The Gazebo

The Gazebo by Patricia Wentworth is another fine Miss Silver mystery. Readers of this blog must by now be tired of my unstinting praise of the work of the late Miss Wentworth but I make no apology for a sunny afternoon, a large glass of something refreshing and a Miss Silver novel is my idea of heaven. In The Gazebo Miss Wentworth introduces us to Mrs Graham, as totaly self-centred a person as it is possible to imagine. She regards her daughter, Althea, as an unpaid servant and keeps her in line by throwing heart attacks at regular intervals. She used this technique five years prior to the opening of this novel to break up Althea's engagement to Nicholas Carey but now Nicholas is back and she fears that the relationship is about to resume. A mysterious newcomer, Mr Blount, arrives and offers to buy their house for twice it's market value causing more friction between mother and daughter but then Mrs Graham is found dead, murdered, in the Gazebo. Will Nicholas Carey be accused of the murder? Where does the brash Mrs Harrison and the decidedly dodgy Fred Worple come in? Have no fear Miss Silver is there to point her old friend Detective Inspector Abbott of Scotland Yard in the right direction.