This isn't a Maud Silver novel; _Run!_ was first published in 1938, just after that long gap in the Silver series between _Grey Mask_ (1928) and the 2nd Silver novel (1937) , wherein Wentworth's command of her craft, polished by the intervening non-Silver books, improved to the standard that held through the rest of her life. This particular book is a very good story with a lot of humor, more adventure and suspense than puzzle-solving.

James Elliot, with no sisters but 14 girl cousins, flatters himself that he knows a lot about girls, especially their general untruthfulness. (He's even almost as clever as he thinks he is.) But when he gets lost driving down back country roads through fog and stops to ask directions, the girl who dashes out of the unknown house saying only, "Run!" followed by pot-shots out of the fog, seems to raise the standards of bare-faced lying to new heights. (Giving a false name to a stranger when you're both hiding in a hayloft is one thing, but 'Aspidistra Aspinall'?) She's exasperating, but has real mettle in a crisis, so when he runs into her again at his cousin Daphne's, he's not about to accept a brush-off. (He's so obstinate that "the Great War", to him, isn't the little dust-up of 1914-1918, but the big family quarrel with his father the Colonel over whether he would enter the Army.)

Sally West, as she turns out to be, is the sister of Jocko West, an old schoolmate of James' - and while the name she gave him at first was false, a lot of the rest of her story seems to be true. Her guardian really *is* the famous author Ambrose Sylvester, he of the perfect profile, writer's block, and sinister-looking wife. The Wests really *did* have an aunt Clementa (although James refuses to believe in any fanciful tales of family jewels until he sees them). And the last thing he refuses to believe is that Sally could be almost engaged to anyone else, let alone one of Sylvester's dubious in-laws...

By the time you have read the first half of this 1943 murder mystery, you will know that Tanis Lyle is a beautiful young woman who has many enemies. When the butler then discovers Tanis's body, and the "small round hole in the silk of her coat a little below the left shoulder-blade", you will suspect that one of them has murdered her. You could be wrong! Miss Maud Silver, eccentric in dress and quaint in manner, will eventually be able to explain why.

Patricia Wentworth, like several other female British crime writers of her generation, contributed to the so-called "War Effort" in the early 1940s by increasing her production of the sort of murder mysteries that provided cosy, escapist relaxation. This one is a successful blend of her usual ingredients: romance, relationships, family dynamics crossing several generations, a murder or two, Miss Maud Silver as sleuth, and lots of dialogue.

This case strays from what I think of as the usual Silver format, in that private enquiry agent Maud Silver isn't brought in during the 2nd or 3rd chapter by one of the sympathetic young lovers who generally turn up in her cases. Instead, she appears after a few chapters of character development spelling out quite clearly just how many people - both would-be lovers and *their* discarded partners - have a motive to kill Tanis Lyle, and Maudie's already engaged in a separate case - a matter of petty thefts from Tanis' wealthy guardian Agnes, who then extends the engagement to cover the murder investigation. (Agnes and her cousin Lucy are old acquaintances of Maud's school days, although they were never close, so she's actually staying with the client rather than a separate old school chum for once.) However, in this instance the flexing of the bonds of the Silver format does no harm; a very pleasant read as either a novel or a puzzle, if you like mysteries spiced with other human problems.

As in a later case, _Through the Wall_, at least two potential murder victims bear a strong enough likeness that when one is killed at night while wearing some of the other's clothing, there's some question as to which was the intended victim. Another similarity is that one is the (apparently) morally worthy heiress, the other a femme fatale, although in a much more drastic contrast than in the later book, where the femme fatale is a (somewhat) more sympathetic character. Motive won't help sort this one out - anybody who didn't have a motive to kill Tanis Lyle did have a motive to kill Laura Fane, and vice versa.

Laura Fane, as the sole surviving member of the senior branch of the family, holds title to the family estate - the Priory - but the next branch of the family has leased it for many years, since they had the money to keep it up, so cousin Agnes has lived there all her life. Jilted by Laura's father, then partly paralyzed by a riding accident, she's devoted herself to 3 things: nursing her grudge against Laura's long-dead parents, maintaining the Priory, and raising her orphaned young cousin Tanis Lyle. Agnes wants to buy the Priory outright, and to persuade Tanis (via her control of the pursestrings) to settle down and raise her son (currently parked with her ex's family), but Tanis prefers proving in wartime London that the enemy isn't the only destroyer of good men - or relationships.

