Patricia Wentworth

Patricia Wentworth
Born Dora Amy Elles
(1877-11-10)10 November 1877[1]
Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India
Died 28 January 1961(1961-01-28) (aged 83)
Pen name Patricia Wentworth
Occupation Novelist
Genre Crime
Detective
Notable awards Melrose
1910 A Marriage Under The Terror
Spouse George F. Dillon
George Oliver Turnbull (1920)

Patricia Wentworth (born Dora Amy Elles; 10 November 1877[1] – 28 January 1961[2]) was a British crime fiction writer.

Early life and education

She was born in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India (then the British Raj), and was educated first privately, then at Blackheath High School for Girls in London.[1] Her father was General Edmond Elles.[3]

Personal life

She and her first husband, George F. Dillon, had one daughter. She also became stepmother to Dillon's two sons, one of whom died in the Somme during World War I.[1] After Dillon's death, in 1906, she settled in Camberley, Surrey. In 1920, she married George Oliver Turnbull, and they had one daughter.

Career

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, and is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson. Miss Silver is sometimes compared to Jane 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."[4]

Wentworth also wrote 34 books outside of that series. She won the Melrose prize in 1910 for her first novel A Marriage Under The Terror, set in the French Revolution.[5] Her novels were the topic of Jariel D. O'Neil's 1988 doctoral dissertation.[6]

Works

Miss Silver series

  • Grey Mask, 1928
  • The Case Is Closed, 1937
  • Lonesome Road, 1939
  • Danger Point (USA: In the Balance), 1941
  • The Chinese Shawl, 1943
  • Miss Silver Intervenes (USA: Miss Silver Deals with Death), 1943
  • The Clock Strikes Twelve, 1944
  • The Key, 1944
  • The Traveller Returns (USA: She Came Back), 1945
  • Pilgrim's Rest (or: Dark Threat), 1946
  • Latter End, 1947
  • Spotlight (USA: Wicked Uncle), 1947
  • The Case of William Smith, 1948
  • Eternity Ring, 1948
  • The Catherine-Wheel, 1949
  • Miss Silver Comes to Stay, 1949
  • The Brading Collection (or: Mr Brading's Collection), 1950
  • Through the Wall, 1950
  • The Ivory Dagger, 1951
  • Anna, Where Are You? (or: Death At Deep End), 1951
  • The Watersplash, 1951
  • Ladies' Bane, 1952
  • Out of the Past, 1953
  • Vanishing Point, 1953
  • The Benevent Treasure, 1953
  • The Silent Pool, 1954
  • The Listening Eye, 1955
  • Poison in the Pen, 1955
  • The Gazebo (or: The Summerhouse), 1956
  • The Fingerprint, 1956
  • The Alington Inheritance, 1958
  • The Girl in the Cellar, 1961

Frank Garrett series

  • Dead or Alive, 1936
  • Rolling Stone, 1940

Ernest Lamb series

  • The Blind Side, 1939
  • Who Pays the Piper? (USA: Account Rendered), 1940
  • Pursuit of a Parcel, 1942

Benbow Smith

  • Fool Errant, 1929
  • Danger Calling, 1931
  • Walk with Care, 1933
  • Down Under, 1937

Standalone

  • A Marriage under the Terror, 1910
  • A Child's Rhyme Book, 1910
  • A Little More Than Kin (or: More Than Kin), 1911
  • The Devil's Wind, 1912
  • The Fire Within, 1913
  • Simon Heriot, 1914
  • Queen Anne Is Dead, 1915
  • Earl or Chieftain?, 1919
  • The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith, 1923
  • The Red Lacquer Case, 1924
  • The Annam Jewel, 1924
  • The Black Cabinet, 1925
  • The Dower House Mystery, 1925
  • The Amazing Chance, 1926
  • Hue and Cry, 1927
  • Anne Belinda, 1927
  • Will-o'-the-Wisp, 1928
  • Beggar's Choice, 1930
  • The Coldstone, 1930
  • Kingdom Lost, 1931
  • Nothing Venture, 1932
  • Red Danger (USA: Red Shadow), 1932
  • Seven Green Stones (USA: Outrageous Fortune), 1933
  • Devil-in-the-Dark (USA: Touch And Go), 1934
  • Fear by Night, 1934
  • Red Stefan, 1935
  • Blindfold, 1935
  • Hole and Corner, 1936
  • Mr Zero, 1938
  • Run!, 1938
  • Unlawful Occasions (USA: Weekend with Death), 1941
  • Beneath the Hunter's Moon, 1945
  • Silence in Court, 1947
  • The Pool of Dreams: Poems, 1953

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Editorial Reviews: About the Author". Down Under (Paperback ed.). Dean Street Press. 22 April 2016. ISBN 978-1911095514. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "Stories, Listed by Author: Patricia Wentworth". The Fiction Mags Index. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "SIR EDMOND ELLES, 85, BRITISH GENERAL, DIES; In 1918, at Age of 70, HeI Pierced Hindenburg Line in u i Tank -- Served in India". The New York Times. January 7, 1934. p. 30. Retrieved April 1, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Swanson, Jean; James, Dean (1998). Killer Books: A Reader's Guide to Exploring the Popular World of Mystery and Suspense. New York: Berkley.
  5. ↑ Milne, James (9 April 1910). "Best Novel Competition Won by a Woman With Her First Book: Some Inferences Drawn" (PDF). The New York Times.
  6. ↑ O'Neil, Jariel D. (1988). How providential!: a study of Patricia Wentworth's novels featuring Miss Maud Silver, spinster detective. Tennessee: East Tennessee State University,. (Dissertation.)
  • Works by or about Patricia Wentworth at Internet Archive
  • Works by Patricia Wentworth at Project Gutenberg
  • Works by Dora Amy Elles at Faded Page (Canada)
  • "Patricia Wentworth". Fantastic Fiction. Books by Wentworth.
  • "Stories, Listed by Author: WENTWORTH, PATRICIA; pseudonym of Dora Amy Dillon Turnbull, (1878-1961) (chron.)". The FictionMags Index. Archived from the original on 2007-02-19. Three published magazine stories by Wentworth.
  • Patricia Wentworth: An Introduction and Series Guide at Early Bird Books
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