Patricia Wentworth
Dora Amy Turnbull, known by the pen name Patricia Wentworth, was a British crime fiction writer.
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
Grey Mask, 1928The Case Is Closed, 1937Lonesome Road, 1939Danger Point, 1941The Chinese Shawl, 1943Miss Silver Intervenes, 1943The Clock Strikes Twelve, 1944The Key, 1944The Traveller Returns, 1945Pilgrim's Rest, 1946Latter End, 1947Spotlight, 1947The Case of William Smith, 1948Eternity Ring, 1948The Catherine Wheel, 1949Miss Silver Comes to Stay, 1949The Brading Collection, 1950The Ivory Dagger, 1951Through the Wall, 1950Anna, Where Are You?, 1951The Watersplash, 1951Ladies' Bane, 1952Out of the Past, 1953The Silent Pool, 1954Vanishing Point, 1953The Benevent Treasure, 1953The Gazebo, 1955The Listening Eye, 1955Poison in the Pen, 1955The Fingerprint, 1956The Alington Inheritance, 1958The Girl in the Cellar, 1961
Frank Garrett series
Dead or Alive, 1936Rolling Stone, 1940
The Blind Side, 1939Who Pays the Piper?, 1940Pursuit of a Parcel, 1942
Benbow Smith
Fool Errant, 1929Danger Calling, 1931Walk with Care, 1933Down Under, 1937
Standalone
A Marriage under the Terror, 1910A Child's Rhyme Book, 1910A Little More Than Kin, 1911The Devil's Wind, 1912The Fire Within, 1913Simon Heriot, 1914Queen Anne Is Dead, 1915Earl or Chieftain?, 1919The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith, 1923. Serialised, Baltimore Evening Sun, 1925The Red Lacquer Case, 1924. Serialised, Leicester Mail, 1926The Annam Jewel, 1924The Black Cabinet, 1925The Dower House Mystery, 1925The Amazing Chance, 1926. Serialised, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1927Hue and Cry, 1927Anne Belinda, 1927Will-o'-the-Wisp, 1928Beggar's Choice, 1930The Coldstone, 1930Kingdom Lost, 1931Nothing Venture, 1932. Serialised, Dundee Courier, 1932What Became of Anne, 1926. Serialised, Dundee Courier, 1932Red Danger, 1932Seven Green Stones, 1933Devil-in-the-Dark, 1934Fear by Night, 1934Red Stefan, 1935Blindfold, 1935Hole and Corner, 1936Mr Zero, 1938Afraid to Love, 1938. Serialised, Dundee Courier, 1932Run!, 1938Unlawful Occasions, 1941Beneath the Hunter's Moon, Poems, 1945Silence in Court, 1947The Pool of Dreams: Poems, 1953