Laura, on the other hand, while bearing a physical likeness to Tanis, is leavened with the milk of human kindness rather than a taste for cat-and-mouse games with men - or their partners' jealousy. But when she and one of Tanis' recent discards - a decent sort with a Distinguished Flying Cross, recovering from injuries that grounded him with temporarily messed-up depth perception - begin falling in love, Tanis arranges matters so that "the aunts" will be sure to raise Cain, seeing Laura as "stealing" Tanis' man, just as Laura's father jilted Agnes for another woman. When one of the girls is shot in the middle of the night, which was the intended victim?

Since the Priory is in Ledshire, Randall Marsh - superintendent and Miss Silver's favourite former pupil - is in charge of the official investigation. (He wryly comments that he's the only member of the family who's *not* in the Army - and he's the only male in his generation.)

The book was really good. The ending is different than what you would expect.

On New Year's Eve, 1942, James Paradine has just discovered the theft of some important blueprints from his office. Calling in Elliot Wray - not only his junior in the firm, but the estranged husband of his adopted niece Phyllida - James orders him to come to dinner that evening. This New Year will ring in not only with espionage, but a confrontation between Elliot, Phyllida, and Phyllida's guardian, James' sister Grace, who runs James' household - as good a recipe for disaster as one could hope for in a month of Sundays.

So why is James acting like the cat who got the canary?

James certainly seems to be taking a malicious pleasure in *something*, but the stolen plans aren't anything to laugh about - and when he makes a formal toast to the family party over dinner, speaking of family loyalty and inviting an unnamed party to confess to something, he really puts a cat among the pigeons: Albert Pearson, distant cousin, perfect secretary, and young to be such a crashing bore; James' solid nephew Frank Ambrose; Frank's wife Irene, fretting herself into premature middle-age over her children (and being helped along by Grace); Frank's bossy sister Brenda, who feels put upon about sharing the running of his house; Irene's flamboyant, cheerful sister Lydia, who takes Irene as a awful warning, and provides a leavening of sense in the Grace-admiration society; cousin Dick Paradine, continually working on getting Lydia to the altar; and Mike, who's hopelessly in love with Lydia, and would rather be in China than at the family dinner. Last, but not least, Phyllida Wray, who left Elliot Wray a year ago only to fall back into the smothering clutches of Grace Paradine.

All in all, not a good group to taunt with an ambiguous accusation and an urge to confession - who knows what might come out. Half the family appears to have visited his study at some point in the evening, and apparently James got more than he bargained for; he's found dead, fallen from the terrace outside his study. Mike, as his heir, falls immediately under suspicion. But Maud Silver, governess-turned-PI, is spending Christmas with her favourite niece nearby - and of all people, the flamboyant Lydia turns out to have met her, and calls her in to tell the truth and shame the devil - no matter what devil turns out to have been the murderer.

The 'wall' in question refers to the Brand family home in Ledshire, originally two separate houses side-by-side that were knocked into one several generations back for a patriarch with a tribe of children. In this generation, the houses may have to be separated again, as Wentworth delivers the usual clever puzzle, embellished with lifelike characters who enough trouble even without murder in their midst.

Martin Brand, wealthy widower with family feeling, had trouble finding a worthy heir. Leaving money out of the family went against his grain, but the pack of spongers he'd acquired (distant cousins - his brother's widow Florence, her son Felix, Florence's sister Cassy) didn't suit. Upon the death of another, estranged brother, he didn't take in his nieces Marian and Ina as still more dependents, but merely kept an anonymous eye on them. Ina didn't impress him (clingy, married to the sponging Cyril), but in hardworking, responsible Marian he found the heiress he sought, although nobody knew it till after his death. While she controls the money otherwise, upon her death half will go to her children, if she ever has any, or failing that, to the Ledshire spongers. If she dies intestate, the remaining half would go to Ina as her closest relative.

Tailor-made for murder, yes? Well, as it happens, her first near-death experience just after learning of the inheritance seems entirely accidental - a train crash, in fact, in which she meets the writer Richard Cunningham while both of them are trapped in the wreckage awaiting rescue. Talking to pass the hours until they're freed, they get to know one another very well indeed. But while Cunningham is falling in love with Marian, her new-found relatives tend quite the opposite way.

Felix Brand's character defect isn't laziness - he's a professional musician, the accompanist of Helen Adrian. Quite apart from normal bad temper, he's been making a fool of himself over her. If her voice ever gives out, she'll marry money - and Felix hasn't inherited what it would take to buy her. Even if he had the taste to appreciate Penny Remington who loves him, he can't afford marriage.

Miss Silver, for once, isn't engaged by a sympathetic character. Helen Adrian approaches her for help in fending off a blackmailer who threatens to tell her rich suitor that she's carrying on with Felix - she suspects Cyril Felton. Miss Silver, rejecting the case, is called on again when Helen encounters Cyril while rehearsing with Felix.

