Patricia Wentworth

Political intrigue and industrial espionage are brewing in Britain’s Foreign Office in this thriller from the author of the Miss Silver Mysteries
 
On a dark, foggy night, Hugo Ross encounters a beautiful woman. She claims to be running away and begs Hugo not to tell anyone that he’s seen her. Before boarding her train, she warns him not to take the job he’s applying for: secretary to eccentric inventor Ambrose...

The novel is a combination of mystery and spy story, with some romance added in on top of the action. There are secret passages to be explored, lots of government and villainous intrigue, secret formulas, and strange people coming and going. (Goodreads)

Ladies' Bane - it was a curious name for a house. But visiting it for the first time Ione found it a curious house. Curious, and rather frightening. They said in the village that anyone who was its mistress would lose the thing she cared for most. And its present mistress was Allegra - Ione's sister.They had not met for two years. Appointments had been made but not kept. Visits had been postponed time and time again. There had been excuse after excuse....

When a question of inheritance turns fatal, Miss Silver searches for the killer Jenny has never been one to feel sorry for herself. The illegitimate child of a wealthy man and a statureless woman, she has been an orphan since before she can remember. It is a hard life made bearable only by the kindness of her guardian, an old woman named Miss Garstone, who has always treated Jenny as her own. Struck down by a motorist, "Garsty" dies, whispering to...

The award-winning debut from one of Britain's most cherished crime writers. Before she created the iconic Miss Silver, Patricia Wentworth found acclaim as an author of page-turning romances. Set during the French Revolution, A Marriage Under the Terror is a gripping tale of love blossoming in the ashes of betrayal, and a fascinating first step from a master storyteller. Nineteen-year-old orphan Aline de Rochambeau is horrified at the prospect of an...

The murder of a government scientist demands the attention of Miss Silver Michael Harsch's life has never been easy. A German Jew, he fled his country when Hitler came to power, escaping the concentration camps by the skin of his teeth. His wife and daughter were not so lucky, and he vowed revenge on the Fuhrer through science. He set to work on a marvelous new explosive that, in the hands of the British army, could silence the German guns forever....

A young woman's violent murder shocks a quiet village, and Miss Silver comes to investigate In Deeping, a village so tiny that its residents share a common phone line, gossip is the chief amusement. Scotland Yard inspector Frank Abbott has family there, and thinks it a charming spot for a vacation until the country quiet is broken by a cry of "Murder!"   A young German woman, recently come to town, has been making vague threats about recovering something...

A deaf woman learns something she shouldn't, and she asks Miss Silver for protection Paulina Paine was buried under her house during the Blitz. She spent twenty-four hours trapped underneath the rubble, where the silence was absolute as the grave, and only after she escaped did she realize that the bomb that spared her life had taken her hearing. With difficulty, she learned to read lips-an invaluable skill that may soon get her killed.   She is...

Miss Silver investigates the murder of one of Britain's most powerful men   Dorinda Brown takes a job working for the wealthy Porlock family on a whim, and quickly finds it to be the hardest position she has ever had. The father, Gregory, is a charming tyrant-just the sort of man her aunt always warned her about. His wife is an overfed fool, entirely blind to the defects of her despicable son, and unsympathetic to the pain he causes his governesses....

A woman vanishes without a trace-and her relations are forbidden to speak her name   In 1917, after he's released from the hospital, John Waveney is headed back to the trenches in France when he decides to visit the land of his ancestors dating back to the Crusades. There, he meets a young girl who, upon learning he's all alone in the world, tells him she'd be sorry if anything happened to him at the front.   Nine years later, John returns to Waveney...