Golden Age of Detective Fiction

#20booksofsummer23 is a reading challenge started by 746 Books where participants attempt to read 10, 15, or 20 books off of their TBR and review them between June 1 – September 1, 2023. I am trying to read and review 6-7 books that I picked per month. You can see my complete reading list here.

Adriana Ford, a famous actress, and larger-than-like personality, lives in Ford House surrounded by friends, family members, and hangers-on. Magnanimous with her money and clothing, she attempts to provide for her household with her vast income, but someone wants her dead.

She swears she pushed down the stairs, she was served a funny-tasting mushroom soup that might have been poisoned, and then a funny-shaped pill ended up among her sleeping tablets. Unsure if attempts are being made on her life or if these are just queer accidents, she makes an appointment with Miss Silver under the auspicious name of Mrs. Smith.

Adriana Ford, dressed in a ridiculous disguise, has her first meeting with Miss Silver, who quickly deduces who she is by a slight gesture of her hand and gets the consummate actress to be herself instead of a character. After listening to the incidents at Ford House, Miss Silver cautions Adriana Ford to be careful since there is a murderer in her household, hoping to inherit her money.

Adriana Ford, feeling unburdened by her discussion with Miss Silver, decides that she should live her life to the fullest- and throw a giant, decadent house party with hundreds of guests. Her whole family is in attendance, her philandering cousin, Geoffrey Ford, his plain wife, Edna; Adriana’s adopted mercurial daughter, Meriel Ford wishes to use her mother’s name to propel her career; Adriana’s old dresser and washed-up actress, Mabel Preston (stage name Mabel Prestayne), and her young cousin, Niniain Rutherford, who has recently accepted a publishing job to do steady work. New to the household is Jane Johnstone, looking after another cousin, Star Somers’s daughter, while Star is away on an acting job.

Mabel Preston, glowing with pride in Adriana Ford’s cast-off dress, has even tried to dye her hair a similar shade as Adrianna in preparation for meeting old acting friends at the party; Mabel, having a good time, drinks heavily and attempts to make conversation with the many illustrious guests. However, she overhears people making fun of her clothes and poorly done hair and is deeply embarrassed.

She leaves the party in a blind huff, pulls on a recently gifted coat from Adriana with extensive black and white checks and an emerald stripe, and strides into the incredible open air. She wanders until she comes to the deserted swimming pool, where she sits until she falls asleep drunk. She is refreshed and ready to return for Ford House when someone emerges behind her and delves a heavy blow. Murdered. When Mabel Preston’s body is later discovered, she is thought to be Adriana Ford based on the distinctive coat, but Adriana is alive, and there’s no ambiguity anymore. Someone wants her dead.

The Silent Pool has much to keep track of, with many loosely connected family members having tempestuous relationships, similar names, and clothes being swapped and fought over. Chaos reigns in Ford House; if you’re not paying close attention, you will get lost in the shuffle. Which I think is the point, really; Wentworth provides a half-hearted motive into why Mabel Preston could have been the intended victim- but that falls pretty flat, significantly when all of the characters would benefit from Adrianna’s lovely money and no one benefits from Mabel’s death.

I feel pretty strongly that the chaotic nature of the book is intentional because Wentworth drops us into the book after Jane and Ninian have had a painful breakup. The book is told, at points, from Jane Johnstone’s perspective as an outsider- who is familiar with the family but not a member of the unhappy Rutherford/Ford clan.

Meriel, Adrianna’s adopted daughter, wants all of her mother’s fame, fortune, and possessions without the work; always trying to make a quick buck, she spies on her cousin Geoffrey and discovers he is embroiled in not one but two extramarital affairs, which she stokes to her advantage. She also hints that she knows who killed Mabel and attempts to blackmail the killer, who does what killers do best, kill her. Upon Meriel’s death, Miss Silver is invited to Ford House to catch the killer.

Despite several chapters told from Jane Johnstone’s point of view, where I thought she and Ninian would team up with Miss Silver to catch the killer, that isn’t what happens. Jane and Ninian’s love story are merely bookends to the murder plot.

There’s a lot to like in The Silent Pool, all of the characters are extremly nuanced and often funny, especially Adrianna. Ford The love story between Ninian and Jane is sweet, I really loved Meriel’ sly destructive nature, and how Geoffrey’s pmincous behavior has spilled over into town gossip. My quibble with The Silent Pool is that, it is that Patricia Wentworth’s story beats are incedibly formulaic. There’s always a young woman who has gotten into a bust up with her lover, there’s always a sly young woman stirring up trouble- sometmes it’s a daughter or a village floozy. The murders almost certainly are motivated by money. The lovers can never be true suspects, because they have to have a happyily-ever-after. That’s not to say, the formula isn’t well down, in fact it’s downright, enjoyable, but it makes her books very easy to solve. The Miss Silver books are easy poolside mysteries, if you’ve read any of her other books and liked them- you’ll like this one.

Reviews of The Silent Pool

Princess Liselotte

Pining for the West

My Miss Silver Reviews

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