When one of the two corpses-waiting-to-happen is found murdered on the beach wearing the other's scarf, was she murdered as herself, or in mistake for the other? Neat touch; to solve this one, the reader must pay heed to evidence rather than motive, because motives are ten a penny here, with Penny's beloved Felix a prime suspect no matter which woman was meant to die. As always, Miss Silver is either guardian or avenging angel, depending on where one stands.

Miss Silver does it again, but this time the heroine she's saving from all sorts of evil fates is more worthy than most--kind, sensible, hard-working. She finds herself unexpectedly the owner of a considerable fortune and a house, half of which is inhabited by two of the nastiest women you'd wish to meet.

It's the murder that brings Miss Silver in, of course, complete with knitting, trivial conversation, and judgement always correct.

Someone scribbled "Dan 12:4" on the first page of my second-hand copy of "The Benevent Treasure"--"And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament..." Miss Silver is a wise old lady, no doubt about that. She is also a sympathetic listener, although the sound of her knitting needles going click click click might eventually drive her confidant to homicide. That's okay too, since Miss Silver is also a private detective (shades of Miss Marple!).

Even though "The Benevent Treasure" has a little old lady detective who knits socks for her nephew, it's not exactly what I would call a 'cozy.' It's the story of two sisters who are so warped by their dominating Victorian father and his screwy legacy that they spend the rest of their lives alone together (except for servants) on the ancient Benevent estate, irritating the living daylights out of each other. A third sister was kicked out of the family for marrying beneath herself, and eventually turned her unmarried siblings into great-aunts, although the two branches of the family don't speak to each other.

The story really begins with the Benevent sisters' great-niece, Candida Sayle while she is on a vacation at the sea shore with a school friend. As Candida registers at the seaside hotel, two old ladies dressed in black recommend that she go for a nice walk along the seashore. High tide doesn't occur until 11 P.M., so she has plenty of time for a stroll. Since her friends' train hasn't arrived yet, Candida decides to take their advice, and soon finds herself trapped on the tiny ledge of a very high cliff by a tide that came rolling in at 9 P.M.

The teen-ager is rescued by a young man who is studying to be an architect. When they get back to the hotel, the two ladies in black have vanished.

Five years pass while Candida, who is an orphan, nurses her aunt Barbara through her final illness. After her aunt's death, Candida receives a letter from the Benevent sisters, inviting her to come live on the ancestral estate with them. They represent a branch of the family that would have nothing to do with Candida's grandmother after her marriage. Nevertheless Candida decides to pay a prolonged visit with her great-aunts (whom she has never met), since she has nowhere else go.

Candida makes a well-mannered entrance to the old, Elizabethan family manor at tea-time and we get our first glimpse of the two great-aunts: forbidding, ramrod-stiff Cara (the youngest sister); and timid Olivia (think of Scarlet and Melanie if they'd been buttoned up in the same plantation all of their lives, and had never flirted with anyone, much less Rhett or Ashley). Right away, the mysteries begin to pile up. Candida dozes off for a second while her Great-Aunt Cara is droning on about the proud family lineage, and she dreams that her two old relatives are actually the women in black who tried to drown her five years past. The hidden family treasure (emerald buttons, gold plate, a golden figurine by Cellini) is mentioned. Mysterious hints are dropped as to the disappearance of the Benevents' previous secretary along with a portion of the family jewels.

No wonder Candida sees someone creeping into her bedroom through a hidden entrance in the middle of the night!

"The Benevent Treasure" isn't much of a mystery--Miss Silver could have left her knitting needles at home and still uncovered the treasure, the missing secretary, and a murderer. Even though it has oodles of gothic atmosphere plus a nice romance, I wouldn't call this mystery a 'cozy.' Too many grim deeds have been done. Plus none of the old ladies are particularly cuddly (and that very definitely includes Miss Silver).

Wentworth's typical method of drawing the reader into the story - and of inspiring the wish to see justice done without making the crime a pure tragedy - is for an unsympathetic character to be murdered, and for one of a pair of young lovers to be suspected unjustly of committing the crime. Usually the man is the suspect and the woman then engages Maud Silver to see justice done, since as a byproduct this will also ensure that right will prevail.

