Ladies' Bane

Ione Muir has come to Ladies’ House to visit her recently married sister, Allegra. Instead of a happy couple, she finds her sister seems to be being kept sedated and is not the person she once was. The husband, Geoffrey Trent, is obsessed with the house they are renting and plans to buy it. It is a medieval manor house with a sinister legend. It is also quite a pricey piece of property. Also, Margot, Geoffrey’s ward, is still living with the couple. She is in her mid-teens, loud, conniving and has a brash sense of humour.

Ione is concerned with Allegra’s situation and discusses it with the girls’ godmother, who hires Miss Silver to go down and see exactly what is going on.

Miss Silver finds that Allegra has become addicted to show more narcotics and seeks to find out the supplier. There is also the question of Margot’s death from a strange accident. The girl may be a dare devil, but not to the point of causing her own death. And just how is Geoffrey going to buy this property he is obsessed with? The only one with read money is Allegra, but it isn’t easily accessible.

Once again Miss Silver’s experience in observation of behaviour helps her to sort out the real clues from the red herrings. show less

I need to stop reading Patricia Wentworth novels so close together. They are all generally enjoyable and well-crafted, but one starts to look much like another, especially if you read them back-to-back. Plot of this was eerily similar to Pilgrim's Rest, which I read last month and the similarities made the solution to the mystery far too transparent. Still, it was engaging. Miss Silver is doubtless one of my favorite nontraditional sleuths of the British golden age.