The Brading Collection (Miss Silver Mystery Book 17)
£1.90
Lewis Brading loves only one thing – his collection of jewels. Not only are the gems extremely valuable but also every piece has a fascinating and bloody history attached to it.
However Lewis is a frightened and difficult man who sees thieves around every corner. When he asks Miss Silver for help, she gives him some sound advice and turns him away. A few days later, she receives a letter from him, again asking for help. But it is too late. In the morning paper is the news of his murder.
Lewis Brading loves only one thing – his collection of jewels. Not only are the gems extremely valuable but also every piece has a fascinating and bloody history attached to it. However Lewis is a frightened and difficult man who sees thieves around every corner. When he asks Miss Silver for help, she gives him some sound advice and turns him away. A few days later, she receives a letter from him, again asking for help. But it is too late. In the morning paper is the news of his murder.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton, New e. edition (5 Dec. 2005) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 537 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 271 pages |
by jude
The Miss Silver books take you back to another time, she solves the mysteries in a calm and thoughtful way. She and Miss Marple would get on well!
by Vickers
I have only recently discovered the Miss Silver stories and am working my way through them.
However, I would consider this to be one of her weakest – the characters are at her most typical (and therefore somewhat wooden and utterly predictable).
As ever, the novel is an interesting time capsule and offers a valuable viewpoint on life at that time. However, the plot was weak and it was instantly obvious not only ‘whodunnit’ but ‘how’.
It won’t detract me from continuing my exploration of the series, but if you are choosing between this book and another unread Miss Silver – I would opt for the other.
by Kindle Customer
All is well with the world when experience the reassuring presence of Miss Silver. Awful to think how many innocent people would have been executed if had not been for this incredible lady. In this book particularly the evidence was damning for the chief male character but once again, Miss Silver came to the rescue. An extremely clever plot.
by ceric7
A most enjoyable outing for Miss Silver in a tale of murder, misunderstanding and blackmail set in post-WW2 England.
The eponymous Brading Collection is formed of jewels which have rather creepy, criminous associations and its unlikeable owner is found murdered. Miss Silver is called in to assist her former pupil, Chief Constable Randal March and Inspector Crisp, both of whom regular readers have encountered in earlier instalments.
As ever, Miss Silver’s credo is clear: “I have been engaged in many such cases and have worked in harmony with the police, but it is not my practice to work for the police. In a murder case, as in any other, I can have only one object, the bringing to light of the truth. It is only the guilty who have to fear this, the innocent are protected.”
This episode is more lightly spiced with romance than is customary and the “hero and heroine”, Charles and Stacy, are, respectively, less handsome and stiff-lipped and pretty and wet than is usual with this writer.
3.5 stars.
by Richmonde
One of her weakest? I haven’t read many Miss Silvers, but I think this is one of the best. Unusual set-up jut post-war, with large houses sensibly turned into a) flats and b) a country club. In these settings the moneyed live much as before. (And living in a large country house with staff must have been very like living in a hotel.) But what if you want the lifestyle but don’t have the dosh? The characters are appealing, convincing and enjoyably flawed, and include two lovers sundered by a misapprehension. Miss Silver manages to knit several pink vests. Those who complain Golden Age mystery characters are cardboard and have no emotions or inner lives may have to change their tune.
by GrandmaE
I have always loved Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver stories but as she has written a lot I am pleased to be able to get the ones I haven’t read.
by eddie
Had to keep reading and reading!
by Damaskcat
Lewis Brading approaches Miss Silver to ask her to look it into what he considers strange going on in his home. He is a wealthy man and has a large collection of jewellery with macabre associations. Warne House has been turned into a club but Lewis lives in a very secure annex off the main building which has only one door and no windows because it is built into a hillside. He feels he has been drugged at night and that someone else has been in the annex. Miss Silver does not like Lewis Brading because she senses he is a cruel and manipulative person. She warns him that the way he is behaving could bring about his downfall and refuses the case.
Lewis returns home unhappy with Miss Silver’s comments. A short time later Miss Silver receives a letter from Lewis Brading saying the situation is now urgent and she can mae her own fee but she must come down and try and find out what is going on. She then opens her morning paper and reads the report of Lewis Brading’s murder. An unlikeable corpse and a collection of suspects in a relatively confined environment provides a complex mystery for Maud Silver to unravel with the aid of Chief Constable Randall March.
I enjoyed this mystery because it provided a number of suspects all with credible motives, the means to commit the murder and the opportunity to do so. The reader has to try and work out who is hiding what and who is telling the truth but maybe not the whole truth and who is telling outright lies. This is an intriguing puzzle with some particularly unpleasant characters.