Lonesome Road by Patricia Wentworth

 

Lonesome Road by Patricia Wentworth

published 1939

 

 

This is the third Miss Silver book, following on from The Grey Mask, and then a surprising 10 years later The Case is Closed – Patricia Wentworth wasn’t rushing into anything. Interestingly, Agatha Christie had a similar gap between the first and second appearances of Miss Marple in full-length novels.

I think (open to correction) this book contains the first mention of Miss Silver’s earlier career before she became a private investigator:

‘You had better call me a retired governess.’ Most unexpectedly her eyes twinkled. ‘And that need not trouble your conscience, because it is perfectly true. I was in the scholastic profession for twenty years.’ She got up and extended her hand. ‘I disliked it extremely. Good-bye, Miss Treherne.’

And I would say is pretty unusual in that Miss Silver very nearly makes a joke. From her notes:

Lord T[ennyson] says, ‘In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.’ Have not noticed that November has any chilling effect.

There doesn't seem any need to outline the plot. Consider this: On a winter’s afternoon the heroine goes out – ‘Put my torch in the hall and hang out the lantern. Barlow can drop me before he goes to the station, and I’ll come back by the cliff.’ Well. Anyone got the faintest idea how this will pan out? Anyone read any Wentworth before?

This book is FULL of content, possibly over-full. There is a longlost person who will be recognizable because of a tattoo – a splendid move – but this is never actually brought into play.

The heroine is surrounded by truly grasping and parasitical relations,with not much in the way of saving graces: it’s surprising that there isn’t more difficulty in choosing among them as to who is the villain. There is a good exchange with one of them:

‘I know a woman of forty-eight who married and had twins,’ Miss Silver observed in an artless, gossiping voice. ‘Well, I can’t think how she did it,’ said Mabel Wadlow. ‘And it would be most unusual…’

The Patent Miss Silver Checklist 

 Coughing: 14 coughs, including a ‘modest’ cough when someone praises her. (Modesty not something we particularly associate with her.) A very low number.

Sociological detail: The action takes place in the usual smart country house. There is a telephone in the dining-room and (at least at breakfast) the house guests and residents are all perfectly fine with taking phonecalls during the meal. This may be just for plot/information purposes, but etiquette of the day would suggest that this was not polite at all.

Clothes – Miss Silver hasn’t yet settled into the same old same old clothes, there is more attention than in later books. She  has  ‘a very odd grey dress which looked as if it had been trimmed with black tape’ and also ‘the kind of garment affected by elderly ladies who frequent boarding-houses. It was quite obviously a summer dress that had been dyed black. Some jet trimming now adorned the neck and wrists.’ There’s also a long gold chain, and a mourning brooch in full Victorian style.

Her client does better:

a hand-knitted suit in a beige and brown mixture, heavy silk stockings, and excellently cut lowheeled shoes of dark brown leather; a very good fur coat; a single modest row of real pearls; a small brown felt hat. Everything betokened the woman of taste and means who lives a country life.

And of course everyone changes for dinner:

She had changed into a pale green dress with no back, no sleeves, and very little front.

She was wearing green too – a bright stuff patterned with silver. It had long sleeves, and a long skirt, and a high draped neck.

(There is a lot of green in the book, and a green scarf is key)

 

 'very fair hair with a sugar-loaf cap crammed on amongst its curls…'

This is a modern-day version:

Knitting  Miss Silver is knitting a matinee coat for a baby who is not yet born, but she seems to know that it will be a girl. (Which would be impossible in 1939.)

Names:  Dale, Cosmo. Really not much. There are a Demosthenes and a Seraphine who are mentioned but don’t appear.

Unusual occupations   not really, but amongst all the famously loyal and wonderful retainers in Miss Silver World, the maid Louise here deserves some kind of prize for utter creepiness. ‘I’m stupid, Miss Rachel – stupid to care like I do.’

Overall - a good average entry in the series. The books will get better... 

Top: Woman in fur-trimmed coat from NYPL.

Second woman in fur coat: The picture is of a woman called Vivian Kellems, a very successful and apparently very happy ‘career woman’ who ran an industrial manufacturing firm with her brother. It comes from the Smithsonian Institution.

 Evening dresses from the NYPL collection.