Silence in Court by Patricia Wentworth

Title: Silence in Court
Author: Patricia Wentworth
Publication: Hodder & Stoughton, hardcover, originally published in 1945
Genre: Mystery
Setting: WWII London

Description: For three years during the war, Carey Silence worked as a secretary for a Member of Parliament, until a train they were on was machine-gunned by enemy aircraft. The MP died, shielding her body. Mrs. Honoria Maquisten read about the train accident while Carey was recovering in the hospital and, realizing Carey was the granddaughter of a beloved cousin, invited her to stay. Practically penniless, Carey accepted and entered a household of cousins/hangers-on, each expecting an eventual inheritance when “Aunt Honoria” dies. And Honoria enjoys her power over them, revising her will to suit her whims. When she changes the will to include a substantial legacy to Carey and dies mysteriously, Carey is the obvious suspect and winds up being tried for murder. The only person who believes in her innocence is handsome Jeff Stewart from America – but does he really know her well enough to be sure?

My Impression: I kept expecting Miss Silver to appear in this courtroom thriller to save the day, but the sage sleuth does not appear in this rare standalone by Wentworth. Instead, we have a modest heroine a little overwhelmed by her affluent but controlling relative, and whose only defense is to tell the truth:

“Call Carey Silence!”

Her heart began to beat wildly. She had a moment of dreadful panic. The wardress touched her, and she got up obediently. You learned to be obedient in prison. She went down one set of steps and up another, and stood where all those other people had stood, and took the oath as they had taken it.

“I swear by Almighty God to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

The words left a solemn feeling in her mind. Her heart-beats quieted. She looked at Hugo Vane and thought, “That’s all I’ve got to do – just tell the truth.”

Told in flashbacks, Carey’s story leading up to the trial is revealed from school to secretarial training, her job with the MP and the train crash, to recovery in the hospital where two relatives appeared in her life. Jeff Stewart is a handsome young American, a distant cousin, who almost immediately proposes, and Mrs. Maquisten, Carey’s grandmother’s cousin and closest friend. Obviously, a respectable young woman cannot accept support from an unknown male relative so accepting the hospitality of Mrs. Maquisten seems unexceptional. However, quiet Carey attracts resentment from her newly-discovered family and even Mrs. Maquisten’s nephew Dennis, quick to flirt with her when she arrives, is just as quick to believe she is guilty of murder. This is especially painful to Carey, who thought some of her new cousins were also new friends, although you’d think being imprisoned for murder would be so consuming there would not be time for hurt feelings. On the other hand, I suppose there is a lot of time to think about who is loyal and who is not when one is in prison.

Wentworth values steadfast devotion and contrasts the two men in Carey’s life (ignore the fact they barely know her; time can be elastic in fiction): Jeff, rich and confident, who trusts Carey and pays for the best legal team vs. Dennis, an injured RAF pilot who is undoubtedly brave but cannot rely on instinct that Carey could be innocent. I think it is rare in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction to portray an American character so positively, don’t you?

While I much prefer Wentworth’s more intrepid heroines, Carey is recovering from being bombed so I should cut her some slack - she is not ditzy and does exhibit quiet determination, which is a form of strength. This book is very different from Wentworth’s usual mystery, with several twists and turns and a dramatic conclusion.

Source: Personal copy. Silence in Court is my twenty-fourth book for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.