Latter End

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 case of marital murder (Manchester Evening News).

Lois has always dreamed of being a Latter. The Latter brothers are both so attractive—nearly as handsome as their stately manor, Latter End. After she spoils her relationship with one brother, Lois succeeds with the other, winning his heart with her good looks and a sizeable fortune from her first marriage. But even after they’ve wed, she never quite fits in with the family. Still, she hardly expects them to kill her.

When the psychic Memnon warns her of murder by poison, Lois laughs it off and so does everyone else, but then, like clockwork, she’s dead. The weapon? Poison, of course. Only the brilliant governess-turned-detective Miss Maud Silver can solve this tantalizing case complicated by the bitterness that infests Latter End.

Patricia Wentworth (1878–1961) was one of the masters of classic English mystery writing. Born in India as Dora Amy Elles, she began writing after the death of her first husband, publishing her first novel in 1910. In the 1920s, she introduced the character who would make her famous: Miss Maud Silver, the former governess whose stout figure, fondness for Tennyson, and passion for knitting served to disguise a keen intellect. Along with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Miss Silver is the definitive embodiment of the English style of cozy mysteries