WOMEN OF MYSTERY: PATRICIA WENTWORTH

            I began this series of female mystery authors, now up to #26, with the idea of focusing on classic, contemporary and indie writers in rotation. I need to include Patricia Wentworth, a woman largely forgotten today although she was incredibly popular and productive during her career and her books are still in publication.

            Wentworth began by writing historical fiction in 1910 then jumped into the genre now known as cozy mystery initiating many of the familiar tropes: the amateur female sleuth, the upper-class clients, the English village setting and knitting.  

            She published over seventy novels with over thirty devoted to the detecting skills of Miss Maude Silver. The Grey Mask is the first in that series. Click on the cover for a sample.