Review: not up to the usual standard
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 31, 2012
In the Balance begins in the most delightful way, with the inimitable Miss Maud Silver bumping into a distraught Lisle Jerningham on a London-bound train. A dazed Mrs. Jerningham, a newlywed and heiress, has stumbled onto the possibility that her husband, Dale, might be seeking to kill her. It's a fantastical notion -- too fantastical to be true. Or is it?But the novel, the fourth in the Miss Silver series, doesn't live up to that auspicious beginning. Miss Silver barely plays a role in solving the crime, and Lisle Jerningham proves to be such a fatalistic milquetoast that one hardly cares about her fate. After all, why should we care more about whether she lives or dies than she apparently does?A bad Patricia Wentworth novel is better than a lot of other authors' best effort, but The Danger Point is definitely not up to the usual standard of a Wentworth mystery. This is definitely noThe Chinese Shawl (A Miss Silver Mystery),Latter End: A Miss Silver Mystery (Book Eleven)orAnna, Where Are You (A Miss Silver Mystery). You can skip this one with no regrets.Amazon.com also sells this novel under the title The Danger Point.