This case, however, experiments with a different formula: the obvious candidate for the part of Intended Victim is the female romantic lead, Candida Sayle, and the story opens with her first meeting with Stephen Eversley under circumstances ensuring that the two will get to know each other very well, very quickly. Candida, having been misled by two fellow guests about the time high tide is due during a visit to the seaside, is trapped halfway up a cliff. Stephen, hearing her cry for help and seeing that she can't hang on long enough to bring in a rescue party, helps her onto a safer ledge, although they'll be trapped there until daylight makes it possible to finish the climb to safety. The unusually mature 15-year-old and the young architect talk of many things, and become firm friends, although they aren't to see each other again for several years. Among other things, Stephen learns of the two old ladies who, meeting Candida while signing the hotel register, told her that high tide was two hours later than it really was. While she doesn't then learn their identities, he does, although they don't pool their information until their next meeting. After all, it must have been carelessness rather than malice - why would two strangers want to endanger a 15-year-old girl?

Five years later, Candida's guardian - her father's sister - dies after a long illness, leaving Candida without savings and without proper training for a job, so a letter from Candida's great-aunt Olivia Benevent offering the hospitality of Underhill, the family home, is a windfall, as well as an end to an old family quarrel. Candida's grandmother and namesake was the second of three sisters, and the only one to defy her father with an "unsuitable" marriage - or any marriage, come to that. The others, Cara and Olivia, remained under the tyrant's thumb, and to this day subscribe to his old standards. Cara can't stand up for herself at all after so many years of oppression, while Olivia has herself become a tinpot dictator. When Candida learns that Stephen by chance is the architect engaged to check over Underhill for problems and reopens their relationship as a meeting between equals, it doesn't suit Olivia's plans at all: Stephen is "in trade", and more importantly, the Benevents' easygoing secretary Derek would be under Olivia's thumb if *he* caught Candida's eye.

For under the terms of their grandfather's will, the Benevent estate, including the mysterious treasure Ugo di Benevento brought with him when establishing the family's fortunes in England centuries ago, is entailed, and *Cara*, not Olivia, is the eldest. If she dies, Candida is her heir. Olivia controls the estate through her dominance of Cara, but Cara has no power to make over any of the capital; at most, she could appoint a life interest to a husband, but not to a sister. Indeed, Cara loved Derek's predecessor Alan enough to consider taking that step despite the difference in their ages, until Alan - and some valuable jewelry - vanished three years ago.

Maud Silver enters the story because Alan's stepfather has heard a rumor that Alan may have been innocent of the crime that broke his mother's heart, and he regrets that they accepted the Benevents' accusation without giving Alan a hearing. Encountering Maud on a train, bound for the Underhill area on family business, he persuades her to look into the matter.

The story is beautifully constructed, in more ways than just Wentworth's excellent character development. When the ancient house proves to contain secret passages, only an architect could be expected to uncover them - and Stephen's profession was established when his character was first introduced. We not only learn a lot of Benevent family history through Olivia's exposition, but see a light thrown on her character: that of a domineering woman who talks on and on to a girl who's been sleepless at a deathbed and its aftermath for weeks, and has just made a long journey. Although the pacing suffers somewhat when the various exposition passages appear, they can be justified by various story elements - for instance, Derek's job is to help prepare a history for the family-proud Benevents. Derek is realistically drawn - he's already got a girl, and while he's willing to mislead the Benevents about where his interests lie, he's not going to marry on their say-so, whatever Olivia thinks. The Benevent servants are a variation on a recurring pattern: a workingman who married his wife for her money. However, they're unique; in this case, he's morally suspect but not weak, and she manipulates her own relatives with the promise of inheritance.

This mystery has a gothic element that gives added suspense. Candida, a penniless orphan, is invited to stay with two elderly relatives. She wonders why is Cara so sad,and why is she forbidden to talk about the young man who used to live there? This involves the haunting story of a lost love and aristocratic pride. The plot is rather unlikely but fun.

In the Rejected Client Variation of the classical Silver format, Maud Silver's first interview with her prospective client opens the book without the usual preliminary skirmishes between the various suspects-to-be. Louis Brading believes that someone has been doping him to make him sleep heavily - possibly to get at his collection of historic jewels, most of which have some connection with crime. He isn't married, although he's courting someone, and his only heir is his cousin, Charles Forrest. Brading has a mean streak; for instance, his secretary, James Moberly, stays with him under threat of exposure of his involvement in jewel thefts long ago (he'd quit if Brading would release him). Frankly, doing time in prison rather than as Brading's secretary might have been easier; a prison sentence for theft is finite, and the worst has actually happened, rather than being kept hanging over one's head. Miss Silver refuses to take the job of spying on Moberly, since it isn't her line, and advises Brading to release Moberly.

