My second Miss Silver and it's another perfectly constructed mystery. One of my big bugbears of classic cosy private detective mysteries is that often the big reveal depended on a clue that was completely hidden from the reader and not even hinted at. Like, you're just supposed guess at this backstory of this side character that no one has ever even slightly referenced. You often get those stories, and then there's this Miss Silver mystery.

The story lets you know firsthand that it's deliberately shielding clues from you. It gives you a conversation from one perspective in one chapter, and then rehashes the exact same conversation from another perspective with different tags and descriptions. Not only that, it switches viewpoints every chapter, providing such insights into relationships from both those in it and those perceiving it from outside. I felt spoilt from such richly layered storytelling.

Miss Silver herself is used sparingly, with the rest of the cast allowed their turns in centre stage. Wentworth also managed to walk that line between hard noir and happy resolution village mystery, producing a sharply refined mystery worthy of the golden age. ( )

After an absence of over twenty years, James Lessiter returns to his hometown to collect his inheritance. After discovering that the estate has been systematically ripped off, James is murdered and his old flame, Rietta, is wrongly suspected.

Another boring mystery that doesn't have a whole lot of detection going on. It's odd that James Lessiter is repeatedly referred to as despicable. Henrietta is the one who terminated their engagement and people are stealing from James--not the other way around. It makes no sense for Lessiter to be portrayed as a villain.

This book quickly found its way into the donate box. ( )

This was my second Miss Silver mystery; the first one I read was the first in the series, and frankly, it left me dubious about reading the rest, but I found this and one other on the bottom shelf at a local used book store and threw caution to the wind.

My brief googling has this book at either 15 or 16 in the series, and it shows. It was so much better! 90% less sappy puppy romance, 100% better plotting and characterisations. And the writing... the writing felt fresh and a little edgy, in that way that third person POV does when it's done correctly. An occasional and very subtle breaking of the fourth wall added to that feeling that I was reading a very accomplished writer's work.

I've heard that Wentworth was rather fond of using wills in her story lines, and this one doesn't disprove the rumour, but ... no, I'm not going to go further - I'm not sure it doesn't skirt the boundaries of spoiler-ville.

The mystery plotting... masterful. I was sucked into the story thoroughly; totally hooked and I missed it all, until it was so late in the game that it made no difference. I like Miss Silver; she's Miss Marple without the pretence of fluffiness and helplessness, so losing to her didn't bother me in the least. I only wish she'd stop coughing all the time. Someone ought to give that woman a cough drop.

I hope the other Miss Silver book I grabbed at the same time is as good, and I'll definitely be taking the time to look at the series' books again, though I might completely break rank with my life long habits and skip the first few books. Now I know how good she can be, I'd rather not suffer through Wentworth's growing pains if I can avoid it. ( )

I liked the fact that Miss Silver was in the story from the beginning in this entry in the series. Plus quite a bit with Randal Marsh :) ( )

My first time reading about Miss Silver but easy enough to pick up the character even starting with book 16. In the Miss Marple vein with a notable difference--this old lady is a professional enquiry agent. Don't let her knitting fool you, she's a sharp old bird. Enjoyed it though spotted the murderer before all was revealed. Still a good read and looking for more in the series. ( )