Patricia Wentworth

Governess-turned-sleuth Miss Silver must follow a trail of poison-pen letters to save an heiress from murder.
Rachel Treherne has always had a steady head on her shoulders; it’s why her late father named her the sole trustee of his considerable fortune. But the decision galled a number of Rachel’s relatives, including her married older sister, her socialist nephew, and her father’s ambitious young cousin.
Rachel...

A family fortune may be motive for murder: “Miss Silver has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot” (Manchester Evening News).
 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...

When a controlling old woman is murdered, her caretaking daughter is the prime suspect: “Miss Silver is marvelous” (Daily Mail).
 Althea Graham might have had a life of her own, had it not been for her mother. But when her father died she inherited her bitter, temperamental parent along with the house, and she has borne that burden ever since. She nearly escaped once, but her engagement to Nicholas Carey caused...

A tale of memory loss and murder starring a sleuth who “has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot” (Manchester Evening News).
 She awakes in a dark place. A young woman with a shattered memory, she knows neither who she is nor how she came to be in this abandoned house. All she possesses is a faint sense that someone is lying dead at the foot of the stairs. Horrifyingly,...

In this classic British mystery starring a sleuth “who has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot,” Miss Silver investigates a murder that may have its roots in a new romance—or an old family feud (Manchester Evening News).
 
An amateur who happened on a career in theater, Tanis Lyle has just finished filming her first motion picture. The young woman has electric...

An orphaned young woman discovers some long-lost relatives—and a murder—in this mystery from “a first-rate storyteller” (The Daily Telegraph).
  An orphan of the Second World War, Candida Sayle has gotten so used to life with her guardian that she never considered that she might have a family somewhere. When her guardian dies, a letter appears from an unheard-of aunt, informing Candida that it...

A scientist flees Germany—but meets death in a little English village: From “a first-rate storyteller” (The Daily Telegraph).
  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...

Miss Silver must contend with a vanishing corpse when murder rocks the postwar English countryside in this classic mystery perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.
 
Det. Sgt. Frank Abbot of Scotland Yard thought he’d spend a quiet holiday at his family’s estate near the quaint village of Deeping. Instead, he got intrigue and wild tales of a man dragging a horribly murdered girl into the woods....

When a British industrialist is murdered on New Year’s Eve, his wealthy family members are the prime suspects.
  Though they share a manor house, the Paradines are not close, and their patriarch does nothing to discourage the petty jealousies that divide wealthy families. A cold figure, James Paradine prefers work to his relations, but on New Year’s Eve he convenes the household. Valuable plans have been stolen from his...

The “marvelous” British-governess-turned-sleuth investigates a disappearance in a village near a top-secret government research facility (Daily Mail).
 Jenny Maxwell is a bright young child. After an automobile accident leaves her barely able to walk, she retreats into a world of fantasy, devouring novel after novel of steamy romance. Now she has begun to write, and for a twelve-year-old she shows great promise....