oriole22's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
3.0
In the weeks leading up to Christmas Mrs. Jeffries and the rest of the servants at Inspector Witherspoon's residence are getting ready for the holidays when their master is handed a rather unpleasant Yuletide gift. The wealthy Stephen Whitfield had been hosting a seasonal dinner of his own his sister-in-law and a few friends when he fell dead into his plate of soup. Whitfield just finished telling those gathered that he had a very special announcement. He then turned red, began to shake, told the guests they had all turned blue and something was wrong with the lights before falling forward onto the table. They are all shocked, but believe he has suffered from a heart attack until the doctor who had been quickly summoned from across the street announced that he believed it was poison and that the police must be called in.
It is soon established that the cause of death was a liberal dose of dried fox gloves leaves in the bottle of Bordeaux brought as a gift by Maria and Basil Farringdon, two of the guests. Whitfield had been the only one to drink the wine--everyone else sticking to the usual sherry before dinner. But Whitfield had guzzled the stuff down like a man who'd just crossed the desert with no liquid refreshment at hand. At first glance you'd think the Farringdons the likely culprits, but it winds up that anyone in the house could have dumped an envelope full of dried bits into the wine at any time. The butler had opened the wine and left it on the stand in the drawing room. Then Whitfield led his guests off to admire his Christmas decorations and everybody milled about in such a way that nobody knew where anybody else was for sure at any given time. It's all a muddle for Inspector Witherspoon--everyone had an opportunity, but the motives keep fading away like snow flakes on a warm window. His superior officer is being pressured to have the case solved by Christmas and so Witherspoon is pressured as well. He just doesn't think his "inner voice" (as his housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries has called it) is going to speak up this time.
But his secret weapon is at work--the secret weapon he doesn't know he has. Mrs. Jeffries, Mrs. Goodge (the cook), Smythe (who handles the horses), Betsy (the maid), and Wiggins (the footman) are all on the case...along with his good friends and neighbors Mrs. Luty Bell Crookshank and her butler Hatchett. Each of these characters have their own sources and methods and can usually collect enough gossip and clues to help Mrs. Jeffries unobtrusively direct Witherspoon's inner voice to reveal the solution. The group have a tough case this time....and Witherspoon is on his way to meeting where the case will most likely be reassigned to another inspector when light finally breaks and the inner voice can speak.
These Victorian era mysteries are very light and fluffy and this one was just what I needed at the moment. A little bit of holiday festivity thrown in with the cozy little investigations of the servants. I did spot the murderer and how exactly it all happened before Mrs. Jeffries, but I didn't mind. It was nice to visit these old friends (I've read several of these over the years). A good solid read for when you don't want anything too taxing.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
It is soon established that the cause of death was a liberal dose of dried fox gloves leaves in the bottle of Bordeaux brought as a gift by Maria and Basil Farringdon, two of the guests. Whitfield had been the only one to drink the wine--everyone else sticking to the usual sherry before dinner. But Whitfield had guzzled the stuff down like a man who'd just crossed the desert with no liquid refreshment at hand. At first glance you'd think the Farringdons the likely culprits, but it winds up that anyone in the house could have dumped an envelope full of dried bits into the wine at any time. The butler had opened the wine and left it on the stand in the drawing room. Then Whitfield led his guests off to admire his Christmas decorations and everybody milled about in such a way that nobody knew where anybody else was for sure at any given time. It's all a muddle for Inspector Witherspoon--everyone had an opportunity, but the motives keep fading away like snow flakes on a warm window. His superior officer is being pressured to have the case solved by Christmas and so Witherspoon is pressured as well. He just doesn't think his "inner voice" (as his housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries has called it) is going to speak up this time.
But his secret weapon is at work--the secret weapon he doesn't know he has. Mrs. Jeffries, Mrs. Goodge (the cook), Smythe (who handles the horses), Betsy (the maid), and Wiggins (the footman) are all on the case...along with his good friends and neighbors Mrs. Luty Bell Crookshank and her butler Hatchett. Each of these characters have their own sources and methods and can usually collect enough gossip and clues to help Mrs. Jeffries unobtrusively direct Witherspoon's inner voice to reveal the solution. The group have a tough case this time....and Witherspoon is on his way to meeting where the case will most likely be reassigned to another inspector when light finally breaks and the inner voice can speak.
These Victorian era mysteries are very light and fluffy and this one was just what I needed at the moment. A little bit of holiday festivity thrown in with the cozy little investigations of the servants. I did spot the murderer and how exactly it all happened before Mrs. Jeffries, but I didn't mind. It was nice to visit these old friends (I've read several of these over the years). A good solid read for when you don't want anything too taxing.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
plantbirdwoman's review
2.0
The first of the Mrs. Jeffries Victorian mysteries series was published in 1997 and Emily Brightwell has churned one out every few months since then. Twenty-two of the books had preceded Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St. Stephen, (published 2007) the one that I just read, and there have been at least a half-dozen written since then! Yes, Ms. Brightwell is quite prolific. Not particularly original or interesting, but certainly prolific.
This is the first of the series that I have read, and, obviously, a lot of exposition and water have flowed under the bridge since the beginning. This entry somewhat supposes that the reader has a familiarity with the characters and is invested in their stories. I wasn't, and that made the book less enthralling than it might have been. It is the selection of my local Mystery Book Club for the month of December and that was my excuse for reading it.
