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Miss Silver #7
The Clock Strikes Twelve
The Paradine family has gathered to celebrate New Year's Eve. Alas, when the clock strikes twelve old Mr. James Paradine, the patriarch, is found murdered. Yet, he seemed to invite his demise when he accused a family member of disloyalty. Now, Miss Silver must unravel the mystery of troubled love and sudden death.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1944
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About the author
Patricia Wentworth
158 books510 followersPatricia Wentworth--born Dora Amy Elles--was a British crime fiction writer.
She was educated privately and at Blackheath High School in London. After the death of her first husband, George F. Dillon, in 1906, she settled in Camberley, Surrey. She married George Oliver Turnbull in 1920 and they had one daughter.
She wrote a series of 32 classic-style whodunnits featuring Miss Silver, the first of which was published in 1928, and the last in 1961, the year of her death.
Miss Silver, a retired governess-turned private detective, is sometimes compared to Jane Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. She works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott and is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson.
Wentworth also wrote 34 books outside of that series.
She was educated privately and at Blackheath High School in London. After the death of her first husband, George F. Dillon, in 1906, she settled in Camberley, Surrey. She married George Oliver Turnbull in 1920 and they had one daughter.
She wrote a series of 32 classic-style whodunnits featuring Miss Silver, the first of which was published in 1928, and the last in 1961, the year of her death.
Miss Silver, a retired governess-turned private detective, is sometimes compared to Jane Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. She works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott and is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson.
Wentworth also wrote 34 books outside of that series.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
May 1, 2023
Brilliant!
As usual, another terrific mystery by Patricia Wentworth! A locked room whodunnit that our Miss Silver solves with her usual panache.
She makes it look so easy. 😎
Another five stars. ✨✨✨✨✨
As usual, another terrific mystery by Patricia Wentworth! A locked room whodunnit that our Miss Silver solves with her usual panache.
She makes it look so easy. 😎
Another five stars. ✨✨✨✨✨
February 1, 2018
The structure of this mystery is done so well. The first (roughly) 40% of the novel is the introduction of characters, the background to who they are and how they relate to each other, and – the murder itself. Because yes, there is a murder. We can see it coming, not as inevitable, but as something one hopes will not happen and makes us sad when it does.
The next 10% is where the police investigate, where it is established as murder, and where everyone who was possibly connected to it is interviewed. Some have alibis, some have invented alibis (which does not necessarily make them guilty), and some later recant and change their story. This doesn’t help the case much as no-one is going to confess, for it is a hanging if they do. In this stage, there were very few suspects that I was willing to exonerate.
Then, Miss Silver is called into the case and during the last 50% of the book, she uses her exceptional mind, mild-mannered demeanor, and governess skills to sift through the debris, sort out the remaining tiny puzzle pieces, and put them together sufficiently well to allow the invisible, missing pieces to be filled in.
I could go on about how crystal clear the writing is, and what a joy it is to spend time with Miss Silver and her great sleuthing skills, but I will leave it to you to read some of Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver books and decide for yourself!
The next 10% is where the police investigate, where it is established as murder, and where everyone who was possibly connected to it is interviewed. Some have alibis, some have invented alibis (which does not necessarily make them guilty), and some later recant and change their story. This doesn’t help the case much as no-one is going to confess, for it is a hanging if they do. In this stage, there were very few suspects that I was willing to exonerate.
Then, Miss Silver is called into the case and during the last 50% of the book, she uses her exceptional mind, mild-mannered demeanor, and governess skills to sift through the debris, sort out the remaining tiny puzzle pieces, and put them together sufficiently well to allow the invisible, missing pieces to be filled in.
I could go on about how crystal clear the writing is, and what a joy it is to spend time with Miss Silver and her great sleuthing skills, but I will leave it to you to read some of Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver books and decide for yourself!
January 26, 2020
3.75 stars. It's New Year's Eve 1941, and the wealthy Paradine family and their various relatives and in-laws have gathered at James Paradine's mansion to celebrate. But James has a surprise: he tells the family that someone has "betrayed the family interests" ... and that he knows who that person is, and the guilty person has until midnight to come to James' office and work things out with him. Several people go to his office, but for different reasons. And by the next morning, someone is murdered.
Miss Silver, a detective, is called in by the family to solve the murder mystery and maybe solve a few other problems while she's at it. (The main suspect is worried - with good reason - that the police will arrest them.)
I've read a couple of these old Miss Silver murder mysteries now. The mysteries aren't quite up to Agatha Christie's - at least not the ones I've read - but the characters are well-drawn and there always seems to be a troubled romance or two to work out along with the crime. :) Good old-fashioned fun.
The whole set of Miss Silver mysteries - there are 25 or 30 of them - is free online at the FadedPage website.
Miss Silver, a detective, is called in by the family to solve the murder mystery and maybe solve a few other problems while she's at it. (The main suspect is worried - with good reason - that the police will arrest them.)
I've read a couple of these old Miss Silver murder mysteries now. The mysteries aren't quite up to Agatha Christie's - at least not the ones I've read - but the characters are well-drawn and there always seems to be a troubled romance or two to work out along with the crime. :) Good old-fashioned fun.
The whole set of Miss Silver mysteries - there are 25 or 30 of them - is free online at the FadedPage website.
