Vanishing Point: A Miss Silver Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Miss Silver investigates
Review: Two young girls yearn to be free of their evil and cruel aunt's stranglehold on them, but they feel helpless...until suddenly a handsome, kind-hearted stranger shows up, and with Miss Silver, lends a helping hand.

Liked this book because of the unexpected twist of plots and moving descriptions of characters and settings. Enjoyable read.

Rating:
Summary: A wicked aunt, a missing woman, and stolen secrets
Review: Upon the death of her parents in the car accident that left her 10-year-old sister Jenny near death, Rosamund Maxwell had no choice but to ask their only relative, the formidable Lydia Crewe, to take them in. Two years later, that grudging haven has turned into a trap. Jenny's health is almost recovered, but she's been spoiled, and Rosamund's time has been completely absorbed between acting as unpaid secretary and gopher to Lydia as repayment for her help.

Rosamund is free to leave - but she has no money, no job experience and a sister to support. She's "free" to seek a job - when Lydia takes up all her time, in a small town where everyone fears Lydia's cold temper and long memory. If Lydia pays for Jenny's education - packing her off to the first convenient school she can find - life won't be any better; Rosamund will be in the same position, because Lydia won't hesitate to throw both sisters out without ceremony if they don't do her bidding. Jenny, for her part, wants to be a writer, and has sent a muddle of manuscript and photographs to Pemberton's, the publisher. Without prior notice, Craig Lester appears - not to offer publication, but advice to someone who may be promising (and because he took an interest in the photo of Rosamund).

Rosamund has very little private life, apart from neighbourly visits - including those of Nicholas, a young draftsman at a nearby Air Ministry project, whose interest isn't entirely neighbourly. He's got troubles of his own - there's been a leak on the project, and Scotland Yard has discreetly sent Frank Abbott (and through him, Miss Silver) down to Melshire to check things out. For one thing, the maid where Nicholas lives - in her forties and supporting her parents - went for a walk one night and never came back...

Frankly, the separate spy investigation doesn't have much play in this, but rather the disappearance of Maggie Bell (and soon after Miss Silver's arrival, that of a second woman); the Ministry is going crazy trying to find a connection. Even Miss Silver doesn't get much play - she isn't working for any of the protagonists' interests, and only becomes involved in their more personal affairs late in the game, although she does a great deal of good in the end. The resolution of the Rosamund/Lydia/Jenny problem is too pat, although I won't say what it is.

If one doesn't expect too much of Miss Silver, and instead tries to look on this as just another Wentworth novel, it's OK of its kind, except that the various characters in trouble have less control over their fates than usual, and accept it, which doesn't satisfy me. (A little too much deus ex machina, and not in the usual form of Miss Silver's hard work.) The character development is good, and the various puzzles are fairly presented, although they may not turn out to be those expected at first.