatly.
On the one hand, you have the historical aspect of a book that was published during WWII actually set in the period. The war is something that looms in the background, with its effects on civilian life on the homefront having passing references. The book description was correct, it is a fascinating insight into the British mindset during the war.
On the other hand, this plot is insane.
Our heroine receives a mysterious package from an elderly woman while waiting for her train. The next day, our heroine learns that this elderly woman has been murdered and the police are asking for all potential witnesses to come forward. Our heroine is terrified to come forward because she is scared of losing her job. What is her job you ask? She's the secretary to the president of the New Psychical Society. It only gets more insane from there.
I was intrigued at the beginning because the initial premise felt plausible enough. Unfortunately, this is also just one of those books that rely on fortuitous coincidences for the plot to happen. For me, it takes the tension and suspense out because you know that everything is going to resolve neatly.
October 26, 2020
We have a good beginning (a Wentworth's specialty), interesting characters, lots of suspicious stuff going on, but then very quickly we get the typical Wentworth insane coincidence.
There is also a bullying misogynist, but luckily he takes a kike very quickly leaving our good, plucky female protagonist to fend for herself, with some help from unexpected directions.
The book kept my interest, and guessing to the exciting ending. The ending is a bit abrupt, as is often the case with this author, but we end on a good note. Overall, I enjoyed it very much!
There is also a bullying misogynist, but luckily he takes a kike very quickly leaving our good, plucky female protagonist to fend for herself, with some help from unexpected directions.
The book kept my interest, and guessing to the exciting ending. The ending is a bit abrupt, as is often the case with this author, but we end on a good note. Overall, I enjoyed it very much!
August 20, 2023
Hoping to read all of the Miss Silver series and got this by mistake but what a great mistake! Wentworth’s writings are exactly what is missing in so many novels today which seem to mainly rely on guts and gore to create a thriller. And yes they will keep you up at night but only because you can’t stop reading.
June 19, 2024
A Perfect Mystery
It is dangerous for me to read a book like this. I didn’t accomplish anything in my life since starting it a few days ago. All I wanted to do was read! It was so suspenseful and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. A wonderful mystery by my favorite mystery writer.
It is dangerous for me to read a book like this. I didn’t accomplish anything in my life since starting it a few days ago. All I wanted to do was read! It was so suspenseful and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. A wonderful mystery by my favorite mystery writer.
October 12, 2025
No Miss Silver but a Good WWII spy thriller
A convoluted mystery relating to a secret parcel handed from person to person at the point of death. Perhaps a little too much coincidence but some entertainment in ghost chasing thrown in for good measure. Should suit most readers of the mystery thriller genre.
A convoluted mystery relating to a secret parcel handed from person to person at the point of death. Perhaps a little too much coincidence but some entertainment in ghost chasing thrown in for good measure. Should suit most readers of the mystery thriller genre.
Read
January 28, 2022This book slowly builds in tension and has several plot twists along the way. The characters will seem familiar to a reader of any of Wentworth's other books, with enough family intrigue and duplicity to keep one satisfied till the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2022
SO GOOD!
Excellent story, well drawn characters, good plot twists! Well-read mystery lovers will undoubtedly figure out certain points but the story is so captivating you could just miss the clues given along the way! Just another read that proves Wentworth is worth her salt!!
Excellent story, well drawn characters, good plot twists! Well-read mystery lovers will undoubtedly figure out certain points but the story is so captivating you could just miss the clues given along the way! Just another read that proves Wentworth is worth her salt!!
October 20, 2023
A non-series book from an author whose Miss Silver books I enjoyed. Although the plot depends on a huge coincidence, the confusion and terror of the heroine, and the grim atmosphere of the house in which she is immured, are so well presented that the book kept me fascinated.
July 7, 2024
Mesmerizing
This book is one which will keep you on the edge of your seat. A mesmerizing look into how evil, the occult, innocence, and courage fiat when thrown together. A great read!
This book is one which will keep you on the edge of your seat. A mesmerizing look into how evil, the occult, innocence, and courage fiat when thrown together. A great read!
July 29, 2017
Well, at least it turned out ok with Joanna.
December 15, 2019
Plucky heroine shows derring do but, don't worry, not too much, because she still gets her man in the the end.
September 15, 2020
This one came with a haunted house! I love a Patricia Wentworth! I got a little impatient with the heroine, but in the end...
October 25, 2020
Suspenseful
Great plot. Kept me up all night reading. Even though the setting is long ago the mystery is timeless. Love Patricia Wentworth.