February 13, 2020
Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded up because Miss Silver
Formula One: Hero and heroine kept apart by Forces
Formula Two: Murdered person has pots of money
Formula Three: Women Are Just As Good As Men (until they find The Man when they become soft, pliant cuddlebugs)
Formula Four: Servants know all. Fear them.
Mixed properly, a light froth of story cocktail goodness is now served. (I typoed "swerved" and had a long stare at it before changing it.) This outing is less frothy, fruity Mai Tai than Boilermaker made with Everclear.
Miss Silver appears at the 39% mark, hacking away in her usual chronic-bronchitis bark, to solve the family crime of grumpy old tyrant-with-a-heart-of-gold James Paradine's defenestration. (Close enough, go with it.) Family secrets, lies, and half-truths are revealed in all their ugly, warty glory.
The Women, now, the women are utterly uninspired and uninspiring. Controlling Old Maid, Fretful Mother, Domineering Spinster, Breathless Insipid Heroine, and Plucky Babe are joined by a small assortment of Servants, loyal but uneducated and, to a woman, unattractive.
The Men are, this being World War II, Doing Their Bit as wealthy industrialists. But they're still handsome and manly! The exception is the Club Bore, a *distant* cousin with body odor. Okay, Author Wentworth doesn't actually say that, but the implication is clear. Other than him, we have the Heir Apparent with girl trouble, the Oily Seducer without money, the Spiffy Stud whose marriage to Breathless Insipid Heroine is under serious siege, the Solid Brick whose Loaf of Happiness in Life is getting moldy with Fretful Mother's eternal dampening tears.
The Plans. They disappear, are noticed to be gone, reappear, and provide Author Wentworth the chance to garnish the plotroast with some wartime paranoia and xenophobic references to The Germ-ans. As it was mid-war when the book came out, I can understand the urgency to use these tropes since Author Wentworth would not be able to as soon as the war was over and no matter how it ended. I still wish they'd been more, I don't know, heartfelt? Organic to the story?
Because this story isn't a World War II story. It's the story of Phyllida Paradine Wray (B.I.H.), adopted daughter of Grace Paradine (C.O.M.). Grace is the sister of James, the murderee. Grace is the tragically unmarried and rigidly controlling universal confidante. Those two things don't make the third without serious alchemy. That alchemy is missing in this book. She's just a controlling old horror. Everyone says how much they rely on Grace, how her common sense and her insight help them through problems. But we never see this, never experience Grace in helper mode. Nor do we even get a clear sense of the conditions that would lead a person in trouble to summit Mount Bosom to seek the oracle.
So that central failing of character-building renders the rest of the plot flatter, rougher, and less cocktail than carbonated beverage. Then the B.I.H., Phyllida, whose act of rebellion in marrying the Spiffy Stud is frankly unbelievable given Grace the C.O.M.'s harridanity, has no reality—she exists to be the stakes in a frankly distasteful and overheated game played, apparently, over her head. She's just, well, insipid and not a little masochistic.
It is the Dom/sub nature of the relationships in this book that provide the depth charge. It's flavorless as Everclear, since it's uninflected and nuanceless, but like Everclear it's pervasive and powerfully mind altering. Our carbonated beverage was already a disappointment. We were promised a Mai Tai when we got sold a Miss Silver mystery. But then we got (in effect) a good beer spoiled: A bunch of nasty abusers masquerading as Doms, a story of surpassing sordidness with no one to invest in. That makes the resolution of the story, while clearly arrived at by traveling through the plot, unsatisfying.
But the saving grace, for me, why I got as high as three and a half stars, was the grace notes that make Miss Silver's world: Her aesthetic of bog-oak brooches and beaded kid slippers, the country-house splendor that Author Wentworth clearly sees vanishing before her eyes, the frustrations of wartime rationing that are organic to the milieu presented without fuss but with reason.
This isn't top-drawer Miss Silver but it's still Miss Silver and thus possesses certain charms. By the end of the story I was ready for it to be over, but I wasn't ever bored. That counts for a lot.
Formula One: Hero and heroine kept apart by Forces
Formula Two: Murdered person has pots of money
Formula Three: Women Are Just As Good As Men (until they find The Man when they become soft, pliant cuddlebugs)
Formula Four: Servants know all. Fear them.
Mixed properly, a light froth of story cocktail goodness is now served. (I typoed "swerved" and had a long stare at it before changing it.) This outing is less frothy, fruity Mai Tai than Boilermaker made with Everclear.
Miss Silver appears at the 39% mark, hacking away in her usual chronic-bronchitis bark, to solve the family crime of grumpy old tyrant-with-a-heart-of-gold James Paradine's defenestration. (Close enough, go with it.) Family secrets, lies, and half-truths are revealed in all their ugly, warty glory.
The Women, now, the women are utterly uninspired and uninspiring. Controlling Old Maid, Fretful Mother, Domineering Spinster, Breathless Insipid Heroine, and Plucky Babe are joined by a small assortment of Servants, loyal but uneducated and, to a woman, unattractive.
The Men are, this being World War II, Doing Their Bit as wealthy industrialists. But they're still handsome and manly! The exception is the Club Bore, a *distant* cousin with body odor. Okay, Author Wentworth doesn't actually say that, but the implication is clear. Other than him, we have the Heir Apparent with girl trouble, the Oily Seducer without money, the Spiffy Stud whose marriage to Breathless Insipid Heroine is under serious siege, the Solid Brick whose Loaf of Happiness in Life is getting moldy with Fretful Mother's eternal dampening tears.
