I fell in love with Wentworth many years ago because of Vanishing Point, the first of her books that I’d ever read. From those opening moments, so filled with tenderness and psychological understanding, as a tired Rosamond sought brief refuge from her dire circumstances by taking a stroll through the woods, I knew this was something special. Wentworth, a member of that Golden Age group of female mystery writers which included Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh, was so popular during the 1940s that despite their English village settings, Lippincott of Philadelphia released her Miss Silver novels in the US even before they were released in England.

The daughter of a British Army officer, Dora Amy Elles was born in India, during the time of the Raj. Tragically widowed and left with a young daughter to raise before she was thirty, she remarried someone who encouraged her writing. Lieutenant George Turnbull became her sounding board, as she dictated her stories to him. Romance and light mystery and suspense infused her first books. Miss Silver did not appear until 1928, with the publishing of Grey Mask, and would not reappear until nine years had passed. Books featuring Miss Maud Silver, the knitting spinster who eventually opened an investigation business after retiring from her work as a governess, rivaled Christie’s Miss Marple in popularity for many years.

Though I love Agatha Christie’s Poirot, I have to say I prefer Patricia Wentworth’s gentle but observant, Tennyson-quoting Miss Silver over Miss Marple. Miss Silver is somehow less intrusive in the mysteries, in the background rather than front and center, as is so often the case with Miss Marple. The manner in which Wentworth told the best Miss Silver stories is very involving, often quietly touching. The romance, of which there nearly always was one, never failed to have tenderness, insight and charm. When reading a Miss Silver mystery, it is almost as though it isn’t a Miss Silver mystery at all, but an old-fashioned story of romance and mystery. Each entry has an English village setting or feel, and the mystery generally involves murder. Sometimes the murder hasn't occurred yet, other times it has occurred, but it takes a while before Miss Silver becomes involved in the case.

As Vanishing Point, a later entry in the series from the mid-fifties begins, the reader feels like a tender, soft-gothic novel of suspense is about to ensue. Before there is even an appearance by Miss Silver or her endeared partner in crime-solving, Inspector Frank Abbott, we learn all about Rosamond Maxwell and her younger sister Jenny, recovering from a car accident in which she wasn’t expected to survive; we come to loathe the terrible shrew Lydia Crewe, taking undue advantage of Rosamond because she has nowhere else to go; and we are introduced to Craig Lester, the young man who quickly sees how wonderful Rosamond is, and wants to rescue her from a life of servitude and despair. Wentworth writes with great tenderness and understanding, painting Rosamond in such a way that we can’t help but fall in love with her, just as Craig does.

Rosamond is too tired for her young years, as noted by Craig. And a spirit like Jenny has, a girl with imagination and perhaps some talent for writing if she gets the proper guidance, is only being smothered by the hideous Lydia Crewe, referred to by the village doctor as “Pride and Prejudice”. For her part, Rosamond is almost startled by Craig’s attention, because it has been so long since anyone cared. Narrative touches like these, Wentworth’s tenderness and understanding of loneliness and living without love, make her stories almost irresistible. No more so is that the case than in Vanishing Point.

But once Wentworth has introduced the romantic element, we learn of Maggie Bell’s unsolved disappearance twelve months ago, and some leaks from a nearby Air Ministry base. Chief Inspector Lamb reluctantly, and to his chagrin, asks Frank Abbott if his Miss Silver wouldn’t like to pop on down to Hazel Green and insinuate herself among the locals, who will tell Miss Silver things they wouldn’t tell the cops. Miss Silver quickly learns that postcards supposedly sent from Maggie, were not, and a gray cloud begins to form around her disappearance. Then Miss Holiday disappears. Miss Silver wonders if some knowledge unique to Miss Holiday precipitated her disappearance.

The tension and mystery heightens as the blossoming romance between Craig and Rosamond intersects with what’s happening in the quiet village of Hazel Green. Jenny’s night excursions, a broken necklace, murder, rubies, and a race to save a life before it’s too late, is great stuff. There is some real excitement to the conclusion of this entry, and it has a warm and wonderfully old-fashioned final chapter, wrapping up Rosamond and Craig’s involvement in the narrative. For cozy lovers of the Golden Age, it just doesn’t get any better than Vanishing Point, in my opinion.

Wentworth was a tremendously gifted writer, and there’s a reason she was as popular as Christie and Sayers in real-time, and absolutely no accountable reason she isn't as read today. Though the Miss Silver mysteries do have a loose kind of formula, the best ones are always extremely enjoyable. If you haven’t read her yet, she is most definitely worth checking out. This one is perhaps my sentimental favorite, being the book that made me fall in love with Wentworth. Highly recommended for lovers of the Golden Age of crime fiction. ( )

First published in 1955, Vanishing Point is still a fun read. In fact, I really like these old mysteries. They have lots of suspects, lots of motives and are really good in the detecting department.

In this installment of the series, Miss Silver is asked to go and do some surreptitious investigating in a small town where 2 women have disappeared and some spying is being investigated. Whether the two are related is what Miss Silver is to find out. When she gets to the little village of Hazel Green, Miss Silver meets the various townfolk: Mr. Craig Lester, a publishing agent, Florrie, a maid who seems to know all the gossip in the town; Miss Rosamund and Miss Jenny Maxwell, two sisters whose parents died leaving them to be raised with their domineering aunt, Lydia Crewe, the Cunningham family and the list goes on and on. As Miss Silver knits, the facts of the case become clearer to her until she is at last able to solve the mystery.

If you want an easy read, don't pick this one up; it is written in the old classic mystery fiction style, so can get rather winded, but if you want to read a good mystery novel, then try it. I enjoyed it very much, but then again, I tend to like the older mystery novels more than the current ones! ( )