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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780425222089
ISBN number: 042522208X
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: June 03, 2008
Publishing house: Berkley
Sale Popularity Level: 42463
Studio: Berkley
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Product Description:
Mrs. Jeffries must swim upstream to catch a killer.
Successful local Michael Provost had no enemies, yet he was found dead off the Chelsea Vestry Wharf. With the help of her staff, Mrs. Jeffries dives into an investigation that leads to an earlier crime—and even more questions.
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Rated by buyers 
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Victorian London is the setting for this series of amateur detective novels featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Gerald Witherspoon, his houskeeper Mrs. Jeffries, and a diverse supporting cast of characters. Inspector Witherspoon has risen from the Yard's Records Room to enjoy a fine reputation for solving murders. Although he's not stupid, lazy or incompetent, he's also been greatly helped in all his cases by the well-coordinated sleuthing of his domestic household staff. Of which help Witherspoon is blissfully unaware, although word has been spreading about his domestic "assistants" and one wonders when the Inspector will hear about it too.
In this case, respected businessman Michael Provost is found drowned in the Thames - murdered. Witherspoon's assigned to solve the case and finds that Provost led a clean life and had no enemies, so the investigation seems doomed from the start. But soon it is learned that Provost had been diligently investigating the disappearance of Ernie Grigson, a friend who owned a pub, after failing to convince the police to do so. Provost was a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories then being published in the Strand magazine - he insisted on getting each issue the day it came out - and more than one character observes that the fictional Mr. Holmes has a lot to answer for.
Mrs. Jeffries and her crew of amateur sleuths - the other Witherspoon servants and friends, some in high places - find themselves with lots to investigate. As do the police. What did Provost's sleuthing into Grigson's disappearance uncover, and what happened to the letters he'd been sending to the police about his investigation? What is the relevance of a suspicious "accident", thankfully not fatal, that befell another friend of Provost? Where did Provost go when he left his office early on a Tuesday? Provost had joined the Wentworth Club where he played whist - apparently in the course of his investigation. The police - and the unofficial band of detectives at Witherspoon's house - turn their attention to the club.
I'm a fan of this series, and I enjoyed this story which featured sleuthing upon sleuthing: the police and the amateurs working to track down the killer of Michael Provost, and in turn finding out what Provost's sleuthing had uncovered about the disappearance of Grigson - which may have led to Provost's death. This time the Inspector's attractive widowed neighbor Lady Ruth Cannonberry takes part in the investigation, the footman Wiggins has a personal diversion while out on the hunt, engaged lovebirds Betsy and Smythe take another step in their relationship, and the eccentric rich American Luty Belle and her butler each help the investigation along in their own way. The stalwart Constable Barnes, Witherspoon's main aide, and other equally solid policemen, play their part, but to keep things interesting on the police side of things, the horrible Inspector Nivens is also involved in this case. This is a well-written novel that let me suspend disbelief and enjoy a few hours' diversion, as most of the books in this series have done.
Rated by buyers 
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Incredibly the Mrs. Jeffries series just keeps on getting better. This is something like the 24 book in the series, and it just kept me turning pages. So often a long-running series gets stale, and the writing seems to get more brief, but not with Emily Brightwell. This is one of the best books in this series. Of course the folks at Upper Edmonton Gardens are like old friends to me by now, but not only that, the plot is tight, and the mystery is one that keeps you guessing. A man that doesn't appear to have any enemies is found floating face down in the Thames. Mrs. Jeffries and the gang know its murder, and they just have to get the police and Inspector Witherspoon to figure this out too. I highly recommend this cozy series to those who love that genre, and suggest that you begin at book one and read all the way up the list. You are in for a treat.
Rated by buyers -
I have read all of Emily Brightwell's "Victoria Mysteries" about these characters. They are some of my favorites and I plan to keep and reread them in time.
Once again Inspector Witherspoons crew assist him in solving the murder which at very first appears to be a drowning by accident.
Rated by buyers 
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One can imagine it was much easier to get good servants in Victorian days, but the bachelour Inspector Witherspoon has had amazing good fortune in recruiting a staff that not only keeps his house well run, but advances his career by solving his cases for him. He, of course, is unaware of their covert assistance, which has boosted his reputation as the best detective in the Metropolitan Police Force.
Of course one wonders how such a marvelous detective has failed to notice so much surreptitious activity among his household staff and never suspects how much assistance he gets from Mrs. Hepzibah Jeffries in particular, but this formula is actually a great help to the author: she not only has the services of the Inspector himself, who does occasionally uncover a useful fact on his own and who makes the arrests, but of all those on his staff who are able to fan out through the city and bring in bits and pieces. This makes the evidence gathering a bit livelier and far more flexible than the standard formula in which the detective duly and dully makes the rounds of suspects and witnesses himself. Mrs. Jeffries is the synthesizer who pulls it all together.
As far as I know, the detective as group is a new wrinkle in mystery fiction and anyone who can come up with anything new in this genre is indeed to be congratulated.
Rated by buyers -
I love the Mrs. Jeffries series and always look forward to the subsequent one coming out. They are very hard to put down once you start reading. This is my favorite book and author.
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