The "marvelous" British governess-turned-sleuth helps a new bride who fears her husband intends to murder her (Daily Mail). Former schoolteacher Miss Maud Silver is on her way back to London when, with a violent shudder of the train, a young woman is thrust into her compartment. She's beautiful, well dressed, newly married, and wealthy--a lethal combination. In a state of shock, Lisle Jerningham explains that she fled her home in a hurry after overhearing a sinister conversation. Her new husband's first wife died in an apparent accident, and the resultant infusion of cash saved his family home. Now, he's broke again--and attempting to engineer a second convenient mishap. Miss Silver is unsure whether the drama is real or a figment of Lisle's imagination--but if this frightened young lady is a target for murder, the killer will have to deal with the governess-turned-sleuth first. Starring a mature sleuth who "has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot", In the Balance is a classic British mystery (Manchester Evening News).

Governess-turned-sleuth Miss Silver must follow a trail of poison-pen letters to save an heiress from murder. Rachel Treherne has always had a steady head on her shoulders; it's why her late father named her the sole trustee of his considerable fortune. But the decision galled a number of Rachel's relatives, including her married older sister, her socialist nephew, and her father's ambitious young cousin. Rachel fears she may be overreacting to the anonymous letters she's received threatening her life, but then someone tampers with the chocolates she bought herself. If her cousin hadn't partaken first and noticed an unwholesome taste, who knows what may have happened? Miss Silver suspects someone in Rachel's inner circle has grown tired of being a poor relation, and she travels incognito to the Treherne country home to unmask the culprit--before it's too late--in this intriguing entry in the beloved series featuring a contemporary of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Lonesome Road is the 3rd book in the Miss Silver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

CLASSIC GOLDEN AGE MYSTERY PERFECT FOR FANS OF AGATHA CHRISTIE Miss Silver must foil a plot to murder a beautiful young heiress 'Ranks with the best of the golden-age detectives' Daily Mail Furious at being jilted at the altar by his once-fiance Margaret Langton, Charles Moray left England behind him. Now, four years later, he returns to his family home, only to find it unlocked and with a light burning in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, Charles soon discovers that a criminal gang has been using his house to plan a vicious crime. The target is the beautiful Margot Standing, who is due to inherit a considerable fortune. And what's more he recognises the voices of one of the conspirators - his lost love Margaret Langton. How did Margaret come to be involved? And who is the terrifying masked man who has her in his thrall? Charles contacts Miss Silver to unravel the mysteries of the case and, if she can, save Margot Standings life. 'A first-rate storyteller' Daily Telegraph 'You can't go wrong with Miss Maud Silver' Observer 'Miss Silver is marvellous' Daily Mail 'Better than Miss Marple' Mary Stewart 'A particular favourite' Andrew Taylor 'Miss Wentworth's plot is ingenious, her characterization acute, her solution satisfying' Scotsman 'Miss Silver has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot' Manchester Evening News

Bill Waring, collecting his wits in hospital after a train crash, receives only one letter from Lila Dryden, his fiancee. When he discovers Lady Dryden, Lila's guardian, has pressured her into an engagement with Herbert Whitall, he is furious. Herbert Whitall is aggressive, with a cold-hearted possessiveness that expands past the bounds of his ivory collection he can't bear to lose. His employees hate him, Lila is terrified of him and it appears he has a hold on Lady Dryden. When a dagger in Whitall's collection becomes the instrument of his own death there are many suspects. Maud Silver must see that justice is done, not merely to punish the guilty, but to protect the innocent.

To the innocent visitor the picturesque village of Greenings would appear to be a haven of tranquility. But every place has its secrets and beneath the calm surface lurk hidden resentments and dangerous passions. When a man is found lying face down in a nearby watersplash, the verdict is death by misadventure. But Miss Silver happens to be in the neighbourhood and she suspects foul play . . .

Governess-turned-detective Miss Silver investigates a deadly conspiratorial ring Charles Moray has come home to England to collect his inheritance. After four years wandering the jungles of India and South America, the hardy young man returns to the manor of his birth, where generations of Morays have lived and died. Strangely, he finds the house unlocked, and sees a light on in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, he learns of a conspiracy to commit a fearsome crime. Never one for the heroic, Charles's first instinct is to let the police settle it. But then he hears her voice. Margaret, his long lost love, is part of the gang. To unravel their diabolical plot, he contacts Miss Maud Silver, a onetime governess who applies reason to solve crimes and face the dangers of London's underworld.

Anne Jocelyn had been a beautiful, wealthy young woman. She had died three years ago. At least, that was what her husband Philip and the rest of the family had always thought. But then a woman calling herself Anne Jocelyn appeared and managed to convince everyone that she was the real Anne. Everyone, that is, except Miss Silver, whose suspicions are aroused by an apparently senseless murder.

The British governess-turned-sleuth visits a small village hiding big secrets in this "timelessly charming" cozy mystery series (Charlotte MacLeod). The citizens of Melling are perfectly ordinary. Some might even consider them boring, but not Miss Maud Silver. It's been some years since she gave up work as a governess to become a detective, and her fascination with people has served her well during that time. Now, she's come to Melling to pay a long-postponed visit to an old school chum--but Miss Silver's vacations never last long. The town's prodigal son has returned, wealthy and not exactly nostalgic for his hometown. He intends to sell his manor house and be done with Melling forever. But this cozy English hamlet hasn't finished with him yet . . .