The Plans. They disappear, are noticed to be gone, reappear, and provide Author Wentworth the chance to garnish the plotroast with some wartime paranoia and xenophobic references to The Germ-ans. As it was mid-war when the book came out, I can understand the urgency to use these tropes since Author Wentworth would not be able to as soon as the war was over and no matter how it ended. I still wish they'd been more, I don't know, heartfelt? Organic to the story?
Because this story isn't a World War II story. It's the story of Phyllida Paradine Wray (B.I.H.), adopted daughter of Grace Paradine (C.O.M.). Grace is the sister of James, the murderee. Grace is the tragically unmarried and rigidly controlling universal confidante. Those two things don't make the third without serious alchemy. That alchemy is missing in this book. She's just a controlling old horror. Everyone says how much they rely on Grace, how her common sense and her insight help them through problems. But we never see this, never experience Grace in helper mode. Nor do we even get a clear sense of the conditions that would lead a person in trouble to summit Mount Bosom to seek the oracle.
My vision of Grace Paradine, a Helen Hokinson cartoon character/caricature referred to as "The Club Lady"
So that central failing of character-building renders the rest of the plot flatter, rougher, and less cocktail than carbonated beverage. Then the B.I.H., Phyllida, whose act of rebellion in marrying the Spiffy Stud is frankly unbelievable given Grace the C.O.M.'s harridanity, has no reality—she exists to be the stakes in a frankly distasteful and overheated game played, apparently, over her head. She's just, well, insipid and not a little masochistic.
It is the Dom/sub nature of the relationships in this book that provide the depth charge. It's flavorless as Everclear, since it's uninflected and nuanceless, but like Everclear it's pervasive and powerfully mind altering. Our carbonated beverage was already a disappointment. We were promised a Mai Tai when we got sold a Miss Silver mystery. But then we got (in effect) a good beer spoiled: A bunch of nasty abusers masquerading as Doms, a story of surpassing sordidness with no one to invest in. That makes the resolution of the story, while clearly arrived at by traveling through the plot, unsatisfying.
But the saving grace, for me, why I got as high as three and a half stars, was the grace notes that make Miss Silver's world: Her aesthetic of bog-oak brooches and beaded kid slippers, the country-house splendor that Author Wentworth clearly sees vanishing before her eyes, the frustrations of wartime rationing that are organic to the milieu presented without fuss but with reason.
Miss Silver's idea of loveliness
This isn't top-drawer Miss Silver but it's still Miss Silver and thus possesses certain charms. By the end of the story I was ready for it to be over, but I wasn't ever bored. That counts for a lot.
June 19, 2015
My vision while reading this was that I was in an old black & white movie. I could hear the crackle of the film as I watched the action unfold on the screen. & there we were with a dinner party of what turn out to be all the suspects & The Future Corpse doing everything short of putting a sign that says "Murder Me!" on his back. The crime happen & as usual in the Golden Age crimes, no one wastes too much time on lower class actions like grief.
It's all moving along at a very pleasant, if somewhat cliched pace. But then Miss Silver arrives. This ex governess puts any suspect who has a tendency to prevaricate into the Naughty Chair, while others feel they are back in the nursery & Nanny Will Fix Everything. This reader felt much the same & the tone & pace of the book much improved upon her arrival.
All came to a satisfactory conclusion & just when it was about to come to an end
Not a world beater, but very satisfying & while I'm not in a rush to read another Wentworth, I definitely will at some point.
It's all moving along at a very pleasant, if somewhat cliched pace. But then Miss Silver arrives. This ex governess puts any suspect who has a tendency to prevaricate into the Naughty Chair, while others feel they are back in the nursery & Nanny Will Fix Everything. This reader felt much the same & the tone & pace of the book much improved upon her arrival.
All came to a satisfactory conclusion & just when it was about to come to an end
Not a world beater, but very satisfying & while I'm not in a rush to read another Wentworth, I definitely will at some point.
July 14, 2019
The Clock Strikes Twelve starts off with an interesting premise: It's New Year's Eve 1941. A country house family gathering. Secret government blueprints disappear. The assistant (and former something-in-law) who delivered the blueprints is called back to the house, and the man in charge sets an ultimatum to everyone who might have had access to the blueprints.
So far, so good. But also, so similar to two Sherlock Holmes stories, and there is also a particular Poirot story that jumps to mind.
Anyway, plots don't exactly thicken but characters are assembled, backstories are revealed, ... a lot of time is spent on describing details upon details. I'm sure this was all supposed to help flesh out characters etc. but just didn't work for me. I lost interest. None of the remaining characters had anything compelling about them. And I really couldn't have cared less about the thwarted relationship angle.
So, for me, this just dragged, and in the end, the solution was just meh.
As for Miss Silver...ugh, I wish someone had given her some cough syrup.
She coughs about 38 times throughout the entire book, and since she only makes an appearance half-way through, the coughing is noticeably condensed.
This one was not for me.
So far, so good. But also, so similar to two Sherlock Holmes stories, and there is also a particular Poirot story that jumps to mind.
Anyway, plots don't exactly thicken but characters are assembled, backstories are revealed, ... a lot of time is spent on describing details upon details. I'm sure this was all supposed to help flesh out characters etc. but just didn't work for me. I lost interest. None of the remaining characters had anything compelling about them. And I really couldn't have cared less about the thwarted relationship angle.
