Product Description

Things had never been quite the same at Latter End since Lois had taken over. Suddenly life seemed to be an endless succession of bitter family rows which Lois, needless to say, invariably won.

More than one person at Latter End found themselves stretched to the limit by Lois and her bullying, and it was only a matter of time before somebody snapped. It was unthinkable of course . . . but if anyone ever murdered Lois Latter, it would be very embarrassing to discover just how many people might have wished her dead.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #204832 in Books
• Published on: 1949-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Daily mail
'Miss Silver is marvellous'

Review
‘I like Wentworth very much - she captures the mores of pre-war middle class England perfectly, and she writes rather better than Christie. They are romantic cosies, of course, but with an edge to them and an intelligence to the writing that has lasted.’

 

(Andrew Taylor )

'You can't go wrong with Maud Silver' (Observer )

'Miss Wentworth is a first-rate storyteller' (Daily Telegraph )

'Miss Silver is marvellous' (Daily Mail )

Observer
'You can't go wrong with Maud Silver'

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Customer Reviews

Drinking tea and watching at doors.
Patricia Wentworth (1878-1961) was a very prolific and very competent detective fiction practitioner. A slightly older contemporary of Agatha Christie, she brought out an elderly spinster detective sleuth, Maud Silver, a short time before the latter created Jane Marple. Both writers utilized a common formula: create a character whom everybody hates, have that character murdered in some ingenious way, then follow the investigations to the surpise ending. Dialogue forms most of the content (in order to mask the killer's identity) and most of the clumsy investigative spade work is done by unimaginative members of the police force.

"Latter End", published in 1947, is a typical example. Indeed, it uses the formula in its most basic form, for all the suspects are members of the one household. Miss Silver gets herself installed in the house and thereafter drinks tea, coughs discretely, interviews everyone, knits socks, and watches from her bedroom door at midnight.

These Miss Silver mysteries are immensely readable. You might complain that the final solution and the evidence finally discovered are barely credible, but you must admit you've had many hours of entertainment getting there.

When you've run out of Miss Marple novels...
'Latter End' is a really great golden era murder mystery, and very similar to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novels.

The plot is good, the psychology of the characters in explored and there is a wonderfully evil female victim!

This would definitely be well suited to an adaptation for cosy Sunday night TV.

Take it for what it is and enjoy!

NOT QUITE CHRISTIE BUT DEFINITELY WORTH READING
I have enjoyed most of the Wentworth detective novels and am very pleased to see them begin to be reprinted. This in my opinion is one of the best.Miss Silver is called in to investigate the demise of the very unpleasant Lois Latter. The suspects are centred around the family.
Highly recommened except the annoying Miss Silver "cough" which is mentioned frequently in all the novels!