The Watersplash

Rating:
Summary: Suspicious will followed by blackmail - and drownings
Review: A watersplash is a shallow ford in a stream.
- author's note

This case follows the Rejected Client Variation of the classical Silver format: after a few chapters of character development, an unsympathetic character - here Clarice Dean - consults private inquiry agent Maud Silver, who refuses the case. Clarice, a freelance nurse, has deliberately arranged a return to the village of Greenings, seeking some kind of opportunity, but what? Is she interested in committing matrimony with one of the Random family - or blackmail? Maud Silver at least considers the latter possibility, warning Clarice against its dangers - a warning that other characters could take to heart.

Five years ago, Edward Random fell for Verona Grey, but the affair ended in an epic quarrel with Edward's uncle James, followed by Edward's stormy departure and stony silence - no visits, no communication. Eventually news came of Edward's death, although James wouldn't tell even Edward's beloved stepmother Emmeline the details. The family won't say whether James removed Edward from his will after the quarrel or only after Edward's "death". James, as the eldest of three brothers, had the family estate and a decent amount of money; Arnold, the youngest at sixty-odd, also had a comfortable slice of the family pie. Only Edward's ne'er-do-well father was penniless - there's just enough for Emmeline to live on, since James let her live rent-free in the Hall's south lodge.

But the village hums with gossip now thatEdward has returned; Arnold shows no signs whatever of re-dividing the family pile, and Edward doesn't see fit to say where he was or what he was doing. Edward's long absence gives Wentworth a natural opening for introducing us to the cast - he meets Susan Wayne by chance at the train station, and since she's going to be cataloging the Hall's library, she asks him to fill her in on the situation so she won't say the wrong thing. They're friends - she had a crush on him when he left, and she's still close to Emmeline.

Lord Burlingham, the next nearest big landowner, is no friend of Arnold's; he offers Edward an estate management job. Arnold reacts by threatening to evict Emmeline. Wentworth's usually skilled character development shines here. For instance, Arnold *tries* to threaten his sister-in-law with cold dignity, but he can't maintain it in the face of Emmeline's clear perception of his motives, and embarrasses himself by losing control. Lord Burlingham, far from being from old money, is self-made, and there's a distinct impression that he was granted his title because the powers-that-be in the House of Commons felt he'd better take his outspokenness elsewhere. He's sharp - when he wants to quash the gossip about where Edward was, he walks right up to Emmeline in the fish queue and congratulates her in a carrying voice on Edward's new job. :)

Although Clarice gave Maud Silver a false name, she gave enough information that as an exercise, Maud writes to an old friend - Ruth Ball, the wife of Greenings' vicar - and verifies Clarice's identity. When the papers report the second suspicious drowning in Greenings in a week - that of Clarice Dean - Maud accepts Ruth's invitation to visit the vicarage on holiday. (Only much later on does Edward Random retain her in her professional capacity.)

A good story, with an unusual amount of attempted blackmail, some of it obviously(?) on trumped-up grounds. William Jackson, as First Blackmailer, is an example of a recurring type in Wentworth stories, a blue-collar man - in this case, one of Random's footmen - who married an older woman for her savings, then turned out to be a very bad husband indeed. Jackson drinks enough to claim he witnessed a will that never turned up after James Random died. That same night, Jackson drowns in the watersplash. Then Mildred Blake, a cold, vindictive woman who was once engaged to Arnold, steps in as Second Blackmailer, pointing out just how bad all this looks. Annie Jackson, for her part, haunts the area of the watersplash afterward, her last remaining savings now safe from being poured down William's throat, as is the cottage bought with *her* money but in *his* name.

Inspector Bury isn't a local man, but he's young, keen, and married to a local girl; his boss hands the case over to the yard because while nobody's above the law, there's no reason for the *local* police to have to paw through the dirty linen of the Randoms on one side and Lord Burlingham on the other. Maudie's old friends Abbott and Lamb take over.

Wentworth recombined various ingredients of this book a few years later to create _Poison in the Pen_, but _The Watersplash_ is a stronger story, as the romantic leads are under suspicion and in danger. The love affair aspects of Edward's life are in doubt, as are his financial prospects, and he figures as prime suspect, since Clarice had let it be known he was courting her. Most unusually, Maud lays a trap with live bait, to tempt the killer into going to the well - or the watersplash - once too often.

Rating:
Summary: The cry of the blackmailer is heard in an English village.
Review: Miss Silver always gives good advice--and afterwards, she has as consolation that she did try to help. "Don't blackmail murderers," is one of her prime mottoes. But no one ever listens, thank goodness, and we get another story of murder, young love, and village characters.

Rating:
Summary: The cry of the blackmailer is heard in an English village.
Review: Miss Silver always gives good advice--and afterwards, she has as consolation that she did try to help. "Don't blackmail murderers," is one of her prime mottoes. But no one ever listens, thank goodness, and we get another story of murder, young love, and village characters.

Rating:
Summary: A good case for Maud Silver
Review: This is the case where we encounter not only the watersplash but also a "yew tunnel" that is said to be over eight hundred years old. Can you imagine such a thing existing in the USA? When Miss Silver is shown the tunnel by Mrs. Ball, she pays it not a single thought, for her mind is elsewhere, trying to work out the complications of the terror running through the humble village of Greenings. "There is a lot of tea and chatter," the Inspector allows. In these cases we see the social snobbery that was Wentworth's speciality, prismed through the acutely keen gaze of Miss Silver, a relic from the Victorian era even more imaginative and superstitious than Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. "Miss Ora fingered the pinke edge of her shawl. 'Very interesting things can happen in a village,' she said. 'And you get to know about them, which is what makes them so interesting.'" This story THE WATERSPLASH is a pale imitation of Christie's similarly plotted EASY TO KILL, but it has charms of its own.

Rating:
Summary: The Prodigal Son creates a crisis
Review: When Edward returns when his family thought he was dead, there is rampant speculation on where he has been. When Edward refuses to tell anyone where he had been, the talk is that he was in trouble, maybe even jail. His uncle Arnold has inherited a large estate bcause James Random thought Edward was dead. But Clarice, his nurse, knows that there was another will, one that benefits Edward. She knows James Random had a dream that Edward is alive. Clarice wants Edward, so she keeps the information to herself hoping to use it to snare Edward into romantic gratitude. But then one of the witnesses to the will is killed in the watersplash and Clarice is nervous. Providence brings in Miss Silver and Clarice is warned not to use any information for personal gain. She does not listen and is found dead in the watersplash.
The solution to the mystery is another twist and very unexpected. The love story between the bitter Edward and Susan is a pleasure to read.