Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Girl in the Cellar cover art

The Girl in the Cellar

By: Patricia Wentworth
Narrated by: Diana Bishop
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith cover art
The Yellow Brick Road cover art
The Annam Jewel cover art
The Red Lacquer Case cover art
The Amazing Chance cover art
The Black Cabinet cover art
A Man Lay Dead cover art
Shadow on the Water cover art
The Man in the Queue cover art
The Theft of the Iron Dogs cover art
The Crime at Black Dudley cover art
Murder at the Dolphin Hotel: A Gripping Cozy Historical Mystery cover art
Murder on the Lusitania cover art
The White Cottage Mystery cover art
Say It With Poison, Mitchell and Markby Village, Book 1 cover art
Maisie Dobbs cover art

Summary

Miss Silver helps a woman with no memory reconstruct a terrible crime

She awakes in a dark place. A young woman with a shattered memory, she knows neither who she is nor how she came to be in this abandoned house. All she possesses is a faint sense that someone is lying dead at the foot of the stairs. Horrifyingly, she is correct. In the cellar lies a young woman, her body broken, her head split, her life undone by a revolver’s shell. The amnesiac flees and finally has a stroke of luck: She meets Maud Silver.

A dowdy governess turned daring detective, Miss Silver sees immediately that something is wrong. She comforts the confused young woman, and coaxes out of her what little story she can tell. The memory of the body sets Miss Silver on a fantastic adventure - the last written by Patricia Wentworth, and one of the most thrilling of them all.

©1961 Patricia Wentworth (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Girl in the Cellar

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    53
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    57
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    49
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    6

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Amnesia and Silver again

What did you like best about The Girl in the Cellar? What did you like least?

I always like books in which the main character is battling through amnesia and this story has plenty of that, however I did find the plot pulled together very tenuously right at the end and hung on too many chance encounters of critical characters.

What other book might you compare The Girl in the Cellar to, and why?

The case of William smith, because of the amnesia in both stories.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The pace of narration could be quicker when it isn't Miss Silver speaking.

Was The Girl in the Cellar worth the listening time?

Oh yes.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Blah!

I Think that this must be an early Miss Silver book because it is really rather blah! She is only very incidentally in it in about four chapters! The other lead character (Frederick), is really rather pathetic! I don’t understand why? You get the initial impression of him that he is potentially some kind of spy or undercover agent, yet when he is having discussions with people he is really rather petulant! The lead female character, Ann, has lost her memory - it doesn’t make the book any more interesting, in fact it makes the story quite tedious.

Then there are the Scotland Yard people we know one of them from other Silver books, but they are also shadow characters and there appears to be very little point to their inclusion. They certainly do not take any action in the proceedings until the last two chapters. In all, it’s a very unsatisfactory, pedestrian, blind story and when you think about all of the coincidences and accidental meetings, it just seems a bit too unbelievable.

Add to that the very loose ending and you walk away thinking that this book is a bit blah! I do not recommend this book.

The narration is superb as always.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

I love Miss Silver but...

This is so dull! The main character has lost her memory which means that things are repeated endlessly and in great detail. The other main character is some sort of spy which apparently negates the need for a back story as everything is "hush hush".
The story is very thin and based on one unbelievable coincidence after another and Miss Silver barely makes an appearance. I can only think that Patricia Wentworth's editor was on holiday when this was published and nobody else dared to say it was way below parr.
Hurrah for Diana Bishop and her excellent reading but even she can't breathe life into this one!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
  • D
  • 25-02-18

more of a romance than a detective novel

and very old fashioned at that. Not one of the best Miss Silver novels, the plot motive was too far fetched, and a bit of a cheat really.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

If you want a gripping, chilling story, read on…

This is the best Patricia Wentworth book I’ve listened to. Different to the others in terms of the usual detecting team playing second fiddle to the main character this time. A clever, can’t put the book down, kind of read. It’s got murder, betrayal, uncovering the truth, joining the dots, true love, and Miss Silver - what’s not to love?! The narrator is first class, her diction clear and well paced. The character definitions are so cleverly dealt with, and the sense of urgency, of a need to make sense of a bewildering situation, uppermost. With twists aplenty, and both joyful and upright, as well as downright dirty, rotten scoundrel characters in this mysterious case, you’ll be assured of an amazing adventure to find not only the truth, but also that forever kind of love.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting plot

I enjoyed the story and was kept guessing. But the plot was reminiscent of a Sherlock Holmes’s story. The unfolding of the tale was interesting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • TK
  • 22-04-23

A bit on boring side

I have listened to almost all of Miss Silver stories. The narration is perfect as always. I like the plot itself, and the ending is quite unpredictable. However, the story is a bit boring as there is really just one main character. What I missed was much more presence of Miss Silver, which made the book quite less enjoyable for me than others.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Worst of Wentworth

I love a Patricia Wentworth- for all their little flaws, and the tendency to repetition- sometime ad nauseam (‘Miss Silver coughed’ must appear on almost every other page) - the books are usually great light entertainment. The country house scenes, the charming and innocent young heroine, the predictable romance after an escape down a few dark corridors- pursued by an embittered old maid as like as not- it’s all good cosy crime.
But this one is truly awful- the main characters are not really characters, they are so 2
dimensional, and the plot - if you can call it a plot- is silly beyond belief. Not worth bothering with, even for a real Miss Silver fan.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not one of her best

This series,set firmly in the forties and fifties,with the attitudes and bias of the times, is enjoyable. However,they are not all of the same standard and this one is disjointed and has some terrible plot gaps. Miss Silver does less "sleuthing" and there is the obligatory romance each book contains. Inspector Abbott is almost static.
Despite this,the narrator does an excellent job of maintaining tension and narrative.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Certainly the best and most intriguing of the Miss Silver books but sadly the last

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!