So, for me, this just dragged, and in the end, the solution was just meh.
As for Miss Silver...ugh, I wish someone had given her some cough syrup.
She coughs about 38 times throughout the entire book, and since she only makes an appearance half-way through, the coughing is noticeably condensed.
This one was not for me.
December 17, 2023
I ended up enjoying this though the opening was a bit tedious. Unlike Agatha Christie who can set the scene with a minimum of words, Wentworth typically spends a lot of time introducing her characters. The story picks up once Miss Silver appears and begins sorting through the evidence. In this case, her common sense deductions lead to a surprisingly complex solution.
June 25, 2019
This story opens on New Year’s Eve early in the war. James Paradine, successful business man and family patriarch, has summoned all of his relations to dine at his country home. They all came, as they always did, but this night did not play out as such nights had in years gone by. When dinner was over, just before that time when the ladies would retire, leaving the gentlemen to their cigars and their port, the host rose to speak. He announced that a crime had been committed, that he knew who was responsible, and that he would wait in his study until midnight, so that the guilty party could come to him and they could put things right.
Most of the assembled company were lost for words and the party soon broke up, with some returning to their own homes nearby and others retiring to different parts of the house.
The next morning, James Paradine’s body was found just below the terrace outside his study where he habitually took the air each night before retiring to bed.
It might have been an accident. The night was dark, the weather was wet, the balastade was low; and so he could so easily have slipped. But of course it wasn’t. The physical evidence clearly showed that James Paradine had been pushed.
One of the things that I have come to appreciate about Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver books, is that her police characters are capable professionals and decent people. That was the case here. The police surgeon quickly advised why it was clear that the dead man had been pushed, and the police inspector who was called out quickly realised that something unusual must have happened that evening and averted the plans of certain members of the family to not mention what had been said at dinner.
The police did everything that anyone might expect of them, but it wasn’t quite enough to confirm any one individual as the perpetrator of the crime that James Paradine spoke about, or as his murderer.
Miss Silver’s involvement came about because she happened to be staying with friends in the area and a young member of the family who was a good friend of someone Miss Silver had assisted in the past and recognised her.
(This isn’t the first time that Miss Silver has gained a new case by word of mouth, and I love the idea that when ladies met socially they talked about the governess-turned- private-detective who had quietly and competently come to the aid of certain ladies they knew or knew about. I believed it too!)
That young lady’s cousin – the young man who would inherit the house, the business, and the position of head of the family – was reluctant to allow a private detective into the family family circle; but he came around when it was put to him that, if the mystery wasn’t seen to be solved, suspicion would blight the lives of everyone who had been in the house on New Year’s Eve.
The mystery story was very well plotted, I came to suspect different characters as the story progressed, and there were many interesting twists and turns before the truth was revealed, and though I noticed that Miss Silver had a number of particular concerns I couldn’t work out how they would fit together and could only sit back and applaud her.
The family story was also strong, and I particularly appreciated the drawing of the character of the two oldest characters. One was a widower who felt the absence of his wife keenly, who could be firm but was always fair, and who would always shoulder his responsibilities. The other was his sister, a woman who felt that life had treated her harshly and who clung to the position in the household that she felt was her due and to the person she loved the most.
There was also much to hold the attention in the stories of the younger characters, including the romance that is present in every Miss Silver story. This one was distinctive in the series, though it reminded me a little of a romance in another Golden Age mystery I read a while ago; in its set-up though not in its resolution. That romance wasn’t as central to the story as it had been in previous books, because this book focused on the house in the country and not a young heroine, but it is significant to the playing out of the mystery story.
I’ve come to realise that while there are common threads running though the Miss Silver stories there is also much that changes and evolves. In this book I noticed a significant change of tone from the last book, and I suspect that was because the reality of the war had become clearer to the author. That is reflected in the story too, very effectively.
All of that makes this one of the strongest books in this series so far
It also makes me glad I set out to read them in order, and very interested to find out more about Miss Silver’s next investigation.
Most of the assembled company were lost for words and the party soon broke up, with some returning to their own homes nearby and others retiring to different parts of the house.
The next morning, James Paradine’s body was found just below the terrace outside his study where he habitually took the air each night before retiring to bed.
It might have been an accident. The night was dark, the weather was wet, the balastade was low; and so he could so easily have slipped. But of course it wasn’t. The physical evidence clearly showed that James Paradine had been pushed.
One of the things that I have come to appreciate about Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver books, is that her police characters are capable professionals and decent people. That was the case here. The police surgeon quickly advised why it was clear that the dead man had been pushed, and the police inspector who was called out quickly realised that something unusual must have happened that evening and averted the plans of certain members of the family to not mention what had been said at dinner.
The police did everything that anyone might expect of them, but it wasn’t quite enough to confirm any one individual as the perpetrator of the crime that James Paradine spoke about, or as his murderer.
Miss Silver’s involvement came about because she happened to be staying with friends in the area and a young member of the family who was a good friend of someone Miss Silver had assisted in the past and recognised her.
(This isn’t the first time that Miss Silver has gained a new case by word of mouth, and I love the idea that when ladies met socially they talked about the governess-turned- private-detective who had quietly and competently come to the aid of certain ladies they knew or knew about. I believed it too!)
