Wentworth, Patricia

(British, 1878–1961)

Patricia Wentworth's genteel style of crime writing was so quintessentially English that it is an irony that, in the last twenty years of her life, her work was significantly more popular in the United States than in Britain, and that her primary publisher was based in Philadelphia. Wentworth is remembered today as the creator of Miss Maud Silver, a retired schoolteacher who became a private detective. When Miss Silver first appeared, in Grey Mask (1928), Wentworth was already a well-established novelist. Oddly, it was more than a decade before she returned to the character on whom she eventually was to concentrate all her energies. Wentworth's books seem dated to many modern readers, but retain a quiet appeal for fans of ‘cosy’ crime writing.

Elizabeth Ferrars, Agatha Christie  ME