The Benevent Treasure: A Miss Silver Mystery

The Benevent Treasure is a modern-day fairy tale in classic British mystery idiom. A forbidding castle, a cursed treasure, an unsuspecting ingenue, an evil scheming villainess, a handsome guy, and the prim, modest, utterly ingenious retired governess-turned sleuth are the main elements. The story is literate and well written, and evokes the early twentieth century time in Britain when people said "How do you do?" when they were introduced, when young women were called "Miss," and phrases like "well brought up" were common. All of Wentworth's books have a core of good values and a pervading sense of decorum along with the suspense, some romance, and an entertaining and imaginative plot. Narration is A+

This is one of the more Gothic entrants in the Wentworth series, a shamelessly romantic (in both senses of the word) thriller with a marvelous set of characters. You will have to set aside your disbelief and just enjoy the story.

The convoluted plot.

Many of Wentworth's damsels in distress might deserve to be thrown off cliffs, buried in a chasm or drowned in a tidal pool, because they seem to have no frontal lobes and lack foreseeability, but with that caveat, I find that she has enough variety in her plots to make me keep listening.

I quite enjoy Diana Bishop's performances. She keeps me coming back to hear more.

Not all witches ride a broom.

One has to keep in mind that many of Patricia Wentworth's young female love interests, have the survival instincts of a lemming, but the rest of the characters are quite fascinating, and I just when I think I know where the story is going, Wentworth likes to make a sharp right turn.

Miss. Silver mysteries are a very good choice for times when stress is high as they are never scary. But this one is decidedly different and has some very frightening moments. Miss Olivia and Cara seem much more Agatha Christie in nature and the faintly hinted at scandalous story makes it very exciting. This is not a realistic book but that seems in keeping with the gothic nature of the book. I only wish that Patricia Wentworth had the writing talent of Christie or P. D. James, this book could be a real masterpiece. As it is it was very gripping.

i liked it but too many repetitions about events