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+--- Thread: Would you consider Patricia Wentworth? (/showthread.php?tid=138)
Would you consider Patricia Wentworth? - MysteryMind - 01-27-2008
I read somewhere that Patricia Wentworth wrote gothic romantic mysteries. I recently read "The Clock Struck Twelve", which features the amateur sleuth, Miss Silver. I enjoyed the book but I'm not sure I would consider it gothic. It read more like a mystery, although at the beginning it did seem to have a gothic feel to it. There was romance but I guess the element of life-threatening suspense was missing. There was suspense as she keeps you guessing who the murderer was, but it was not "life-threatening". I wondered if anyone has read any of her other books and would recommend any as gothic?
RE: Would you consider Patricia Wentworth? - AliceChell - 08-01-2010
I have read many Patricia Wentworth mystery novels, and I think she was a fine writer, definitely undervalued. She wrote around the same time as Agatha Christie, but attained no where near Christie's popularity, although she had quite a following. There are over twenty Miss Silver mysteries. She is the equivalent of Miss Marple (Christie's famous detective), but I understand that Miss Silver made her literary appearance first!
I consider Patricia Wentworth's novel The Benevent Treasure a very good gothic story.
RE: Would you consider Patricia Wentworth? - bronte - 08-03-2010
I like Miss Silver mysteries also.
RE: Would you consider Patricia Wentworth? - Ewan Wilson - 08-18-2014
The point is would we consider her books as 'gothics'?
As a fan of Miss Silver I've read most of them and though some have the requisite gothic elements - latent/declared romance, and menacing setting such as stately home - I feel myself Wentworth's prime interest was the puzzle rather than the threat to the heroine. One of her books- The Catherine Wheel- has features very close to gothic romance, an eponymous seaside tavern being the centre of the action but it's aged Miss Silver who carries out most of the sleuthing and romance for a young female character is secondary.
All that said, I can see where you're coming from and would agree Wentworth comes much closer than most other Golden Age mystery writers to the gothic-suspense form.
RE: Would you consider Patricia Wentworth? - Penfeather - 09-06-2015
(01-27-2008, 08:50 PM)MysteryMind Wrote: I read somewhere that Patricia Wentworth wrote gothic romantic mysteries. Â I recently read "The Clock Struck Twelve", which features the amateur sleuth, Miss Silver. Â I enjoyed the book but I'm not sure I would consider it gothic. Â It read more like a mystery, although at the beginning it did seem to have a gothic feel to it. Â There was romance but I guess the element of life-threatening suspense was missing. Â There was suspense as she keeps you guessing who the murderer was, but it was not "life-threatening". Â I wondered if anyone has read any of her other books and would recommend any as gothic?
Wentworth's books are British cozies with some Gothic trappings. Â