Patricia Wentworth

Dora Amy Turnbull (formerly Dillon, née Elles; 15 October 1877 – 28 January 1961), known by the pen name Patricia Wentworth, was a British crime fiction writer.

Early life and education

She was born in Mussoorie, then in British India, and was educated first privately, then at Blackheath High School for Girls in London. Her father was General Edmond Elles, and her mother was Clare, Lady Elles, nee Rothney.

Personal life

She and her first husband, Lt. Col. George Frederick Horace Dillon, had one daughter. She also became stepmother to Dillon's three sons, two of whom died during the First World War. After Dillon's death, in 1906, she settled in Camberley, Surrey. In 1920, she married Lt. Col. George Oliver Turnbull. One of her stepsons who died in the war had Wentworth as a middle name, after Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, and she adopted Wentworth as her pen name.

Dora Amy Turnbull died on 28 January 1961, aged 83. Her estate was valued at £24 561.

Career

Wentworth wrote a series of 32 crime novels in the classic whodunit style, featuring Miss Maud Silver, a retired governess and teacher who becomes a professional private detective, in London, England. Miss Silver works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott, and is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson. Miss Silver is sometimes compared to Jane Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. "Miss Silver is well known in the better circles of society, and she finds entree to the troubled households of the upper classes with little difficulty. In most of Miss Silver's cases there is a young couple whose romance seems ill fated because of the murder to be solved, but in Miss Silver's competent hands the case is solved, the young couple are exonerated, and all is right in this very traditional world." Wentworth also wrote 34 books outside that series. She won the Melrose prize in 1910 for her first novel A Marriage Under The Terror, set in the French Revolution.

Works

Miss Silver series

Grey Mask, 1928

The Case Is Closed, 1937

Lonesome Road, 1939

Danger Point (USA: In the Balance), 1941

The Chinese Shawl, 1943

Miss Silver Intervenes (USA: Miss Silver Deals with Death), 1943

The Clock Strikes Twelve, 1944

The Key, 1944

The Traveller Returns (USA: She Came Back), 1945

Pilgrim's Rest (or: Dark Threat), 1946

Latter End, 1947

Spotlight (USA: Wicked Uncle), 1947

The Case of William Smith, 1948

Eternity Ring, 1948

The Catherine Wheel, 1949

Miss Silver Comes to Stay, 1949

The Brading Collection (or: Mr Brading's Collection), 1950

The Ivory Dagger, 1951

Through the Wall, 1950

Anna, Where Are You? (or: Death At Deep End), 1951

The Watersplash, 1951

Ladies' Bane, 1952

Out of the Past, 1953

The Silent Pool, 1954

Vanishing Point, 1953

The Benevent Treasure, 1953

The Gazebo (or: The Summerhouse), 1955

The Listening Eye, 1955

Poison in the Pen, 1955

The Fingerprint, 1956

The Alington Inheritance, 1958

The Girl in the Cellar, 1961

Frank Garrett series

Dead or Alive, 1936

Rolling Stone, 1940

Ernest Lamb series

The Blind Side, 1939

Who Pays the Piper? (USA: Account Rendered), 1940

Pursuit of a Parcel, 1942

Benbow Smith

Fool Errant, 1929

Danger Calling, 1931

Walk with Care, 1933

Down Under, 1937

Standalone

A Marriage under the Terror, 1910

A Child's Rhyme Book, 1910

A Little More Than Kin (or: More Than Kin), 1911

The Devil's Wind, 1912

The Fire Within, 1913

Simon Heriot, 1914

Queen Anne Is Dead, 1915

Earl or Chieftain?, 1919

The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith, 1923. Serialised, Baltimore Evening Sun, 1925

The Red Lacquer Case, 1924. Serialised, Leicester Mail, 1926

The Annam Jewel, 1924

The Black Cabinet, 1925

The Dower House Mystery, 1925

The Amazing Chance, 1926. Serialised, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1927

Hue and Cry, 1927

Anne Belinda, 1927

Will-o'-the-Wisp, 1928

Beggar's Choice, 1930

The Coldstone, 1930

Kingdom Lost, 1931

Nothing Venture, 1932. Serialised, Dundee Courier, 1932

What Became of Anne, 1926. Serialised, Dundee Courier, 1932

Red Danger (USA: Red Shadow), 1932

Seven Green Stones (USA: Outrageous Fortune), 1933

Devil-in-the-Dark (USA: Touch And Go), 1934

Fear by Night, 1934

Red Stefan, 1935

Blindfold, 1935

Hole and Corner, 1936

Mr Zero, 1938

Afraid to Love, 1938. Serialised, Dundee Courier, 1932

Run!, 1938

Unlawful Occasions (USA: Weekend with Death), 1941

Beneath the Hunter's Moon, Poems, 1945

Silence in Court, 1947

The Pool of Dreams: Poems, 1953