Mrs. Jeffries is the housekeeper for Inspector Witherspoon of Scotland Yard. The unmarried inspector has a household staff of five people to take care of his needs! (Seems a bit excessive, doesn't it? Oh, well...) The thing is, this household staff - unbeknownst to the inspector - investigate all of his murder cases right along with him and they solve the cases and then manage to pass the solution along to him so that he can shine before Scotland Yard's brass. As a result, Witherspoon has a reputation as one of the most successful investigators in Scotland Yard.
As we meet the characters in this particular entry of the series, it is nearing Christmas and the household is getting ready for the season when their inspector is suddenly presented with a murder to solve. It turns out to be an upper class twit who has died. He died at a dinner party in his own home after drinking some wine that had been brought by a couple who were among his guests for the evening. The investigation quickly reveals that the twit, Stephen Whitfield, was not much loved by any of his guests, but did any of them actually have sufficient motive to do him in?
The household staff jump into action and parallel the investigation by the inspector and his constable. This inspector, it turns out, needs all the help he can get and he gets plenty, from his staff, his constable, the doctor who is called to the death scene. They all seem extremely devoted to the man and eager to make sure he succeeds. I have no idea what the impetus of all these warm feelings might be.
The situation reminded me of Upstairs, Downstairs or even of Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt or William and Hester Monk. Unfortunately for Brightwell, her writing suffers from such comparisons.
Brightwell strews clues and red herrings plentifully throughout the book and I found that I was able to sort through them and solve the mystery long before both the professional and amateur investigators in the book. There's a certain satisfaction in that, but actually, I like my mysteries to be a bit more challenging.
This is very light reading and will not tie the reader down for very long at all. It's the sort of thing that might be good for a plane trip, but not something that one really wants to burrow into and think about overly much.
This is the first of the series that I have read, and, obviously, a lot of exposition and water have flowed under the bridge since the beginning. This entry somewhat supposes that the reader has a familiarity with the characters and is invested in their stories. I wasn't, and that made the book less enthralling than it might have been. It is the selection of my local Mystery Book Club for the month of December and that was my excuse for reading it.
Mrs. Jeffries is the housekeeper for Inspector Witherspoon of Scotland Yard. The unmarried inspector has a household staff of five people to take care of his needs! (Seems a bit excessive, doesn't it? Oh, well...) The thing is, this household staff - unbeknownst to the inspector - investigate all of his murder cases right along with him and they solve the cases and then manage to pass the solution along to him so that he can shine before Scotland Yard's brass. As a result, Witherspoon has a reputation as one of the most successful investigators in Scotland Yard.
As we meet the characters in this particular entry of the series, it is nearing Christmas and the household is getting ready for the season when their inspector is suddenly presented with a murder to solve. It turns out to be an upper class twit who has died. He died at a dinner party in his own home after drinking some wine that had been brought by a couple who were among his guests for the evening. The investigation quickly reveals that the twit, Stephen Whitfield, was not much loved by any of his guests, but did any of them actually have sufficient motive to do him in?
The household staff jump into action and parallel the investigation by the inspector and his constable. This inspector, it turns out, needs all the help he can get and he gets plenty, from his staff, his constable, the doctor who is called to the death scene. They all seem extremely devoted to the man and eager to make sure he succeeds. I have no idea what the impetus of all these warm feelings might be.
The situation reminded me of Upstairs, Downstairs or even of Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt or William and Hester Monk. Unfortunately for Brightwell, her writing suffers from such comparisons.
Brightwell strews clues and red herrings plentifully throughout the book and I found that I was able to sort through them and solve the mystery long before both the professional and amateur investigators in the book. There's a certain satisfaction in that, but actually, I like my mysteries to be a bit more challenging.
This is very light reading and will not tie the reader down for very long at all. It's the sort of thing that might be good for a plane trip, but not something that one really wants to burrow into and think about overly much.
biddywink's review
4.0
Oh, listening to a Mrs. Jeffries mystery is so fun and soothing. In this one, the victim murdered himself. He tried killing off the remaining members of a tontine created at the 10 members' birth by their parents. Though made illegal after it was created, the tontine still existed as an annuity. The victim poisoned 4 members by gifting (hehe German joke) them a special port he imported as a cask and re-bottled to give away. When the tontine members were down to 3, including himself, he tried to off the other 2 at once. Instead, the wife of one of them played a trick on him, intending to humiliate him. She re-labeled the bottle with an expensive Bordeaux's old label and gave it to the victim as Christmas gift in return for the unwanted port gift. The idiot didn't know the difference between the port and Bordeaux, so gulped it down--not even noticing the bunch of crumbled dried leaves of foxglove in it, the ones he himself added to it! Anyway, moral of the story: don't piss off your friend's wife. But seriously, it was another enjoyable story. I am trying not to let Mrs. Jeffries increasingly frequent self-doubt to bother me. I understand that it is an easy tension-builder for plot, but this time it was fairly drawn out. I stuck with it, though, and really it wasn't so bad. And it seems like Betsy and Smythe will FINALLY get married. I'm looking forward to the next audio installment.
darylreads's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
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