A review of The Silent Pool by Patricia Wentworth – 231230

Seasoned readers of Golden Age crime fiction will realise the folly of one character donning a distinctive piece of clothing of another, especially when they go out in the dark. In Patricia Wentworth’s The Silent Pool, the twenty-fourth in her Miss Silver series which was originally published in 1953, Mabel Preston makes this fatal mistake and pays for it with her life, found dead in the pool in the garden of Ford Hose, Adriana Ford’s property. They never learn.

Miss Silver, Wentworth’s sleuth with a penchant for knitting, appears at the start of the story for once, consulted by a woman claiming to be Mrs Smith but really the actress, Adriana Ford who suspects that someone in her household is trying to murder her. There have been three disturbing incidents, one where she thinks she was tripped on the stairs, one where she was given a funny tasting mushroom soup, and another when she finds a strange looking pill amongst her sleeping tablets. In her usual way, Miss Silver gives her some sage advice and then promptly disappears from the story until almost halfway through the book.

Adriana has been enjoying poor health and has several impecunious relatives and hangers on living with her, each knowing that they stand to benefit financially if she died. One, Mabel Preston, her old dresser, receives Adriana’s old clothes and even dyes her hair the same colour as her benefactor. At a party she overhears others ridiculing her appearance and storms off in a huff into the night, only pausing to don on Adriana’s coat with its bold black and white checks and emerald stripe. The next morning her body is found.

The death of Mabel crystallises Adriana’s fears that someone is out to ger her and she calls upon Miss Silver to ascertain who it is. There is a second drowning at the pool, this time the victim is Adriana’s adopted daughter, Meriel, after she had been stunned with a blow from a niblick, suggesting that she had some information that was prejudicial to the murderer and paid for it with her life. Of course, there is more than one keen golfer in the household. The keen observational skills of Miss Silver and her keen psychological insights are put to the test as she seeks to uncover the viper in the nest.

This is a rambling, perhaps overlong book with much going on, but Wentworth allows herself the luxury of time to develop an intriguing set of characters. There is the obligatory Lothario, Geoffrey, who is not content with just one extra-marital affair but two and who seems to be a babe magnet. Not unsurprisingly, his dowdy and slightly dotty wife, Edna, is madly jealous of his activities. Jane Johnstone is a newcomer to the house, employed to look after Stella, the young daughter of Star, another of the Rutherford/Ford clan, who is away on an acting tour. Part of the story is told from her perspective and, naturally, she rekindles an old relationship with yet another of the clan, Ninian who is working in publishing. They are all vibrant characters who give the book its colour.

Wentworth lulls the reader into thinking that Julia and Ninian will assist Miss Silver but their part is to provide the love interest and the happy ending. Once the reader realises that, the number of suspects reduces dramatically. At its heart, it is a story of mania and obsession fuelled by greed and Wentworth manages to maintain the tension until the big reveal, which, for some, may come as a surprise.    

Her books might be a tad formulaic and there is no real complexity to the plot, but Wentworth does know how to produce an entertaining read and the pace rarely lags. I did miss the interaction between Miss Silver and Frank Abbott, but you cannot have everything. An enjoyable read.