The name of Patricia Wentworth isn't nearly as well known or as often discussed by classic mystery readers as, say, Agatha Christie. Perhaps it should be. Wentworth wrote dozens of fine mysteries. More than 30 of them featured Miss Maud Silver, a retired governess who became a remarkably talented private "enquiry agent." She could fade into the background of a room, doing her knitting - and listening to conversations among suspects in any number of crimes. She's very much like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in that regard, and it's a grave mistake to underestimate her. One of my favorite Miss Silver books is The Girl in the Cellar, Wentworth's last book and one of her best, published in 1961, the year the author passed away. I did an audio review for the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago. Here's a transcript of that review - and, as always, there has been some minor editing involved:
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It must be a terrifying sensation not to know who you are. All the young woman knew was that she was standing, apparently on a stone step. She had no idea of her name, or how she got there, or where she was. All that she knew – somehow – was that there was the body of a dead girl at the foot of the stairway where she stood. And when she panicked and ran out of the house…she had the very good fortune to run into Miss Maud Silver – who believed her rather incredible story and agreed to help her. It happens in The Girl in the Cellar, the last book Patricia Wentworth ever wrote about Miss Silver.
Patricia Wentworth had a long and distinguished writing career, over the course of nearly half a century. While she wrote more than sixty mysteries in all, she is certainly best remembered for the 32 books featuring Miss Maud Silver, a former governess, who began a career as a private enquiry agent after her retirement, with remarkable success.
Wentworth’s books certainly fit into the niche of crime stories that today we call “cozies” – the violence is generally well off stage; there is usually a Young Damsel in Distress, there will be an Enigmatic Young Man who may (or may not) really be in love (or fall in love) with that distressed damsel; there will be People Who Should Know Better who manage to put the hero and heroine in considerable jeopardy – and there is always Miss Silver, often sitting quietly in a corner of the room, seemingly absorbed in her knitting, to identify the guilty and ease the romantic paths for both the Damsel and the Young Man.
But if Wentworth’s books tend to follow a pattern, she is quite adept at coming up with variations on the theme, introducing interesting and sympathetic characters. And in this last of her Miss Silver books, The Girl in the Cellar, published in 1961, Wentworth starts off remarkably well by taking us inside the mind of a terrified young woman. Listen to this first paragraph, which I think is really amazing:
She looked into the dead unbroken dark and had neither memory nor thought. She was not conscious of where she was, or of how she had come there. She was not conscious of anything except the darkness. She did not know if time had passed. There seemed to be no sense that it went by, but it must have done, because the moment when she knew nothing except the darkness had changed into a moment in which she knew that her feet were on stone, and that she must not move from where she stood.
I think that passage conveys very well some of the sense of nightmare in which this young woman suddenly finds herself trapped. Not even knowing her own name, she only knows – somehow – that there is a dead body at the foot of the stairway on which she is standing. And when she manages to find a flashlight in her bag – for she does find that bag at her feet – and descends the stairs, she does indeed find the body of an unknown young woman, who has been shot.
And so our memory-less young woman runs from the house…and gets on the first bus to pass by…and that’s where her luck begins to turn, for she meets Miss Silver, who is struck by the young woman’s look of utter desolation and shock and who takes her under her wing.
And we are off, trying to determine who this young woman is – and who is the girl in the cellar? Along the way, the young woman will – eventually – find out who she is, what she was doing in that house, and the identity of the dead girl. And that knowledge can be a dangerous thing indeed.
It’s all handled quite deftly. And if the clues aren’t exactly thick on the ground, with Miss Silver staying largely in the background, and there’s too much reliance on coincidence to both solve the case and to rescue the heroine – well, perhaps I’m being unfair. I’ve read several of the Miss Silver books, and I have to say that I genuinely consider this one to be among the best I’ve read. It’s good to find The Girl in the Cellar is still available in paperback as well as e-book and audiobook editions. If you’re new to Maud Silver, this will make a fine introduction.
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You can listen to the complete audio review by clicking here.
Next: The Greek Coffin Mystery, by Ellery Queen.
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