In this classic British mystery starring a sleuth "who has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot," Miss Silver investigates a murder that may have its roots in a new romance--or an old family feud (Manchester Evening News). An amateur who happened on a career in theater, Tanis Lyle has just finished filming her first motion picture. The young woman has electric charm, and seems to hypnotize all who meet her--including Laura Fane, a distant cousin who, because of a long-standing family feud, has never been allowed to meet her glamorous relative. But while all of London seems to love Tanis, her powerful effect on men causes some to despise her. And when the actress's life is cut short by an unknown hand, investigator Miss Maud Silver will have to hunt for a killer.

CLASSIC GOLDEN AGE MYSTERY PERFECT FOR FANS OF AGATHA CHRISTIE Miss Silver must unravel a tangled web of marriage, mystery and murder 'Ranks with the best of the golden-age detectives' Daily Mail No one has seen Allegra Trent since she got married. Her husband swept her off her feet and out of London, to a faraway town called Bleake. She has stopped writing letters, and her family has begun to worry. Allegra's husband is a strange man. He is consumed with his dream of owning the ramshackle estate curiously known as Ladies' Bane, and he intends to use his new wife's money to do it. Why he wants to live there no one knows, but Josepha Bowden does not want his castle to become her goddaughter's prison. She asks the help of Maud Silver, the former governess who now makes a living using her reason to unravel the intricacies of murder. There has been no killing in Bleake, but if Miss Silver doesn't intervene quickly, there could be one soon. 'A first-rate storyteller' Daily Telegraph 'You can't go wrong with Miss Maud Silver' Observer 'Miss Silver is marvellous' Daily Mail 'Better than Miss Marple' Mary Stewart 'A particular favourite' Andrew Taylor 'Miss Wentworth's plot is ingenious, her characterization acute, her solution satisfying' Scotsman 'Miss Silver has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot' Manchester Evening News

New Year's Eve, 1940, is unusual for the Paradine family. Departing from tradition, James Paradine makes a speech that changes the course of many lives. Valuable documents have disappeared. A member of the family has taken them. The culprit has until midnight to confess and return the papers. A few minutes after twelve James Paradine is dead. It is left to Miss Silver to disentangle the threads that bind the Paradine family in a strange web of dislike, hatred and fear.

When he was 21 James Lessiter told Henrietta Cray that he loved her before all things and so broke Catherine Lee's heart. But James has a side to him that most people do not see. When the engagement is broken off noone is sure why and Rietta refuses to explain. Twenty years later James returns to the village an extremely wealthy man. Rietta is still unmarried and Catherine is a penniless widow living in a cottage on the Lessiter estate. Trouble is inevitable, for Catherine has started to sell some of the valuable contents of the cottage to keep up a lifestyle she cannot afford but James has his suspicions and is looking forward to exposing her. He has always enjoyed seeing someone else suffer whatever the cost. When he is brutally murdered there all too many people who would benefit from his death but fortunately Miss Silver is ready to investigate.

A young woman regains consciousness and finds herself on some cellar steps. At the bottom of the steps there is the corpse of a dead girl. She cannot remember who she is, what has happened or why she is there. Terrified and confused she manages to find a way out and as she flees she runs into Miss Silver, who offers to help her. A letter in her bag is the only clue to her identity. But by investigating what has happened to her will she find herself in danger? Can she trust the letter writer? And who is the girl in the cellar?

Things had never been quite the same at Latter End since Lois had taken over. Suddenly life seemed to be an endless succession of bitter family rows which Lois, needless to say, invariably won. More than one person at Latter End found themselves stretched to the limit by Lois and her bullying, and it was only a matter of time before somebody snapped. It was unthinkable of course . . . but if anyone ever murdered Lois Latter, it would be very embarrassing to discover just how many people might have wished her dead.

There was a certain heavy air of intrigue and mystery emanating from the old inn high on the cliff top. The Catherine-Wheel had once been a home for pirates and smugglers, but now is looked like it was harbouring a murderer. It had begun with an advertisement in the paper requesting descendants of the late innkeeper, Jeremiah Taverner, to stay for a weekend at the inn. They had arrived, a mixed assortment, to the family reunion eager to discover the secrets of their ancestry. But one of them had been hideously murdered, bringing the inn's stormy past into frightening focus. Scotland Yard, already suspicious of dope smuggling in the area, sends Maud Silver to investigate before the fireworks start to fly.

James and Carmona Hardwick are spending the summer playing host to numerous friends and relatives in an old Hardwick family residence by the sea. The arrival of Alan Field, a devastatingly handsome though shady figure from Carmona's past, destroys the holiday atmosphere in the old house and replaces it with a mounting tension, culminating in murder. Fortunately, Miss Silver is present to unravel the complex mystery and seek out the murderer amongst them.

Jenny is 18 when her guardian is killed and her wealthy relations the Forbes invite her to stay. Consoled by the affectionate attentions of their little girls and the charming elder son, she starts to find her feet again. Then she overhears a private conversation and realises she is in terrible danger. Terrified and bewildered, Jenny flees from the village, desperately hoping her enemies will forget all about her. But she's wrong . . .

The Everton murder case has long been closed. The culprit has been charged with the murder of his uncle and has served a year of his sentence already. Or has he? The evidence against Geoffrey Grey is convincing but his wife believes in his innocence. And so does her young cousin, Hilary, who decides to solve the mystery herself. But when Hilary herself is nearly murdered she turns in desperation to her ex-fiance for help. He calls upon the services of Miss Silver to help solve another mystery, which she does in her own original style.