Patricia Wentworth

Dora Amy Turnbull (formerly Dillon, née Elles; 15 October 1877 ), 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. 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. 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