Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth - introducing Miss Silver!

Title: Grey Mask
Author: Patricia Wentworth
Publication: Warner, paperback, originally published in 1929
Genre: Mystery
Setting: English countryside

Description: Charles Moray has been out of the country for four years, having left with bitterness when his fiancé, Margaret Langford, broke their engagement with no explanation right before the wedding. Quietly entering the family home, which should be empty, he finds it full of disguised conspirators including a leader in a rubber Grey Mask. He would have attacked them or called the police but he recognizes one of them is Margaret. Shocked yet too chivalrous to turn her in, Charles decides he must get to the bottom of this mystery himself. As he investigates, he realizes he still loves Margaret but she has got herself involved in something dangerous, and when she won’t confide in him, he turns to Miss Silver – in her first recorded case.

My Impression: Romance does not always run smooth in Patricia Wentworth world and her heroines fall into two categories: loyal and determined or frightened and passive. Charles may be hot tempered (leaving England rather than staying to insist on an explanation for the broken engagement) but Margaret unfortunately falls into the latter category as one of those pale but lovely people who suffer in silence, so it is hard to warm to her as a character. What Charles overheard convinced him she is involved with a gang plotting murder to secure an inheritance, and when she refuses to tell him what is going on, he visits Miss Silver. He is careful what he says to her, anxious to keep Margaret out of it, but Miss Silver sees right through him:

“I can’t take your case unless you’re going to trust me. I can’t work for a client who only tells me snippets and odds and ends. ‘Trust me all in all, or not at all,’ is my motto. Tennyson is out of fashion, but I admire him very much, and that is my motto.”

Charles looked at her with the suspicion of a twinkle. What a Victorian little person! He became aware of a half-knitted stocking on her lap, still needles bristling. It seemed to him very appropriate

My edition, not very attractive

Charles should heed Miss Silver but he is trying to protect not only Margaret but Greta, a dimwitted heiress against whom the Grey Mask is plotting, so he does not share everything he knows. However, she is available to save the day when he needs help, although she has her standards, as she tells Charles’ friend Archie. He replies, “Righto! I do the breakin’, and you do the enterin’. Come along!”

It would be more fun if Margaret weren’t always on the verge of fainting but it is still a great introduction to Miss Silver, who is recommended by Archie as a "sleuthess" although we learn later she is a retired governess.  She is very restrained in this book but becomes less colorless and much warmer as the series continues. Charles is impetuous and human enough to goad Margaret about breaking their engagement but essentially kind: when he realizes how unhappy she is, he is finally able to relinquish his anger, or at least to redirect it to those who caused her misery.

Source: Personal copy. This is my fourteenth book for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.  I know I did not read this series in the proper order because I read She Came Back in high school, then none for many years.   Pre-internet, it would have been hard to even figure out that Grey Mask came first but it is not essential to read the books in order (I never say this!).  Click here for my previous Patricia Wentworth reviews.  

For other reviews of Grey Mask, read Tracy's take at Bitter Tea and Mystery, Cath's at Read-warbler, and Moira's at Clothes in Books.

I have always liked that Tennyson quote and it sometimes pops into my mind at relevant moments at work.  But I don't quote it aloud because what if they decided not to trust me at all?