Great plot. Kept me up all night reading. Even though the setting is long ago the mystery is timeless. Love Patricia Wentworth.
February 15, 2021
I really enjoyed this Patricia Wentworth book. Very good mystery with a interesting setting and unusual characters.
April 27, 2021
Pretty good
Not quite up to the master in A Christie, but entertaining, and moving along. Good characters, pretty well fleshed out. Good plotline.
Not quite up to the master in A Christie, but entertaining, and moving along. Good characters, pretty well fleshed out. Good plotline.
October 6, 2021
fun entertaining read
December 23, 2022
A good cozy read
An excellent book to enjoy while sitting by a warm fireplace with a hot cup of coffee on a cold, snowy and blustery day!
An excellent book to enjoy while sitting by a warm fireplace with a hot cup of coffee on a cold, snowy and blustery day!
May 2, 2023
Gothic spy thriller romance. Silly plot but fun.
December 6, 2025
Surprised me several times which is surprising for a Patricia Wentworth book! More violent and twisty than most.
November 27, 2014
This book starts out as a thriller, and pretty soon it becomes clear that there are elements of the spy novel as well. But I think it belongs more in the tradition of the gothic novel, what with seances, an old house with a reputation of being haunted, terrifying servants...
The story takes place during WWII. Sarah Marlowe is forced to wait for her train connection, and can't help entering into a conversation with a fellow-traveler, a mousy woman called Emily Case, who spins a confused tale of having been entrusted with a package by a young man who was stabbed. Sarah dismisses the story as the ramblings of a neurotic spinster... until she finds a package in her handbag. The package contains list of addresses and a picture of a man. When she hears that Emily Case was found murdered, she debates whether to respond to the police's request for all witnesses to come forward. She decides against it, because she feels that her employer, Wilson Cattermole, would not like it and would perhaps even terminate her employment. Sarah's role as Wilson Cattermole's secretary is to take take notes of his experiments in psychic research, and to keep an eye on his scatterbrained sister Joanna. Then Wilson decides to have the chauffeur John Wickham drive himself, Joanna and Sarah to an old country mansion, supposedly to conduct psychic research with his friend Mr. Brown. Soon it becomes clear that Wilson Cattermole and Mr. Brown are out to scare Sarah into handing over Emily's package. But what role does John Wickham play? Is he in with the bad guys or is he on Sarah's side? Things come to a head during a dramatic night that includes a faked seance, an imprisonment, a car accident and attempted murder.
The book is interesting because it offers an insight into the themes that preoccupied the British reading public in 1941 (the year this book was published). The fear that diabolically clever German spies were creating a Fifth Column, of course, but also the deprivations of wartime, a preoccupation with supernatural phenomena, and the increasing need for women to make a living.
The book has a couple of obvious weaknesses, such as the fact that Sarah's admirer Henry is given a prominent role in the first part of the book and seems to have been forgotten in the second half. John Wickham is introduced into the story in a rather clunky way. The plot twist of Sarah having found a safe spot to put the papers, while allowing the crooks to chase a decoy, is dealt with in an unnecessarily coy fashion.
In short : a novel that is one third gothic novel, one third spy thriller, and one third romance.
The story takes place during WWII. Sarah Marlowe is forced to wait for her train connection, and can't help entering into a conversation with a fellow-traveler, a mousy woman called Emily Case, who spins a confused tale of having been entrusted with a package by a young man who was stabbed. Sarah dismisses the story as the ramblings of a neurotic spinster... until she finds a package in her handbag. The package contains list of addresses and a picture of a man. When she hears that Emily Case was found murdered, she debates whether to respond to the police's request for all witnesses to come forward. She decides against it, because she feels that her employer, Wilson Cattermole, would not like it and would perhaps even terminate her employment. Sarah's role as Wilson Cattermole's secretary is to take take notes of his experiments in psychic research, and to keep an eye on his scatterbrained sister Joanna. Then Wilson decides to have the chauffeur John Wickham drive himself, Joanna and Sarah to an old country mansion, supposedly to conduct psychic research with his friend Mr. Brown. Soon it becomes clear that Wilson Cattermole and Mr. Brown are out to scare Sarah into handing over Emily's package. But what role does John Wickham play? Is he in with the bad guys or is he on Sarah's side? Things come to a head during a dramatic night that includes a faked seance, an imprisonment, a car accident and attempted murder.
