Miss Maud Silver
Created by Patricia Wentworth (pseudonym for Dora Amy Elles; 1878-1961)

Here's one that's probably not going to be confused with the hardboiled school of private eyes. The redoubtable MISS MAUD SILVER is a spinster private investigator in London, England, specializing in thefts and forgeries of fine art works, who is so cozy she actually knits. Definitely a little quirky, and she may knit, but the resemblance to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple ends there. Maud's definitely a professional. And none of that "Oh, I'm just a wooly-headed female" schtick of Miss Marple. Miss Silver is

A retired schoolteacher, looking to nothing more than a quiet retirement on a rather meagre pension, she finds herself, through a series of incidents, the proud possessor a home, a housekeeper, and a whole new profession. She becomes a private detective, although she prefers to be called a private enquiry agent (a title much more appropriate to a gentlewoman, she feels). A small woman, prim, polite, with a habit of quoting the Bible or perhaps the poetry of Lord Tennyson, Miss Silver lives by a simple code,"Love God, honour the Queen, keep the law, be kind, be good, think of others before you think of yourself, serve Justice, speak the truth."

Because she appears so harmless, she's a whiz at undercover work, her favorite M.O. and one she's had quite a bit of success with, much to the chagrin of Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Lamb, who was often called in at the end to make the arrests. But another detective, Inspector Abbott, actually had great admiration for Miss Silver. They often went to each other for help, and had in fact known each other for years. Another police officer whom she often counted on was Randal Marsh, eventually Chief Constable, whose ties to Miss Silver went even further back -- she had once been his governess.

Miss Silver premiered in Grey Mask in 1928 as a minor character and made her full-fledged as the main protagonist in The Case is Closed in 1937. Wentworth herself describes her as having "small, neat features and the sort of old-fashioned clothes that were not so much dowdy as characteristic" in her final book, The Girl in the Cellar.

Lighter reading, and populated with mostly female characters, this series became so popular in the United States that this British author's primary publisher was in Philadelphia.

Wentworth had a long career. Besides Miss Silver, she also wrote about series characters Frank Garrett, Benbow Smith and even some standalones featuring Miss Silver's pal, Inspector Lamb.

RIYL: Miss Marple, Mrs. Jeffries

UNDER OATH

• "Miss Marple may receive ten times the attention as Miss Silver, but the woefully neglected Miss Silver is the real deal -- a professional investigator and a stand-up woman, a true forerunner of all future female private eyes."
  (D.L. Browne)

NOVELS

• Grey Mask (1928)
• The Case Is Closed (1937)
• Lonesome Road (1939)
• In the Balance (1941; AKA Danger Point)
• The Chinese Shawl (1943)
• Miss Silver Deals in Death (1943; AKA Miss Silver Intervenes)
• The Clock Strikes Twelve (1944)
• The Key (1944)
• She Came Back (1945; AKA The Traveller Returns)
• Pilgrim's Rest (1946; AKA Dark Threat)
• Latter End (1947)
• Wicked Uncle (1947; AKA The Spotlight)
• The Eternity Ring (1948)
• The Case of William Smith (1948)
• Miss Silver Comes to Stay (1949)
• The Catherine Wheel (1949)
• Through the Wall (1950)
• The Brading Collection (1950; AKA Mr. Brading's Collection)
• The Ivory Dagger (1951)
• Anna, Where Are You? (1951; AKA Death at Deep End)
• The Watersplash (1951)
• Ladies' Bane (1952)
• Out of the Past (1953)
• Vanishing Point (1953)
• The Silver Pool (1954)
• The Benevent Treasure (1954)
• The Listening Eye (1955)
• The Gazebo (1956; AKA The Summerhouse)
• The Fingerprint (1956)
• Poison in the Pen (1957)
• The Alington Inheritance (1958)
• The Girl in the Cellar (1961)

Respectfully submitted by Dale Stoyer, with some additional information from Kevin Burton Smith, and a few corrections by Un My Rosh and Jane Davitt.