That young lady’s cousin – the young man who would inherit the house, the business, and the position of head of the family – was reluctant to allow a private detective into the family family circle; but he came around when it was put to him that, if the mystery wasn’t seen to be solved, suspicion would blight the lives of everyone who had been in the house on New Year’s Eve.
The mystery story was very well plotted, I came to suspect different characters as the story progressed, and there were many interesting twists and turns before the truth was revealed, and though I noticed that Miss Silver had a number of particular concerns I couldn’t work out how they would fit together and could only sit back and applaud her.
The family story was also strong, and I particularly appreciated the drawing of the character of the two oldest characters. One was a widower who felt the absence of his wife keenly, who could be firm but was always fair, and who would always shoulder his responsibilities. The other was his sister, a woman who felt that life had treated her harshly and who clung to the position in the household that she felt was her due and to the person she loved the most.
There was also much to hold the attention in the stories of the younger characters, including the romance that is present in every Miss Silver story. This one was distinctive in the series, though it reminded me a little of a romance in another Golden Age mystery I read a while ago; in its set-up though not in its resolution. That romance wasn’t as central to the story as it had been in previous books, because this book focused on the house in the country and not a young heroine, but it is significant to the playing out of the mystery story.
I’ve come to realise that while there are common threads running though the Miss Silver stories there is also much that changes and evolves. In this book I noticed a significant change of tone from the last book, and I suspect that was because the reality of the war had become clearer to the author. That is reflected in the story too, very effectively.
All of that makes this one of the strongest books in this series so far
It also makes me glad I set out to read them in order, and very interested to find out more about Miss Silver’s next investigation.
January 31, 2020
Very enjoyable country house murder mystery - I look forward to reading more of Miss Silver! I think I read one of her mysteries many years ago, but it didn’t make much of an impression; I very much enjoyed this mystery, read with the Retro Reads group, and look forward to reading more of her books.
This mystery opens on New Year’s Eve, 1941, as members of the Paradine family gather to ring in the new year. James Paradine, the imposing patriarch of the family, makes a shocking announcement at dinner that shakes up the entire family – important plans have been stolen from his study, to do with the war effort. He says he knows who took the plans, and will be in his study until midnight - he expects them to come and confess and return the plans. Miss Silver is called in after Mr. Paradine is found dead the next morning.
Like many families, the Paradines have their share of scandals, old secrets, and heartbreaks - it’s a real pleasure to watch Miss Silver work! Like my favorite Agatha Christie heroine, Miss Marple, Miss Silver unobtrusively sits, knitting, and listening. She is a former nanny, so has life experiences similar to Miss Marple, that allow her to make sound judgments about human nature, the characters around her, and their likely motivations and actions. Both are spinster ladies who have spent their lives observing the small human dramas that make up lives and motives - they generally are unshockable and very wise and observant. Miss Silver, as a former nanny, has the automatic authority that influences people - if they’re innocent she makes them feel comforted and safe, and if they’re guilty, she looks through them unflinchingly and makes them want to confess!
It’s a real treat to read about her and watch her work with local police, who for a change are not clueless clodhoppers! Inspector Vyner is a sharp detective, and provides a master class early in the case on how to separate a weak witness out of the family herd, and get her to spill what she knows. There is dry, understated humor, and a couple of love stories, but they are not allowed to overwhelm the mystery - I think they are very well handled and resolved, and add nicely to the plot.
This mystery opens on New Year’s Eve, 1941, as members of the Paradine family gather to ring in the new year. James Paradine, the imposing patriarch of the family, makes a shocking announcement at dinner that shakes up the entire family – important plans have been stolen from his study, to do with the war effort. He says he knows who took the plans, and will be in his study until midnight - he expects them to come and confess and return the plans. Miss Silver is called in after Mr. Paradine is found dead the next morning.
Like many families, the Paradines have their share of scandals, old secrets, and heartbreaks - it’s a real pleasure to watch Miss Silver work! Like my favorite Agatha Christie heroine, Miss Marple, Miss Silver unobtrusively sits, knitting, and listening. She is a former nanny, so has life experiences similar to Miss Marple, that allow her to make sound judgments about human nature, the characters around her, and their likely motivations and actions. Both are spinster ladies who have spent their lives observing the small human dramas that make up lives and motives - they generally are unshockable and very wise and observant. Miss Silver, as a former nanny, has the automatic authority that influences people - if they’re innocent she makes them feel comforted and safe, and if they’re guilty, she looks through them unflinchingly and makes them want to confess!
It’s a real treat to read about her and watch her work with local police, who for a change are not clueless clodhoppers! Inspector Vyner is a sharp detective, and provides a master class early in the case on how to separate a weak witness out of the family herd, and get her to spill what she knows. There is dry, understated humor, and a couple of love stories, but they are not allowed to overwhelm the mystery - I think they are very well handled and resolved, and add nicely to the plot.
January 28, 2020
3.5 stars for this entertaining Golden Age mystery.
Wentworth's version of savvy spinster sleuth, Miss Silver, is a delight; she's the reason for that half-star.
Otherwise, this is one of those country house/limited number of suspects stories, with each suspect having, in theory, a good reason to commit the murder.
I can't believe I never read any of Wentworth's mysteries back when I was first reading Christie and Sayers. I shall have to correct that omission.
Wentworth's version of savvy spinster sleuth, Miss Silver, is a delight; she's the reason for that half-star.
