The Listening Eye

If you like the great British classic queens of mystery (Christie, Marsh, Sayers), you'll like Wentworth. Her books are as much novels of manners as they are mysteries. Although some are written as late as the 1960's, her mind set is in the post-war, post-Victorian Britain. This is a clever, intricate plot involving spies and fraud. Wentworth's domestic mysteries have a more authentic ring, but I find this and her other spy/big crime stories all the more refreshing because of the essentially innocent mind-set producing them. The bitterness, irony, and ambivalence of John Le Carre are nowhere to be found in Wentworth. Wentworth is an excellent wordsmith; witty, observant, utterly satisfying to listen to. The narrator is perfect. Thank you, Audible for making these great classic mysteries available in audio!

This book is a good old fashioned mystery. Some might think it's simple (no CSI or forensics), but its a nice alternative when you don't want to think too hard about the "investigation". Just enjoy a house full of people who all want to kill the victim.

Patricia Wentworth has a knack of making her books eminently readable and listenable and entertaining to the end. Whilst her main character through the books, Miss Maud Silver, plays an integral role in the books, she does not dominate them. Patricia uses her main character as the catalist from which the other characters find their way to the truth. This makes all the books very individual as all the "main" characters for each is different.

Patricia has the skill of being able to sway the reader or listener to like or dislike the character under surveillance as the guilt or innocence evolves and the true distinctive qualities are gradually revealed. Makes the books hard to put down.

I would recommend this series to everyone who enjoys a good mystery, particularly those based in the past.

I look forward to Audible to obtaining the rest of the series so that I can listen to more ...!

Diana Bishop is OK as reader. Not 'Good' but passable.

Having downloaded a couple of the Miss S series, I find them actually much more enjoyable than a well known contempory. Christie's Miss M. True.

One of the great things about these older mysteries is the lack of blood soaked graphics. Murder is murder after all. So a diamond heist, a bus fatality and country house parties with the odd inspired painter and a femme fatale and her lovers is just the setting for some serious skulduggery. Add a little of the lighter side of 'heart cockle warming' and you have a good few hours of engaging listening.

This book is like most Patricia Wentworth books. Calming and cozy without a startling ending. This ending was pretty easy to figure out but nevertheless I Iiked it. There was an interesting subplot about one of the characters nude photos which I imagine was terribly shocking for the 50's. Of course it is dealt with in a very careful way because Patricia Wentworth is even more old fashioned than Christie.