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Lonesome Road
Lonesome Road
Lonesome Road
Ebook298 pages4 hours

Lonesome Road

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

Governess-turned-sleuth Miss Silver must follow a trail of poison-pen letters to save an heiress from murder.

Rachel Treherne has always had a steady head on her shoulders; it’s why her late father named her the sole trustee of his considerable fortune. But the decision galled a number of Rachel’s relatives, including her married older sister, her socialist nephew, and her father’s ambitious young cousin.

Rachel fears she may be overreacting to the anonymous letters she’s received threatening her life, but then someone tampers with the chocolates she bought herself. If her cousin hadn’t partaken first and noticed an unwholesome taste, who knows what may have happened? Miss Silver suspects someone in Rachel’s inner circle has grown tired of being a poor relation, and she travels incognito to the Treherne country home to unmask the culprit—before it’s too late—in this intriguing entry in the beloved series featuring a contemporary of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.

Lonesome Road is the 3rd book in the Miss Silver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 28, 2011
ISBN9781453225417
Lonesome Road
Author

Patricia Wentworth

Patricia Wentworth (1878–1961) was one of the masters of classic English mystery writing. Born in India as Dora Amy Elles, she began writing after the death of her first husband, publishing her first novel in 1910. In the 1920s, she introduced the character who would make her famous: Miss Maud Silver, the former governess whose stout figure, fondness for Tennyson, and passion for knitting served to disguise a keen intellect. Along with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Miss Silver is the definitive embodiment of the English style of cozy mysteries.

Read more from Patricia Wentworth

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Reviews for Lonesome Road

Rating: 3.600000128421053 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

95 ratings6 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In this story Miss Maud Silver becomes more involved in the solving of the tale. Because of the dying wish of her rich father Rachel Treherne must re-write her will every year. So who is trying to kill her. All her family are suspects as most or all are always there at the attempts. When Miss Silver arrives at Miss Treherne's home she must solve the mystery before Rachel is killed.
    So finally it seems that Miss Maud Silver becomes more involved in the story. Hoping that we will see more of her character as the series continues.
    An interesting tale.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    not my favorite Miss Silver - difficult to care for the heroine and her pursuers - not well staged
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was the third in the Miss Silver mysteries, published just 2 years after THE CASE IS CLOSED.Rachel Treherne has been given Miss Silver's contact details by Hilary Carew who was at the centre of that case.Miss Silver agrees to visit Rachel at home and to see the situation for herself. They bring the date of Miss Silver's visit forward by a day when snakes are left in Rachel's bed. And, in case there was any doubt her life was under threat, someone attempts to kill her on the very night Miss Silver arrives.Miss Silver ends up being no mere observer in this case, often taking a very active role in the investigation. Rachel has a number of people very heavily dependent on her, some harbouring a grievance that they did not do better under her father's will, and some resenting that Rachel has been left in charge of so much wealth.A very readable story, that keeps the reader going with the desire to understand what is actually happening.For those looking for a comparison between Miss Silver and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: the similarities end with the grey hair and the knitting in the lap. Miss Silver is a much more organised and systematic detective, free with her advice, and willing to take active steps to follow the investigation through. Miss Marple is more an observer after events have occurred, always comparing her observations with her memories of village life. While Miss Marple often predicts outcomes, she rarely takes active interventive steps (although I am sure you can think of exceptions here)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Rating: 3.5* of fiveMuch more modern in that Miss Silver is quite the force in moving the story. Much more Golden Age in that The Ladies are Ever So Ladylike and one silly chit of a slip of a girl gets all twisted up and confused by A Big Bad Man. Also irritating is the fact that it takes a man to sort out Miss Rachel Treherne, a quite redoubtable party until it comes to her ghastly family and their disgusting behavior.Well, autres temps autres moeurs, don't you know, and in the end the right couples are coupled with the Big Baddie most satisfactorily served a comeuppance. If Miss Silver is ever silver screened, this entry in the series will be loaded with a lesbian subplot that is absolutely accurate...right there for anyone with ~2 eyes to see. Dunno that it'll make diddly squat difference. You either like this book or you don't, but forevermore don't read on because the final formula is fixed with this book and the next 25-plus don't vary it.I also liked a lot that Miss Silver came to Miss Rachel Treherne's attention via Hilary Cunningham, née Carew. I don't recall if this little easter egg is repeated, but I hope so.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The third entry in the Miss Silver series of 1930s detective stories finds our gumshoe heroine engaged from the opening chapter, a departure from the two previous books. And she takes a more active role, going undercover to help an heiress figure out which of her family members is trying to kill her. Bad luck for her that they all seem to have a motive. The plot moves quite briskly, and there are a few twists thrown in to keep things interesting.One of the things that struck me with this book, as with the others I've read in this series, is how obviously clues seem to be telegraphed along the way and then how laboriously the case gets explained when it comes to the wrapping up. I suspect it's an artifact of the time period, when mysteries and private detective stories were not so prevalent in culture, but it seems that nowadays authors are more subtle when dropping clues, even if they are playing fair with the reader and giving them all the info they need to figure out whodunit.As an aside, I felt very much the same way when I read Sherlock Holmes for the first time a few years ago. All of his tricks seemed so obvious that I couldn't understand why he was so celebrated. Then I realized that the only reason they seem obvious to me is because I've been reading mystery authors who stole shamelessly from the canon for decades. At the time Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the stories they were breathtaking in their originality, and their success led to so many copycats that Sherlock's feats of brainpower seem almost pedestrian to modern readers. IMHO, of course. YMMV.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Lonesome Road of the title refers to the path in life followed by Rachel Treherne, who inherited a large sum of money from her father and is now concerned because she believes that one of her dependent relatives may be trying to kill her. She calls in Miss Silver to investigate and find out just who is trying to kill her and why. Wentworth builds the tension throughout the book, which ends in a nailbitingly tense denoument. Wonderful.

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Lonesome Road - Patricia Wentworth

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