Major Roger Pilgrim visits Miss Silver on the recommendation of Detective Sergeant Frank Abbott of Scotland Yard. The two men had been school chums and still kept in touch. Pilgrim feels someone is trying to kill him. He doesn’t have any idea who, but things have been happening. Things like his bedroom ceiling crumbling in on his bed, and his father’s home office going up in flames while Roger dozed in it. His father’s death, while out riding, was the startup of the strange happenings.

Roger’s father decided to sell the family estate, Pilgrim’s Rest. It has been in the family pretty much since the beginning. Shortly after the announcement of the upcoming sale, the father died while riding his favourite horse. When Roger came home to take over the family affairs and announced he was following through with the sale, things happened to Roger.

Among the residents of Pilgrim’s Rest are two aunts, the butler and his wife, an older cousin and the nurse hired to care for him, a newly hired maid and her four year old niece. Is the perpetrator among these people? And why is someone trying to harm Roger?

Miss Silver is invited to visit Pilgrim’s Rest to solve the mystery. While her knitting needles click away, she listens and observes to find out who is the instigator. Her time spent as a teacher and knowledge of human nature provide her with insight.

Miss Silver mysteries are similar to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple mysteries. Cozy reads in quieter times. ( )

2019 reread as "Dark Threat" on my Dad's Kindle:

I soon realized after starting this 'unknown to me' Miss Silver book on my Dad's Kindle that I had actually read the book before as "Pilgrim's Rest". So it isn't surprising that I could see who the culprit was rather quickly! ( )

Miss Silver is back, and for a wonder she did not get hired for her current case on a train! No, instead she gets an indirect referral from Detective Sergeant Frank Abbott. It seems Abbott's friend Roger Pilgrim is convinced someone is trying to kill him, perhaps to keep him from selling the family manor, Pilgrim's Rest. Miss Silver gives him some advice which he refuses to take, so who's to blame when he turns up dead? Well, the murderer of course, but our Maudie will have to bring in the big guns in the persons of DS Abbott and his boss, Chief Inspector Lamb, to catch the culprit.

I enjoyed this 10th entry in the series. The whodunit was decent. Although I had the killer pegged very early on it didn't seriously hamper my enjoyment of seeing how it all played out, and there were other characters who could plausibly have done the deed. The inevitable romance angle was fairly muted, and included some coy misdirection in terms of guessing which two characters were going to end up in a clinch at the end. I was worried at the outset about the presence of an overly precocious child but thankfully she was shunted offstage fairly quickly, leaving the field clear for the less precocious grownups to do the acting out. ( )

After two narrow escapes from death Roger Pilgrim fears that someone is trying to kill him, and possibly killed his father, so he calls in Miss Silver. Its clear that one of the residents of the house doesn't want the house to be sold, but who? A good mystery with lots of twists and turns to the plot. ( )