Otherwise, this is one of those country house/limited number of suspects stories, with each suspect having, in theory, a good reason to commit the murder.
I can't believe I never read any of Wentworth's mysteries back when I was first reading Christie and Sayers. I shall have to correct that omission.
June 20, 2019
Now I finally appreciate Miss Silver. After reading #1 in this series, I was not impressed with her personality. But The Clock Strikes Twelve is #7, and Miss Silver truly engages with the people she is investigating, and her character has been filled in quite a bit more since the beginning of series.
The plot in this one is pretty good with many twists and turns, and none of the characters made me cringe, although I did get a bit tired of the author impressing me with the red color scheme in Mr. Paradine's home.
All in all, a great read.
The plot in this one is pretty good with many twists and turns, and none of the characters made me cringe, although I did get a bit tired of the author impressing me with the red color scheme in Mr. Paradine's home.
All in all, a great read.
November 13, 2019
Always love Miss Silver. I mete them out because there are a finite number. As an aside, I've had a cold while reading this one, and I cannot stop coughing. Made me notice how often Miss Silver coughs in this book, to gain the attention of whoever's speaking. (And sadly, as I also love the Harry Potter series, it made me think of Professor Umbridge. No one wants to think of Umbridge.)
March 10, 2016
An old-fashioned whodunit, with lots of twists and turns.
February 1, 2022
Nothing can go wrong during one of Miss Silver's murder investigations.
Free download available at Faded Page.
3* Grey Mask (Miss Silver, #1)
4* The Case Is Closed (Miss Silver, #2)
4* Lonesome Road (Miss Silver, #3)
3* Miss Silver Deals With Death (Miss Silver, #6)
3* The Clock Strikes Twelve (Miss Silver, #7)
4* She Came Back (Miss Silver, #9)
3* The Case of William Smith (Miss Silver, #13)
2* The Ivory Dagger (Miss Silver, #19)
4* Out of the Past (Miss Silver, #23)
3* The Benevent Treasure (Miss Silver, #26)
2* A Marriage Under the Terror
2* Beggar's Choice
4* The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith: A Golden Age Mystery
TR Danger Point (Miss Silver, #4)
TR The Chinese Shawl (Miss Silver, #5)
TR The Key (Miss Silver, #8)
TR Pilgrim's Rest (Miss Silver, #10)
TR Latter End (Miss Silver, #11)
TR Wicked Uncle (Miss Silver, #12)
TR Eternity Ring (Miss Silver, #14)
TR Miss Silver Comes to Stay (Miss Silver, #15)
TR The Catherine Wheel (Miss Silver, #16)
TR The Brading Collection (Miss Silver, #17)
TR Poison in the Pen (Miss Silver, #29)
TR Devil's Wind
TR The Fire Within
TR The Black Cabinet
TR Danger Calling
TR Run!
Free download available at Faded Page.
3* Grey Mask (Miss Silver, #1)
4* The Case Is Closed (Miss Silver, #2)
4* Lonesome Road (Miss Silver, #3)
3* Miss Silver Deals With Death (Miss Silver, #6)
3* The Clock Strikes Twelve (Miss Silver, #7)
4* She Came Back (Miss Silver, #9)
3* The Case of William Smith (Miss Silver, #13)
2* The Ivory Dagger (Miss Silver, #19)
4* Out of the Past (Miss Silver, #23)
3* The Benevent Treasure (Miss Silver, #26)
2* A Marriage Under the Terror
2* Beggar's Choice
4* The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith: A Golden Age Mystery
TR Danger Point (Miss Silver, #4)
TR The Chinese Shawl (Miss Silver, #5)
TR The Key (Miss Silver, #8)
TR Pilgrim's Rest (Miss Silver, #10)
TR Latter End (Miss Silver, #11)
TR Wicked Uncle (Miss Silver, #12)
TR Eternity Ring (Miss Silver, #14)
TR Miss Silver Comes to Stay (Miss Silver, #15)
TR The Catherine Wheel (Miss Silver, #16)
TR The Brading Collection (Miss Silver, #17)
TR Poison in the Pen (Miss Silver, #29)
TR Devil's Wind
TR The Fire Within
TR The Black Cabinet
TR Danger Calling
TR Run!
January 18, 2024
James Parradine announces at a family dinner that one of his family has done something dishonourable. He does not name the person, says he will be in his study until midnight if the person want to come and confess. It will come as no surprise that he is found murdered the next morning. Naturally Miss Silver is called in to investigate.
This enjoyable mystery has a generous number of suspects (ten in all) several of whom have possible motives. But Miss Silver of course does not find it too difficult to pick the right one, while getting on with the knitting as well.
This enjoyable mystery has a generous number of suspects (ten in all) several of whom have possible motives. But Miss Silver of course does not find it too difficult to pick the right one, while getting on with the knitting as well.
January 1, 2022
This was my first Miss Silver and I loved it! I loved the writing style and the characters and the clues and red herrings. It was fantastic! I will definitely be reading more Miss Silver.
January 11, 2021
The plodding plotting would have been easier to read is a week with less plodding plotting of national security. So, I can’t honestly say if this book was dreary or if was just me.
