Grey Mask (A Miss Silver Mystery, #1)

by Patricia Wentworth

Furious at being jilted at the altar by Margaret Langton, Charles Moray left England behind him. Four years later he returns only to discover that a criminal gang has been using his house to plan a vicious crime. The target is the beautiful Margot Standing, who stands to inherit a considerable fortune. But the gang has other plans for her.

Charles is appalled to discover that Margaret Langton is one of the conspirators. How did she come to be involved? And who is the terrifying masked man who has her in his thrall?

• ISBN10: 0340241721
• ISBN13: 9780340241721
• Publish Date: 1 March 1985 (first published November 1984)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Out of Print: 4 May 2000
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Coronet Books
• Edition: New edition
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

[Shreela]

Forced myself to finish, hoping other books in the series don't have such a ditzy MC. Frightfully ditzy!

[brokentune]

Well, well. I had low expectations for this book and only really looked forward to it because it was planned buddy read.

So, imagine my surprise when I actually enjoyed this story despite its entirely bonkers plot and even despite its utterly, utterly stupid main character. Margot really was the epitome of an obnoxious airhead and I am still amazed that she actually survived the plot without being killed off.

I certainly hoped for this on every single page.

To be fair, imagining plot twists in which Margot met with an untimely end was part of the fun of reading the story.

Luckily, there were some other characters that I actually liked reading about: Margaret was one of them. She had some depth.
Archie was another. He had some spirit. Even tho his choice of love interest is beyond my ability to understand. Why, Archie? Why?

As for the plot itself? It was bonkers. There was a time I got completely lost, but I think at that time I had already given up on The Grey Mask featuring any credible or logical train of thought. And sometimes this is just the kind of book one needs.

[MurderByDeath]

I've always been familiar with the name Patricia Wentworth as one of those Golden Age authors omnipresent on my mom's bookshelves, but I had no idea at all about the books themselves.  That gave me the chance to come at this one completely fresh, with no pre-conceived notions of what I'd be getting with Miss Silver or the mystery.   The TL;DR; version is:  it's a good mystery and very good writing.  Definitely worth your time if you enjoy going back to the golden era of mystery writing and like a good female sleuth of a certain age.   To go a bit further into things, Miss Silver was in and out of the mystery, never the focal point, but she comes across as kind, if a bit condescending, with a Holmesian level of intelligence and skill for deduction.  She's obviously not new to the investigation gig, as she has her own office and an apparently long client list by the time this book starts.   There's a big element of romance in this first book that I could have done without, especially since it is coupled with a woman-in-peril theme that I'm not at all a fan of.  Margaret got on my nerves because I find it tedious when women claim independence by refusing to avail themselves of the help they need when they need it; that's not independence, that's martyrdom.  And while I liked Charles in almost all other ways, he was an idiot about Margaret.  2/3 of the way through the book I wanted to knock both their heads together.   I liked Archie, although I doubt I'd have been as charmed by him if he'd had more page time.  But Margot... well, thank god they just don't make them as stupid as they used to anymore.  Honestly she was magnificent in her vapidity; a true danger not only to herself but to all around her.  Rather than leave me constantly irritated by her stupidity though, Wentworth left me constantly gaping in incredulity at her instead.  If she had to play this card, at least she played it brilliantly.   There are a couple of twists and hints of twists throughout the story.  I nailed one of them - the identity of #40, but I totally didn't see the twist concerning Margot coming, nor Grey Mask's identity.  And I have to say, I'm not sure I can buy it.  To hind that kind of identity in plain site for so long without ever getting caught... believing that requires a suspension of disbelief that exceeds my abilities.  Towards the end he was unable to pull it off, as evidenced by yet another twist, but that whole bit felt undeveloped, like it was either tacked on, or didn't work as well as the author hoped it would.       The ultimate fate of Grey Mask felt unsatisfactory, although amusingly karmic given his comments at the end, and I'd have liked a better explanation of Miss Silver's activities as part of the denouement, but I suppose that's a modern need to reveal the magician's tricks and I'll get over it.  I'd happily read more of the Miss Silver books, and plan to keep my eyes open for more of them in the future.