The Alington Inheritance [Paperback]

Patricia Wentworth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1996

Discovering that she is the rightful heir to the Alington estate but unable to prove it, teen orphan Jenny Hill arranges her employment at Alington to search for evidence and is assisted by Miss Silver when jealous relatives plot against her. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'I always thought them rather better than 'Miss Marple' and certainly very well written.' -- Mary Stewart 'Miss Wentworth's plot is ingenious, her characterization acute, her solution satisfying' -- Scotsman 'Miss Wentworth is a first-rate storyteller' -- Daily Telegraph 'Miss Silver has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot' -- Manchester Evening News 'You can't go wrong with Miss Maud Silver.' -- Observer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Patricia Wentworth was born in India and after writing several romances turned her hand to crime. She wrote dozens of bestselling mysteries before her death in the late Sixties, and was recognised as one of the mistresses of classic crime. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm); Book Club (BCE/BOMC) edition (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061044083
• ISBN-13: 978-0061044083
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,581,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Missing Heiress, July 30, 2000

By 

Alice Kingsbury - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Alington Inheritance (Hardcover)

In this English mystery reprint,Miss Silver reappears to solve a village mystery. Young Jennie Forbes has always thought that she was an illegitimate child. She has recently been employed as a governess by her cousin's family, at Alington House. One day she is alarmed to overhear a conversation between her cousins. She is amazed to hear that her unscrupulous cousin is planning to marry her,so that he can inherit the family property,which actually belongs to her. One night, Jennie decides to run away and is befriended by a kind stranger, who turns out to be a distant relative. She becomes a guest of the young man's aunt and becomes an unsuspecting part of a murder case at Hazeldon Heath. A not so nice young woman is found dead and Jimmy Mottingley, the young man who discovers her body, is arrested for murder. Miss Silver is called upon to discover the truth. The plot is quite unlikely, but interesting. Jennie seems extremely naive, even for a seventeen year old girl.

Wentworth fills the cast of characters with enjoyable people, such as loyal servants, mischievous schoolboys and village gossips. Wentworth is at her best in describing the life of an English village,and always brings romance into the story.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Miss Silver in a thriller about identity and inheritance., December 3, 2006

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Alington Inheritance (Paperback)

As has been pointed out, this is not a very typical Miss Silver outing. For one thing, Miss Silver is a peripheral character at best. She appears late in the book and functions more as a kind of guardian angel for the main character than really as a detective. This makes sense, because the other major deviation in this book is that it is not really a detective novel. There is no whodunnit, no examined life. The murder in the book is peripheral and the reader knows perfectly well who is guilty of the crime. It is the role of the detectives and authority to assemble the necessary evidence in time, and not to uncover new information.

The Alington Inheritance is a very late Miss Silver (the second to last which Wentworth wrote) and so perhaps the structural peculiarities can be forgiven. It does not work as well as some of her more traditionally plotted books, but is still an enjoyable read. As always, Wentworth is best at the characters-- her small town characters are both charming and chilling, always believable. It is worth a read just for those little sketches.

People new to Miss Silver will probably be better served by reading some of the earlier series entries. For established fans, The Alington Inheritance should make an interesting variation on a theme. Recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Charming cosy with a Columbo perspective, January 12, 2006

By 

Bookbrowser (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Alington Inheritance (Paperback)

The other reviewers have done a good job of summarizing the premise, so I won't repeat that. In fact, my main complaint about this little cosy was how many times the author felt she had to explain the backstory to us. Over and over we get this exposition. Over and over again, we hear the story of our little heiress's birth, always concluded with "It's such a sad story, isn't it?" This book could have used a good pruning from an editor.

It's important to note that this book was written back in the 50's, when having your heroine swoon at the slightest "bit of upset" was the norm. From today's perspective, Jenny is a rather delicate little character, one who finds all matters of importance troubling and bewildering and thank goodness she found a handsome dashing cousin and his maiden aunt to take care of her. Even so, she's a likable little thing and I did feel for her in her plight. Yes, her rescue in the middle of the night by this handsome cousin strained all credibility, but this is more a romance novel than a mystery so such contrivances can be forgiven.

These trepidations aside, this is a charming little book. This is my first Patricia Wentworth and I'll look for more by her next time I'm in the local bookstore. She's at her best when she glides into the persona of her more colorful characters, like the impish Artful-Dodgerish boy Dickie, who forgets about a critical bit of paper "because I met up with Stuffy Craddock and Roger Barton, and they'd got a wizard scheme on ... They said there was a wheel sunk in the pond...." There's also quite a bit of cloaked venom in her characterizations, particularly of the village gossips, who figure prominently in the plot. These busybodies are intrusive, obnoxious, and everywhere. I sure hope life in an English village doesn't have to include such creatures.

So if you're looking for a pleasant diversion, especially one that'll give you a quiet glimpse of post-War rural England, pick this one up. You'll find whimsy and charm and dreadful murder on a dark heath. It's such a sad story, isn't it?