July 6, 2013
The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth is a delightful classic mystery, featuring Miss Silver, an elderly lady who knits and solves crimes. If that sounds like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, then you are right on the money. Patricia Wentworth wrote 32 Miss Silver mysteries, which are sadly out of print. Fortunately, Open Road Media has republished all 32 novels in e-book format. http://www.openroadmedia.com/patricia... I was lucky enough to get one of these through Net Galley.
The Miss Silver books are a must read for any fan of classic English mysteries. The Clock Strikes Twelve is a particularly wonderful example of her writing. James Paradine has gathered all of his nearest and dearest together for a New Year’s dinner, during which he announces that he knows that one of them has been disloyal to the family. The guilty party will have until midnight to come to his study, where Mr. Paradine will be waiting, and confess. Any reader of mysteries knows that, once he has uttered these words, James Paradine has virtually signed his own death warrant. Suspicion falls on each family member in turn, sometimes more than once. Eventually, Miss Silver, who has a reputation as a private investigator, is called in to solve the mystery. Along the way, she adroitly she straightens out the side problems that have created several false leads and red herrings for the police.
Although it is a slight variation on the traditional English Country House mystery, which means that there is a limited pool of suspects, I was still guessing at the killer’s identity until the big reveal at the end. A bit of romance is always a staple in the Miss Silver novels, which I find quite pleasant and not at all detracting from the main mystery.
The Miss Silver books are a must read for any fan of classic English mysteries. The Clock Strikes Twelve is a particularly wonderful example of her writing. James Paradine has gathered all of his nearest and dearest together for a New Year’s dinner, during which he announces that he knows that one of them has been disloyal to the family. The guilty party will have until midnight to come to his study, where Mr. Paradine will be waiting, and confess. Any reader of mysteries knows that, once he has uttered these words, James Paradine has virtually signed his own death warrant. Suspicion falls on each family member in turn, sometimes more than once. Eventually, Miss Silver, who has a reputation as a private investigator, is called in to solve the mystery. Along the way, she adroitly she straightens out the side problems that have created several false leads and red herrings for the police.
Although it is a slight variation on the traditional English Country House mystery, which means that there is a limited pool of suspects, I was still guessing at the killer’s identity until the big reveal at the end. A bit of romance is always a staple in the Miss Silver novels, which I find quite pleasant and not at all detracting from the main mystery.
July 7, 2022
A pleasant enough read for a day in which I was so tired I just flopped. Set in the war years, we do hear of blackout curtains and a brief mention of rationing coupons, but of course the characters are wealthy enough to have a New Year's Eve dinner with no mention of shortage or lack. Oh, well-the saccharine is "hidden from view" but most people are "patriotic" enough to take their coffee unsweetened. Other than that it's a traditional dinner party mystery that could have been set in the 20s, 30s or 50s just as well. It was strikingly similar in a lot of ways to the Georgette Heyer I read recently, published seven years before this one.
As usual in the Christie/Wentworth tradition, there are far too many characters. Several servants plus many cousins, siblings, steps and older folks, plus the needless similarity of names between Parradine and Pennington and not enough real characterisation to tell them apart, especially as the author calls her characters by their first names while to the police and Miss Silver they are all "Miss Parradine/Pennington, Mr Parradine/Ambrose" etc. Right up to the end of the book I kept tripping over names and thinking, "Wait, who's Louisa? Who's Mark? Who IS this?" Add to that the plethora of romantic entanglements (four or five, I lost count) and what could have been a five-star lazy day read has to make do with four.
As usual in the Christie/Wentworth tradition, there are far too many characters. Several servants plus many cousins, siblings, steps and older folks, plus the needless similarity of names between Parradine and Pennington and not enough real characterisation to tell them apart, especially as the author calls her characters by their first names while to the police and Miss Silver they are all "Miss Parradine/Pennington, Mr Parradine/Ambrose" etc. Right up to the end of the book I kept tripping over names and thinking, "Wait, who's Louisa? Who's Mark? Who IS this?" Add to that the plethora of romantic entanglements (four or five, I lost count) and what could have been a five-star lazy day read has to make do with four.
November 5, 2021
06/18 4*
01/20 4+* repeat listen. As it's summertime and I'm in the frame of mind to enjoy lighter listening this book garnered itself a plus ...... winter time listens have to work harder for bonus points :)
The mother by adoption in this book sure is a piece of work and Wentworth has purposely crafted her to be despised, she is possessive, jealous, manipulative, and a class act narcissist. That portion of the story reminded me of the surrogate mother in Nemesis by Agatha Christie, this listen through especially, and I could clearly see the opening for Wentworth to have the scenario of ‘love killed her’ brought about (not going to say more and generate a spoiler in either book.)
I prefer to listen to Wentworth’s stories narrated by Diana Bishop as opposed to reading them and I think this audiobook makes for a great retro/vintage era whodunit; but, it could easily offend those who imagine that a retro read is going to reflect or uphold many of the social norms expected or accepted in Western Culture now.
2020: Re-read for a GR's Retro Reads Challenge
2021: 4+* Late-night reread.
01/20 4+* repeat listen. As it's summertime and I'm in the frame of mind to enjoy lighter listening this book garnered itself a plus ...... winter time listens have to work harder for bonus points :)
The mother by adoption in this book sure is a piece of work and Wentworth has purposely crafted her to be despised, she is possessive, jealous, manipulative, and a class act narcissist. That portion of the story reminded me of the surrogate mother in Nemesis by Agatha Christie, this listen through especially, and I could clearly see the opening for Wentworth to have the scenario of ‘love killed her’ brought about (not going to say more and generate a spoiler in either book.)
