The Case of William Smith

Governess-turned-sleuth Miss Silver looks into the case of a Holocaust survivor who may have enemies to elude.
 
William Smith isn’t sure what his name is, but he knows it isn’t William Smith. That was the name the Nazis gave him in 1942, when he was herded, along with so many others, into one of their nightmarish camps. They did their best to kill him, but he survived.

Now the war is over and he’s back in England, ready to start over. But even a man with no past can’t escape history. William may yet learn his real name—but it could cost him his life in this suspenseful mystery starring an investigator who “has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot” (Manchester Evening News).

Patricia Wentworth (1878–1961) was one of the masters of classic English mystery writing. Born in India as Dora Amy Elles, she began writing after the death of her first husband, publishing her first novel in 1910. In the 1920s, she introduced the character who would make her famous: Miss Maud Silver, the former governess whose stout figure, fondness for Tennyson, and passion for knitting served to disguise a keen intellect. Along with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Miss Silver is the definitive embodiment of the English style of cozy mysteries.