Grey Mask (1928) by Patricia Wentworth

🎭 While I have read a few Patricia Wentworth before, I have yet to start her Miss Silver series. And this time, I prefer to start from the beginning, where Miss Silver was first introduced in Grey Mask. She doesn't, however, appear very often in it. Indeed, it feels like Miss Silver is just a background; like an omniscient protector of the hero and heroine, who involve much more in the actions. It all begins when Charles Moray returns to England, after being abroad for eight years, as a result of being 'jilted at the altar' by his fiancée Margaret. He visits his now abandoned home, which he inherited, only to find that a group of secret criminals have been using it as rendezvous place. The leader is a man with a grey mask. But what astonishes him most, is when he sees the woman he still loves, Margaret, comes and reporting to the grey masked man. 🎭 From his eavesdropping, Charles gets that a girl called Margot is in danger, should some certificates surface. What it is all about, he doesn't understand. What he cares most is why Margaret is involved in it. Apparently, this Margot is a spoiled girl of seventeen, who has just been orphaned after her wealthy father died - drown - at sea, intestate. Moreover, there was either birth certificate nor wedding certificate to be found - or so the lawyer told Margot; that she was literally penniless. Her cousin, to whom the estate would be legally handed down, proposed to marry her. And one the frightful thought on that, she runs away. As you can imagine, she stumbled into Margaret's (and Charles') care and protection, which made them all entangled into this plot. And it was at this point that Charles Moray acquired Miss Maud Silver's service. 🎭 As you can see, Miss Silver's portion of the story is meager. However, we (as well as Charles and co.) always feel her protecting presence. She knows almost everything, even before Charles reports things to her. Sometimes about things that Charles doesn't want to disclose to her. She was portrayed as a lady with her knitting; a woman with brain, who does all the deduction needed, but throws the dirty work, so to speak, to men. She once asked Charles to follow a suspect; and imagining that a detective asking his/her client to do the work he/she supposed to do, was quite hilarious to me. 🎭 As a debut of a series, Grey Mask is a wonderful one. It has the right amount of actions, light-heartedness, mystery, and a pleasant twist with quite surprising villain at the end. Though Charles and Margaret's love story felt rather Victorian, I was entertained enough by Margot's character; a naïve (to naïve for her own good) young girl who always give others consternation, but surprisingly could - mostly by luck - extricate herself from some dangers she had encountered. Her line was so entertaining, and lent this book the light-heartedness, which otherwise would be rather gloomy with that Victorian-ish romance - and plot. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2026 hosted by Carol @ Carol's Notebook

The Mystery of the Peacock's Eye (1928) by Brian Flynn

💎 It all began at the Hunt Ball at Westhampton, where it was rumored that a royal personage would attend. A mysterious man, wanted to be known as Mr. X, arrived, danced, and infatuated by the pretty Sheila Delaney. Then a string of incidents took place.

💎 Private Investigator Anthony Bathurst was hired by the Crown Prince of Clorania to solve a blackmail case. While almost at the same time, Chief Detective-Inspector Bannister - only months before retirement - abruptly ended his holiday over a murder of a girl at a dentist office. One thing that connects the three events is that the parties concerned were all related to more than one of the events. It also means that Bathurst and Bannister must work together to solve both cases.

💎 This is a classic Golden Age mystery, ingeniously crafted by Brian Flynn. At first it seemed like a simple case, a murder by injecting cyanide to a dentist patient while the dentist was locked at another room. But with each revelation, the case got more complicated. First of all, the murdered girl wasn't the girl they supposed at first, but another. On what purpose did the murderer use the false identity? Then there's the bank notes the murdered girl withdrew from the bank, which were missing.

💎 What about the titular Peacock's Eye? You've guessed that it has something to do with some Oriental jewelry, right? That made up the final complication of the case. And the murderer? That's the beautiful plot twist of this book. You'll have several suspects along the way, but I doubt it if you'll ever guessed it correctly. Unlike Christie, who often scattered clues and hints blatantly throughout a book, Flynn put it there so subtly that you mightn't have noticed it at all. On the whole, it's a totally engrossing story with a clever and satisfying twist.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2