Charles Forrest, for his part, isn't interested in the collection for itself, but did manage to mysteriously acquire enough cash to renovate his house. Only his adopted sister Lilias lives with him - he divorced Stacy Mainwaring for desertion a few years ago. Stacy, for her part, has avoided Charles and Ledshire for years, but on taking a lucrative job of painting a miniature of the formidable Myra Constantine, learns too late that Myra is staying in Louis Brading's old house-turned-country club - next door to Charles Forrest.

Louis Brading, of course, is the murder victim - he of the money and vengeful temperament. The question is, who killed him? Anybody who crossed him might well kill him in a kind of self-defense, although the law wouldn't see it that way. Lilias is a chronic liar and troublemaker - did she try to mess up Brading's engagement, as she might have sabotaged her brother's marriage? Was Charles hard up for money? Or did James Moberly finally snap?

Here we have one of the rare instances in which Maud Silver's favourite niece, Ethel Burkett, actually appears on stage; they're staying together at the seaside since Ethel has just recovered from a serious illness. Their hostess, Darsie Anning, has had a lot of trouble in her life, all of it stemming from getting involved with the wrong man: Alan Field. Not that he's the *right* man for anybody...

In keeping with the title, this book has a prologue set a couple of years before the main action begins in the first chapter. James Hardwick fell in love with Carmona Leigh at first sight on her 21st birthday, but through bad luck he couldn't wangle an introduction through her guardian that night before being posted to the Middle East. Her guardian, Colonel Trevor, disapproved of Alan Field, Carmona's would-be fiancee - good looks and the ability to charm women didn't cut any ice compared with Field having been kicked out of the Army. Nevertheless, when Hardwick returned, he learned that Carmona was to marry Field within a week - but she looked desperately unhappy.

But when the main action of the novel picks up at that point, we learn that Field literally jilted Carmona at the altar and left for South America (London was getting too hot to hold him anyway), so Carmona had married Hardwick on the rebound after a 3-month courtship. If you're thinking "AHA! Field was really murdered and somebody faked the trip!", well, join the club of People Conned by Wentworth. :)

In the present, Carmona's at her husband's place at Cliff Edge by the sea with Esther Field (Alan's soft-hearted stepmother who isn't soft-headed about him), Esther's old school friend, the formidable Lady Castleton; her own old friend, the party-girl Pippa Maybury; and the Trevors. James Hardwick is about to return from a business trip, so they're pretty well crammed to the rafters when an uninvited guest appears: Alan Field, who first has the nerve to try to stay with the Hardwicks, then in even worse taste goes to Darsie Anning, who has better reason than Carmona to resent him. Naturally, he's come to wangle some capital out of Esther for some get-rich-quick scheme, but he's done that once too often - and when she refuses, he tries his hand at blackmailing just about every member of the party. (Various confrontations with potential victims happen on-stage; Wentworth plays fair.) When he's found dead, the only surprises are that the murder weapon has disappeared, and that somebody didn't do it years ago.

All in all, good riddance; catching the killer is desirable mainly so that at least the innocent (well, innocent of this mess) don't suffer. Pippa Maybury, who was being blackmailed and panicked when she found the body, wants Maud Silver to clear it up quickly and quietly, rather than having a police investigation expose her particular guilty secret. One unusual feature of this case (given that it's a Silver investigation) are that the typical tangle of relationships between lovers and/or spouses are - or seem to be - much less emotionally charged on this occasion. But that might just be Wentworth's cunning, mightn't it? :)

Written in 1929, this is either the first or second book in the Miss Silver series (depending on which reference I checked). It's my first read in the series and I expect I'll read a few more -- Miss Silver is a knitter after all.

This story revolves around an 18 year old girl who may or may not be an heiress. In the meanwhile, a conspiracy appears to exist that threatens the girl's safety. Most of the book focuses on the girl and some acquaintances who take it upon themselves to protect her. One of the friends hires Miss Silver but her appearences are infrequent.

Bottom-line: A good 1920's English mystery for those who are fond of Christie and others. I'm hoping for more Miss Silver in other books.

An old house with a curse on it--people dying left and right--but what really stuck in my mind was the picture of the young woman left alone to care for her preschool niece, after the child's parents were killed in an air raid.

As usual in Miss Silver books, there are nice people and nasty ones, and the nice ones don't suddenly turn around and murder for gain--which I must say, is a bit more realistic than some other mystery writers' books. And Miss Silver knits busily, picking up the strands of the case with as much ease as the yarn on her needles. Amazing how soothing a murder can be.

Funny how in small English villages, people's memory seem to be especially long and sharp. When the wealthy James Lessiter is murdered, there's no lack of suspects, including the girlfriend he dumped many years ago.

Greatly entertaining, with surprising plots and ending.