Mystery and Crime Wentworth, Patricia: Fool Errant. V1. 25 November 2012

[Pulpmeister]

One of Patricia Wentworth's light adventure/mystery stories, with two young, naive people getting tangled in a web of deception but winning through at the end.

The first of the Benbow Smith stories, of which there were four in all. Smith is a senior figure in some un-named British Government department, possibly Intelligence, who helps nudge the young people in the right direction. He has a vociferous parrot named Ananias.

It is evident, looking at the heroines of her novels, that Ms Wentworth intentionally moved from aristocracy (A Marriage Under the Terror) and the Indian Raj (The Devil's Wind) to the lower- and middle-middle classes some time after WW1, and changed her style to match.