I prefer to listen to Wentworth’s stories narrated by Diana Bishop as opposed to reading them and I think this audiobook makes for a great retro/vintage era whodunit; but, it could easily offend those who imagine that a retro read is going to reflect or uphold many of the social norms expected or accepted in Western Culture now.
2020: Re-read for a GR's Retro Reads Challenge
2021: 4+* Late-night reread.
June 21, 2014
The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth:- The era is a time during te World War 1. The clock rings in a New Year at midnight just as someone is murdered. There are more than a few unlikeable personalities running around within this book. It kind of makes the reader wish they would all get picked by the police just for being the nerve-racking menaces which they are.
A party takes place on News Year. This reminds me of a Sherlock Holmes mystery of “Who done it”. A house holiday celebration. A budding romance. A murder at midnight. A room full of sour relations who are suspects. Although, the mystery is a typical spin-off of classic murderous fiction, the plot is well written in the Wentworth style. Eventually, the services of Miss Silver are called in. She has her hands full with a room full of suspects all of which have a motive for murder.
A party takes place on News Year. This reminds me of a Sherlock Holmes mystery of “Who done it”. A house holiday celebration. A budding romance. A murder at midnight. A room full of sour relations who are suspects. Although, the mystery is a typical spin-off of classic murderous fiction, the plot is well written in the Wentworth style. Eventually, the services of Miss Silver are called in. She has her hands full with a room full of suspects all of which have a motive for murder.
January 5, 2022
Part way through - Ugh. Not one of the best Miss Silver stories so far. Phyllida is the soppiest woman I've read about in ages and I'd be tempted to tell Elliot to get that divorce and not look back, except any man who says, "I don't want you to be clever, I just want you to be sweet" deserves to be married to the wettest woman of the decade. Everyone else is just as badly stereotyped, and the dead man is simply asking to be murdered.
Finished -- The best part of this book is the ending - rather unexpected, it livens up an otherwise straight forward mystery dominated by the soppiest "heroine" possible. I did like Lydia, but Mark didn't seem to be anything great. All in all, not one her best.
Finished -- The best part of this book is the ending - rather unexpected, it livens up an otherwise straight forward mystery dominated by the soppiest "heroine" possible. I did like Lydia, but Mark didn't seem to be anything great. All in all, not one her best.
January 21, 2017
I know who did it! Wait? No I don't. Yes I do! Oh, hang on a second...
Wentworth really is the mistress of creating truly unlikable characters. You *want* this person to be the victim, or that person to be the murderer, and every character is very well rounded out. A lot of it is to do with her not being in a hurry to kill the victim off. I think it works a lot better than the traditional method of learning about them as the detectives do, no need to spend time slowly learning who the victim was and why, we know the who and we can guess the why, but can we? With Wentworth our first guess might be right or it might be the seventh guess, but it will certainly be Miss Silver's first.
Wentworth really is the mistress of creating truly unlikable characters. You *want* this person to be the victim, or that person to be the murderer, and every character is very well rounded out. A lot of it is to do with her not being in a hurry to kill the victim off. I think it works a lot better than the traditional method of learning about them as the detectives do, no need to spend time slowly learning who the victim was and why, we know the who and we can guess the why, but can we? With Wentworth our first guess might be right or it might be the seventh guess, but it will certainly be Miss Silver's first.
December 20, 2017
"Why don't we tell the truth?" She was looking up into his face. His eyes avoided her. He said, "Do you know what it is?" Then, almost violently, "Have you forgotten what he said in that damned speech of his? He accused one of us of a crime. That's what it amounted to, didn't it - he accused one of us - one of the ten people who'd been dining with him. And he said he'd wait in his study for one of us to come and confess. Well, he waited, and he was murdered. Do you think Vyner's going to look outside of those ten people for the murderer?"
Just finished the last words....Wow! What diabolical cunning.
Just finished the last words....Wow! What diabolical cunning.
August 16, 2020
I recognize of course that this book is an old one. Written with different sensibilities. Nevertheless. It is ugly and very creepy. The murder itself is rather trivial and is an imitation Christie. The main problem of course is that the characters are unlikable. There is, perhaps, still a class of human being who can believe the hostage situation described in the book is romantic love. However, with its constant threat of wife beating to me it is just plain abhorrent. Additionally, the strong anti intellectual sentiment is also annoying.
November 14, 2018
Patricia Wentworth definitely recycles plots and characters and unfortunately I've just read two in a row that are quite similar. It's not bad but what spoils it for me is the character who finds her husband's violence romantic - and the reader is rather expected to agree.
January 4, 2022
I've been reading the Miss Silver books in order but skipped number 6 to read this one as it starts on New Year's Eve. This was very good and Miss Silver was at her best. Ten suspects, a lush country house setting and plenty of red herrings - a fabulous whodunit.
February 14, 2019
As Usual!
As usual, another terrific book by Patricia Wentworth! A locked room whodunnit that our Miss Silver solves with her usual panache.
As usual, another terrific book by Patricia Wentworth! A locked room whodunnit that our Miss Silver solves with her usual panache.
April 24, 2023
Very satisfying read. I love Miss Silver!
January 5, 2021
Great little mystery with a lot of detail.
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