The book is interesting because it offers an insight into the themes that preoccupied the British reading public in 1941 (the year this book was published). The fear that diabolically clever German spies were creating a Fifth Column, of course, but also the deprivations of wartime, a preoccupation with supernatural phenomena, and the increasing need for women to make a living.
The book has a couple of obvious weaknesses, such as the fact that Sarah's admirer Henry is given a prominent role in the first part of the book and seems to have been forgotten in the second half. John Wickham is introduced into the story in a rather clunky way. The plot twist of Sarah having found a safe spot to put the papers, while allowing the crooks to chase a decoy, is dealt with in an unnecessarily coy fashion.
In short : a novel that is one third gothic novel, one third spy thriller, and one third romance.
March 12, 2014
Weekend With Death (1941) by Patricia Wentworth is her penultimate stand-alone mystery novel. Silence in Court (1945) was her final stand-alone but she wrote 23 more Miss Silvers novels before her death in 1961.
Weekend With Death is more of a spy thriller with an unwilling civilian protagonist that a cozy whodunit. Wentworth supplies the novel with an interesting cast of characters, especially a pair of paranormal investigating siblings, but the plot has appalling logical gaffes.
Still, Wentworth creates a great deal of suspense and manages to pull off a couple of nifty surprises (though it could be argued that she doesn't completely play fair).
As Weekend With Death was published during World War II, it seems strange that the bad guys are only obliquely identified as Germans until Hitler's name is finally mentioned in the book's final pages. Not an especially rousing book for propaganda purposes. Were Wentworth and the publishers, J.B. Lippincott in the U.S. and in the U.K., under the title Unlawful Occasions, Lythway Press, hedging their bets? Seems unlikely, but the question begs for further research.
Taking a cue from Past Offences blog, I'm going to start mentioning where I found the book under review and how much I paid for it. Weekend With Death was a bargain at just a quarter from the University City Public Library book sale. Considering that prices on-line range from $60 for a vintage paperback (see below) to $750 for the hardcover first edition I'd say I got quite a deal. My first edition hardcover has some bent pages in the middle, lacks a dust cover (see above), and has a loose spine so it's not a particularly prime specimen.
Two-and-a-half daggers out of four.
Weekend With Death is more of a spy thriller with an unwilling civilian protagonist that a cozy whodunit. Wentworth supplies the novel with an interesting cast of characters, especially a pair of paranormal investigating siblings, but the plot has appalling logical gaffes.
Still, Wentworth creates a great deal of suspense and manages to pull off a couple of nifty surprises (though it could be argued that she doesn't completely play fair).
As Weekend With Death was published during World War II, it seems strange that the bad guys are only obliquely identified as Germans until Hitler's name is finally mentioned in the book's final pages. Not an especially rousing book for propaganda purposes. Were Wentworth and the publishers, J.B. Lippincott in the U.S. and in the U.K., under the title Unlawful Occasions, Lythway Press, hedging their bets? Seems unlikely, but the question begs for further research.
Taking a cue from Past Offences blog, I'm going to start mentioning where I found the book under review and how much I paid for it. Weekend With Death was a bargain at just a quarter from the University City Public Library book sale. Considering that prices on-line range from $60 for a vintage paperback (see below) to $750 for the hardcover first edition I'd say I got quite a deal. My first edition hardcover has some bent pages in the middle, lacks a dust cover (see above), and has a loose spine so it's not a particularly prime specimen.
Two-and-a-half daggers out of four.
October 25, 2016
Take a Deep Breath and Steady Your Nerves
Written in wartime England 1941, this is a totally believable story about a young woman caught up in wartime intrigue and the desperation of not knowing who she can trust. I won't leave a trail of spoilers. It starts off in an ordinary way with a gullible young secretary who is far too trusting, and then the action heats up.
Written in wartime England 1941, this is a totally believable story about a young woman caught up in wartime intrigue and the desperation of not knowing who she can trust. I won't leave a trail of spoilers. It starts off in an ordinary way with a gullible young secretary who is far too trusting, and then the action heats up.
December 30, 2016
Five stars - I loved it!
A mysterious old house, eccentric characters who may or may not be suspects, a secret package everyone wants to get hold of, ghostly warnings and a choice of beaux. Altogether a fabulous fun read, with Patricia Wentworth on fine form in this Golden Age mystery.
A mysterious old house, eccentric characters who may or may not be suspects, a secret package everyone wants to get hold of, ghostly warnings and a choice of beaux. Altogether a fabulous fun read, with Patricia Wentworth on fine form in this Golden Age mystery.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews