Rachel Traherne has inherited wealth and property and a number of relatives who consider themselves dependent on her, as they inherited nothing. She also has recently had three attempts made on her life.

Having heard from a friend of Miss Silver and her detective abilities and her discrete style of investigation, Rachel asks Miss Silver to find out who is trying to kill her. The money is the focus and the anonymous threat letters and attempts on her life are accelerating.

Miss Silver comes to stay at Whincliff Edge (the property) to observe the various relatives and their attitudes. Rachel’s sister and family exhibit the most demanding while putting on a “concerned for Rachel” act. There are also four other cousins who are in and out of Whincliff and also have asked for money. Suspects abound!

Dressed in dark coloured dresses, heavy stocking, Jewellery long out of style, conservative shoes and a net on her hair, carrying a fabric bag filled with knitting needles and yarn hides the fact that Miss Silver is an adept detective. She is able to observe the behaviours and piece together who is involved in the attacks.

Along the lines of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, I find the Miss Silver series enjoyable. Set in an earlier time that moves in a slower pace, it is steady in the plot line. ( )

My first Miss Silver and her third. I feel like classic detective pulp is a treasure trove. There's tight pacing, succinct characterisations, and an effective mystery with classic misdirections and some in-your-face clues.

Miss Silver is classically unobtrusive here. She hangs around the background and shows up to expound some wisdom. (Most of the time we are guided through the story via other characters' points of view, a partially omniscient third person voice which I always enjoy.) She uses her retired spinster schoolmistress persona to get people to underestimate her. And of course does the matter-of-fact final flourish of revealing the solution.

I do have Miss Silver 16 and 19 on my tbr, but I reckon I need to start collecting them all. ( )

In this story Miss Maud Silver becomes more involved in the solving of the tale. Because of the dying wish of her rich father Rachel Treherne must re-write her will every year. So who is trying to kill her. All her family are suspects as most or all are always there at the attempts. When Miss Silver arrives at Miss Treherne's home she must solve the mystery before Rachel is killed.
So finally it seems that Miss Maud Silver becomes more involved in the story. Hoping that we will see more of her character as the series continues.
An interesting tale. ( )

not my favorite Miss Silver - difficult to care for the heroine and her pursuers - not well staged ( )

Typical rich English countryside mansion with multiple characters that could be responsible for the mystery. ( )