Miss Silver is a fictional detective featured in 32 novels by British novelist Patricia Wentworth.
Character Miss Maud Silver is a retired governess-turned-private detective. Like Miss Marple, Miss Silver's age and demeanor make her appear harmless. Some admire the character, believing that "while Miss Marple may receive ten times the attention as Miss Silver, […] the woefully neglected Miss Silver is the real deal – a professional investigator and stand-up woman, a true forerunner of all future female private eyes."D. L. Browne, quoted in Stoyer. Others disagree, claiming that the character "has none of the credibility of […] Miss Marple […]. Her spinsterish appearance is inconsistent with her sensational behavior and also with the far-fetched plots of the novels she features in."Shaw and Vanacker (1991), 36.
Wentworth wrote a series of 32 crime novels in the classic whodunit style, featuring Miss Maud Silver, a retired governess and teacher who becomes a professional private detective, in London, England. Miss Silver works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott, is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson and has similarities to Miss Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. "Miss Silver is well known in the better circles of society, and she finds entree to the troubled households of the upper classes with little difficulty. In most of Miss Silver's cases there is a young couple whose romance seems ill fated because of the murder to be solved, but in Miss Silver's competent hands the case is solved, the young couple are exonerated, and all is right in this very traditional world." Others have argued that Miss Silver's seemingly "passive" knitting in fact gives her "narrative presence" and "a legitimate voice."Sağlam, Berkem. "Spinning the Tale: Spinster Detectives and the Construction of Narrative in the Miss Silver Mysteries." Folklor/edebiyat 26 (2020), pp. 317-318.
Novels Grey Mask, 1928 The Case is Closed, 1937 Lonesome Road, 1939 Danger Point (U.S. title: In the Balance), 1941 The Chinese Shawl, 1943 Miss Silver Intervenes (U.S. title: Miss Silver Deals with Death), 1943 The Clock Strikes Twelve, 1944 The Key, 1944 The Traveller Returns (U.S. title: She Came Back), 1945 Pilgrim's Rest (also published as Dark Threat), 1946 Latter End, 1947 Spotlight (U.S. title: Wicked Uncle), 1947 Eternity Ring, 1948 The Case of William Smith, 1948 Miss Silver Comes to Stay, 1949 The Catherine Wheel, 1949 Through the Wall, 1950 The Brading Collection (also published as Mr. Brading's Collection), 1950 The Ivory Dagger, 1951 Anna, Where Are You? (also published as Death at Deep End), 1951 The Watersplash, 1951 Ladies' Bane, 1952 Out of the Past, 1953 Vanishing Point, 1953 The Silent Pool, 1954 The Benevent Treasure, 1953 The Listening Eye, 1955 Poison in the Pen, 1955 The Gazebo (also published as The Summerhouse), 1956 The Fingerprint, 1956 The Alington Inheritance, 1958 The Girl in the Cellar, 1961
Notes
References
Sağlam, Berkem. "Spinning the Tale: Spinster Detectives and the Construction of Narrative in the Miss Silver Mysteries." Folklor/edebiyat 26 (2020), pp. 317-328. DOI:10.22559/folklor.1147.