Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth

Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth

The first of the classic mysteries featuring governess-turned-detective Miss Silver, who investigates a deadly conspiratorial ring.

Charles Moray has come home to England to collect his inheritance. After four years wandering the jungles of India and South America, the hardy young man returns to the manor of his birth, where generations of Morays have lived and died. Strangely, he finds the house unlocked, and sees a light on in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, he learns of a conspiracy to commit a fearsome crime.

Never one for the heroic, Charles' first instinct is to let the police settle it. But then he hears her voice. Margaret, his long-lost love, is part of the gang. To unravel their diabolical plot, he contacts Miss Silver, a onetime governess who applies her reason to solve crimes and face the dangers of London's underworld.

Patricia Wentworth (1878-1961) was a master of the traditional English mystery novel. Dora Amy Elles was born in India, and following the loss of her first husband, she began writing, publishing her first novel in 1910. Miss Maud Silver, the former governess whose heavy figure, liking for Tennyson, and enthusiasm for knitting served to mask a bright brain, was introduced in the 1920s and became her most famous character. Miss Silver is the definitive representation of the English style of cozy mysteries, alongside Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.