Patricia Wentworth

Patricia Wentworth
Dora Amy Turnbull (formerly Dillon, née Elles; 15 October 1877 – 28 January 1961), known by pen name Patricia Wentworth, was a British crime fiction writer.
Early life and education
She was born in Mussoorie, 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 World War I. 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 World War I 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. Her novels were the topic of Jariel D. O'Neil's 1988 doctoral dissertation.
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
References
External links
Books by Wentworth.
Three published magazine stories by Wentworth.
Patricia Wentworth: An Introduction and Series Guide at Early Bird Books
1878 births
1961 deaths
People from Camberley
People from Mussoorie
20th-century English novelists
English mystery writers
People educated at Blackheath High School
Women mystery writers
English women novelists
20th-century English women writers
20th-century pseudonymous writers
Pseudonymous women writers
British people in colonial India