Twenty-year-old orphan Chloe Dane has always loved her family’s ancestral home, Danesborough, but since the family fell on hard times, the house has been bought by a wealthy distant relative, Mitchell Dane, whom Chloe has never met. It comes as a big surprise to her, then, when Mr Dane tells her he would like to adopt her and make her his heir. Chloe is quite happy with her current life – she’s working as a dressmaker’s assistant and has plenty of admirers, although she’s not ready to accept any of them yet – and she tells Mr Dane she’s not interested in his money. That doesn’t stop him from leaving everything to her anyway when he dies unexpectedly soon afterwards.
Arriving at Danesborough, Chloe is immediately drawn to the black cabinet in the drawing room, which she remembers from her childhood. Before his death, Mr Dane had told her that the cabinet contained a safe and had sworn her to secrecy before telling her the combination to open it. When she opens the safe, Chloe finds some items that could be dangerous if they fall into the wrong hands – and when she discovers that the late Mr Dane’s secretary, Leonard Wroughton, is desperate to access the safe’s contents, she resolves to do whatever it takes to stop him.
This is my second book for 1925 Club, hosted by Simon and Karen this week, and was another great choice. I found it very similar to The Red Lacquer Case, published the previous year, which I also enjoyed, but the heroine in this one is more engaging. Chloe is a lovely person, principled, passionate and courageous – but at the same time, like Sally in The Red Lacquer Case, she’s too trusting, which leads her into danger over and over again. It’s frustrating, but also adds excitement to the plot – and, to be fair, I couldn’t always decide who could and couldn’t be trusted either.
Mr Wroughton is an obvious villain, along with his accomplice, the mysterious ‘Stran’, whose true identity isn’t known until the end of the book. However, there are other characters who are more ambiguous. Michael and Martin are both love interests of Chloe’s and it’s clear, at least to the reader, that one of them is trying to help her while the other is working against her. The question is, which is which? I was impressed by how cleverly Wentworth leads us to suspect first one, then the other, so that I found myself changing my mind several times throughout the book!
I thoroughly enjoyed The Black Cabinet, my only problem being that I couldn’t understand why Chloe didn’t just go straight to the police when she discovered what was inside the safe. I suppose the answer is that there would have been no story otherwise! I’m glad I picked such a fun book for 1925 Club. I’m looking forward to reading more by Patricia Wentworth as I’ve read very little of her work so far.
She Reads Novels 
This does sound like a fun read – I’m glad you chose it for the Club!
It was very entertaining!
I can’t think what I read by Wentworth before, but I know I read something that didn’t really impress me. This one sounds a lot better.
I’ve only read three of her books so far, but this one is the best.
I read one of her Miss Silver books but wasn’t inclined to read another.
Patricia Wentworth is an author I have books from in my Kindle but forget about! Thanks for sharing to remind me 😊😊
I hope you enjoy them!
This does sound like a great choice! My library doesn’t have many of Wentworth’s books, so I haven’t read any…but this one sounds like one I would really enjoy. 😀
Yes, I’m really glad I read this one for 1925 Club – it was so much fun.
Glad you enjoyed this one – I loved it too! Chloe is such fun, and I agree about the clever way Wentworth kept making us think one of her lovers was the bad guy, and then the other, and back again! I haven’t read much of her yet, but so far I’ve enjoyed these standalones more than her Miss Silver books.
I’m glad you loved this one too! Yes, I couldn’t make my mind up about Chloe’s lovers – it was so cleverly done! I’ve enjoyed all three of the Wentworth books I’ve read so far, but haven’t tried the Miss Silver series yet.
That does sound fun – my friend Ali has just read it and said I’d like it and I think she’s right! I have The Red Lacquer Case TBR and might read it for Dean Street December …
It’s very entertaining and has a great heroine! The Red Lacquer Case is good fun as well.