Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth is a 1928 publication.

Charles Moray hired Miss Silver after he overhears a dastardly plot to ‘remove’ a young woman who might be the recipient of a vast fortune. The young lady in question is eighteen-year-old Margot, an extremely immature young lady who finds herself all alone in the world after her father’s untimely passing.

Charles did not report the crime to the police because, to his shock and horror, he discovered his former fiancé, Margaret, was in on the plot. How deeply she was involved he didn’t know… but he and Miss Silver are determined to protect Margot from the diabolical man in the grey mask…

As much as I love old mysteries, I have not- that I recall, anyway- ever read a single Miss Silver mystery. I’ve wanted to fit one in for ages and finally managed to get this first one under my belt.

I was expecting a cozy mystery- but did not research the series, so I surprised to find that Miss Silver is a legitimate detective- a bit forward thinking for 1928- but she’s also a spinster-like personality that likes to knit and is oft compared to Miss Marple.

This first installment was a little bit of a mixed bag. Miss Silver is one of those genius detectives, but we don’t see her doing any of the real leg work behind the scenes- and only physically gets involved at the very end of the book. She never calls her client to update him, and she only reveals what she knows or suspects when they contact her in a state of panic.

The plot is a bit overblown and highly improbable- but I could tell some thoughts went into it. I doubt we are to take it all that seriously and should view it for its entertainment value and not much else. The characterizations though, were nearly a deal breaker though. Magot would try the patience of Job. She’s an eight-year-old in an eighteen-year-old body- which makes her flirtations with Charles and his friend Archie extremely cringeworthy.

Now all this sounds as though I did not enjoy the book, but it did have some merits, despite everything. The first book in a series can always be a little rough, and of course, one must consider the period in which the book was written- so I’ll give the next book a try and see how things stand after that.

Overall, this is an odd little mystery that tried my patience on occasion, but was curiousities of it were enough to hold my interest until the end.

2.5 round up. ( )

A frustrating story with equally frustrating characters. The idea of a criminal conspiracy led by a man wearing a blank rubber mask, whose gang members follow implicitly even without knowing his identity, is too much to stomach. And then we are presented with the characters: Charles Moray a milk-and-water hero, jilted four years previously by Margaret, who, being another lame duck would have been his perfect partner; Margot, the heiress in jeopardy, is what would be called an air-head in modern parlance, loved by Archie, who is the most normal, but I suspect only because he has relatively few appearances. And then Miss Silver, who seems to investigate through psychic powers alone.

If old-fashioned mystery novels appeal and remembering that this was written almost a hundred years ago, it can be enjoyed to a certain extent.

It appears in the Golden Age era the way to get rid of a character temporarily is to send them a trip by air or sea.

If you are wondering how Miss Silver compares with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: Marple wins hands down. In fact, Christie at her least appealing is the indisputable champion. ( )

This is the first of the ‘Miss Silver’ books by Patricia Wentworth. I bought this looking for a ‘cosy’ mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie’s ‘Miss Marple’ books. I was not impressed.

The book seemed to have no clear hero or heroine. The main focus of the author’s writing was the character Charles, but neither he nor anyone else—including Miss Silver—seemed to be the prime mover of the action. The outcome of the story came from the coincidence of fortuitous behaviours of a number of separate characters.

My main problem was that I couldn’t believe in it. It’s difficult to explain without spoilers, but: too much stemmed from the unlikely behaviour of peripheral characters outside the action of the novel—behaviour that seemed to have no other purpose than moving Ms. Wentworth’s plot; unlikely behaviours of the main characters were not really explained. Several times while reading I found myself thinking of Graham Chapman's officer character on Monty Python's Flying Circus suddenly walking onscreen and shouting, "No! Too silly!" Such novels really shouldn't bring such things to my mind.

One of my pet hates in all literature (or film, for that matter) is the beautiful girl whom we are apparently supposed to find adorably naive and scatterbrained when, in real life, a normal person would surely regard them as mentally deficient. In the character Margot this novel has the worst example I’ve seen since I read Georgette Heyer’s Friday’s Child. Surely, back in the ‘twenties when this was published, so soon after the women’s suffrage battles and when the status of women was a hot topic, this character must have been offensive to the female readership?

In the book’s defence, I have to admit that it kept me reading to the end and I have to admit that I got the identity of ‘Grey Mask’ wrong. I was left, though, feeling I’d wasted a few hours and I’m not tempted to read more ‘Miss Silver’s—unless it be from curiosity to see if they got any better. ( )

Definitely took some twists and turns I didn't expect, although I did suspect the identity of the villain before the main characters did. ( )

The main victim is too stupid to be believed. I'd murder her myself. ( )