Over the years, I have made a number of forays into the world of Golden Age mystery writers, looking briefly at the work of several well-known exponents of the genre, and in greater depth at my mystery hero Agatha Christie, and her life and her work.
So now I thought I would tell you a little bit about my other favourite detective story writer, Patricia Wentworth, known mainly for her mysteries, but who also wrote romances.
Patricia Wentworth was her pen name. She was born as Dora Amy Elles in 1878 in India, and was educated at Blackheath School for Girls, now Blackheath High School, London.
She married quite young and had her first daughter. Her husband had two sons from a former relationship, one (or possibly both) of whom died in WWI. Her husband died in 1906, when she was still only in her late twenties. Wentworth moved to Camberley, Surrey, England, where she would live until her death in 1961. Wentworth met her second husband and married in 1920, and had another daughter. It was in Camberley Wentworth wrote most of her novels, with her second husband George writing down what she dictated.
Today she is mostly remembered for her 32 murder mysteries featuring private inquiry agent Miss Maud Silver, a former governess, keen observer of human nature and quoter of Tennyson and the Bible. But there are more than 40 other books which don’t feature detective Miss Silver, mostly mysteries, but there are some historical romances, and some poetry and stories for children.
For many years, I found it very difficult to obtain Wentworth’s books. But with the recent rise of small print runs and small presses, and the resurgence in interest in Golden Age and traditional mysteries, her work is enjoying a new popularity and reaching new audiences. Hodder have reissued the majority of the Miss Silver books over the last ten years or so, with Open Road Media and Dean Street Press publishing virtually all of the other books between them. Readers are often frustrated to find that the books have different titles in the UK and the USA, so please check carefully that you’re not buying the same book twice under different titles. If you want to check, there is an excellent bibliography on the Patricia Wentworth page on Wikipedia, along with publication dates.
Her work has often dismissed as being ‘old-fashioned’, ‘middle-class’, ‘tame’ and dated, but nevertheless I would say these books should not be so easily set aside, as there is a real mystery there for all mystery fans to get to grips with.
To begin with, some of these books first appeared more than a hundred years ago, and are still popular. For example, the romance, A Marriage Under The Terror won the Andrew Melrose prize in 1910, which earned her the handsome reward of two hundred and fifty guineas, quite a sum in those days. There was much speculation about her use of a pseudonym, claiming that it was impossible to keep her real identity a secret.
We do need to see them within their own era. I would agree with critics that a few of the novels are not as strong, or as innovative, as others, and also that several plot devices reoccur (notably the indoor, uncovered well), and that from time to time, ‘the butler did it’. But that was a new idea then, it’s only now, a hundred years later, that seems a bit tired to us.
The books are strongly romantic, which for me is a good thing, but it means they don’t fit comfortably into traditional generic categories, but again that is something that current trends are more flexible about. I know some readers find them too sweet, too polite, and complain there is not enough guts and gore—but hey, they’re cosies, get used to it.
these are the same book – but Spotlight is the British edition and Wicked Uncle is the American one. Either way, it’s another of my absolute favourites.
You might come across the odd ‘Damn’ or Good God!’ but that’s as offensive as the language will get, and no bodices are ripped, though there is sometimes a passionate kiss. Miss Silver, quoting from Tennyson or the Bible, knits and looks on fondly as the main characters fall in love and are unable to hide it, then it is her job to rescue them from a dreadful crime. In many of the books, we see her exchanging letters or receiving photos of the children born to a couple from an earlier mystery, and I love that too! There are also some funny moments when spinster Miss Silver says things like ‘In their own way, men can be quite useful.’ That one made me spit coffee all over myself.
The strengths of the books lies in the portrayal of the era, and in the way many of the characters are forced to find their way through unfamiliar and difficult circumstances, especially during the Second World War. The characters are not all wealthy, they are not all high-born, artistic, celebrities or otherwise fortunate. Often they are typists or orphans or military personnel. The mysteries are pleasing, often very clever, and the reader can detect along with the protagonist. The writing is intelligent, clear, and lacking in long flowery descriptions, which I personally detest.
I also recommend them for students of creative writing who want to improve their dialogue and character writing skills, their plotting skills or anyone who wants to write novels set in the recent past. And of course, I recommend them to readers who love a traditional mystery without body parts being lopped off, or strong language, or who prefer romance without sex scenes, or who likes something with a strong sense of morality and a satisfying mystery.
About ten years ago, I was in a secondhand bookshop trying to find some of the Wentworths that were missing from my collection. When I asked the lady who ran the store if they had any Patricia Wentworth books, she said no, sorry, then added, ‘She hasn’t done much lately, has she?’ To which I replied, ‘Well, she died in 1961, so that probably explains it.’ She just nodded and said, ‘Yes, I suppose so.’
If you want to give them a go, below are a couple of my favourite titles:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/caronallan/patricia-wentworth-books/
The Chinese Shawl – 1st published in 1943. It’s definitely my favourite Miss Silver!
Silence in Court – my current reread, it was 1st published in 1945. This is the Dean Street Press edition.
Poison in the Pen – I love a poison pen mystery – and have even written one myself. This one was 1st published in 1957.
***
This week saw the 10th anniversary of the publication of my book Night and Day: Dottie Manderson mysteries book 1.
Dottie finds a man lying on the pavement. It’s late at night, and it’s late November, and she wonders if he’s simply drunk, but it quickly becomes clear he is injured, attacked by someone with a knife. She daren’t leave him alone, knowing any moment could be his last. As she waits for help to arrive, she tries to find out what happened, but all he can do is sing a few words of a song to her.
When I’m starting out with a new story idea, I have to ask myself these two questions:
Is it due to time pressure? Murderers are notoriously busy people :D. If the victim is not dispatched, will that leave them free to take some action that is detrimental to the happy continuance of the killer’s life?
She found a corner table, one where she had the wall at her back, and the whole cafe there before her eyes, the entrance to the left, the service counter to the right.
Welcome to this week’s blog. I am thrilled to be taking part in the blog tour for Marsali Taylor’s new book, Death in a Shetland Family.
Only two weeks until 
She was about to tell her brother Rob how glad she was that he was with her, but immediately she was distracted by a couple a short way ahead of them, standing under a streetlight. An older man with, she presumed, his daughter. The man appeared angry about something, and the girl, arms folded across her chest, was glancing about her anxiously.
As you might be aware, I’m putting the final touches to my book 
But which one? Something totally new, like my roughly planned out 
‘This is not what I was expecting.’ Dottie Hardy gazed mournfully up at the small steamship moored a little ahead of them. The nameplate attached to the bow claimed this ship to be the SS Icarus. Dottie felt this did not bode well.
In the front of my wife’s old diaries, there’s always some romantic, sweet dedication, full of love and promises of devotion. I did one for her, years ago, but her first husband Thomas, did loads of them, and they were all flowery and romantic, the kind of thing posh blokes always do, and in really expensive diaries, too, you know the sort of thing, designer stationery. She still keeps them in a drawer of her bedside table and she gets them out now and again and sits there all emotional and lost in the past, and… It makes me wonder if she loved Thomas (she never ever called him Tom) more than me. I get a bit jealous when I think of him. Which isn’t fair, I know, but I can’t help it, I just do…
Most of us had to get back to work this week, and that includes writers! I’m at the creative stage, ideas flowing, crazy ones or a bit more sensible, I’m making a huge amount of notes, then just as likely, crossing them out the next day, only to come back a day after that and think, ‘Yes, actually, I like that idea, it could work really well.’
You must be logged in to post a comment.