Customer Reviews

Mrs. Jeffries Holds the Trump (Wheeler Cozy Mystery)

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Inspector Weatherspoon is considered the shining superstar of the Metropolitan Police Department of Scotland Yard, but few people know he gets help in solving tough cases. Led by his housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries, his household staff uses their under the stairs contacts to gather information that is serendipitously fed to the Inspector.

When mortician Dr. Bodworth sees the body of Michael Prescott on his table, he is shocked that the police assume an accident occurred. He visits Mrs. Jeffries to ask her to investigate; she and the staff gladly agree; while Prescott's attorney and housekeeper go to the police to argue he was murdered. They say Michael was investigating the disappearance of a friend who was publican and a bookie when he died. Inspector Weatherspoon gets the case and learns Prescott was writing to the police begging them to look into his friend's vanishing. No on in the Yard will admit to reading the letters and every clue leads to a wider puzzle, leaving the Inspector and his housekeeper to wonder if this is the one that got away.

Very few writers can consistently provide an entertaining historical cozy as Emily Brightwell does with her Mrs. Jeffries tales. The current Victorian era case is interesting catching the reader's attention due in part to recurring characters, but also because the police are under suspicion by the physician and team Jeffries. Readers will appreciate this latter half ninetieth century whodunit as Ms. J, her staff and her employer provide the audience with a strong investigation and a deep look at Victorian England.

Harriet Klausner

Inspector Gerald Witherspoon has had tough murder cases to solve in the past, but his most recent case is particularly hard. The victim, Michael Provost, seemed to have no enemies, greedy relatives, or business rivals. Witherspoon has few clues one of which is that Provost was asking a lot of questions about the disappearance of a friend of his. It's going to take everything Witherspoon has to solve this case. Luckily he has his faithful servants, led by housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries, to help him (even if he doesn't know it!).

"Mrs. Jeffries Holds the Trump" is the latest entry in Emily Brightwell's wonderful Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries cozy mystery series - a series that never fails to delight. The series is set in Victorian England and in this book Brightwell puts in a great historical element - Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries - that adds much to the plot of the book as it is believed that Michael Provost was imitating Holmes as he looked into the disappearance of his friend. I love the fact that while Witherspoon's staff helps him investigate the murder with each book he gets better and better at investigating the crimes. I was pleased to see Ruth Cannonberry have a larger role in this book. What makes this series work for me is that the characters, while familiar at this point in the series, continue to grow, rather than stagnate. Wiggins in particular had some great moments (I wanted to hug him by the end of the book). And Witherspoon has a wonderful confrontation with Inspector Nivens that will have readers cheering. The mystery itself is well plotted and readers will have a hard time figuring out who would want to kill someone as well liked as Provost. Brightwell does a good job of switching between Witherspoon (with Inspector Barnes) and the servants investigating the case and all of them discover important clues. There are plenty of suspects and readers will have a hard time figuring out who the killer is as Brightwell continues to be Agatha Christie-like in her plotting.

"Mrs. Jeffries Holds the Trump" is a delightful cozy mystery.

One can imagine it was much easier to get good servants in Victorian days, but the bachelor 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.

When a dead body is found in the Thames, everyone is shocked to learn that it belongs to a quiet businessman. Nobody has anything but praise for the dead man, making this case a real challenge. Yet Inspector Gerald Witherspoon of Scotland Yard has a secret weapon: his trusted housekeeper, Mrs Jeffries. Together with other servants and neighbors, Mrs Jeffries unlocks the clues of the crime.

The victim, Michael Provost, was trying to determine why his friend, a local pub owner, had recently disappeared. Did his snooping bring him too close to the answer? Complicating matters is the another Scotland Yard inspector, who believes Provost's death is an accident.

This book is not only a great cozy, but a interesting look at Victorian times and the power of the world behind the upper class. Mrs Jeffries and her band of amateur sleuths are interesting characters, even when just sitting around the kitchen, drinking tea. And Mrs Jeffries own techniques for planting ideas in the inspector's brain are very witty indeed.

Author Emily Brightwell has developed a charming series. She brings just the right amount of historical grace to the book, highlighting class differences and crime solving without the high tech devices modern readers have gotten so familiar with. She uses her characters to utmost advantage in solving the case, never letting a clue drop (as one can find in so many other mystery series). "Mrs Jeffries Holds the Trump" and the Victorian Mystery series are equal parts charm and mystery, making them just perfect.

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.

I have come to feel that I know the characters in the "Mrs Jeffries"series.
Emily Brightwell makes them come alive and this book is no exception.
I thoroughly enjoyed another adventure with Mrs. Jeffries.

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.

I've read quite a few of these Mrs. Jeffries books, and while I find them all very pleasant and an agreeable way to pass the time, I don't see why they would be rated 5-star books. The writing is sometimes trite and even amateurish at times. For example in many books may say something along the lines of "The Inspector didn't know why he asked the question, but he felt it could be important." Or "Mrs. Jeffries didn't know why, but she felt she ought to talk to the doctor."

Again, these books are enjoyable and pleasant, but not five-star material in my opinion.

Another great book in this series. It was touch and go for Mrs Jeffries and she thought she was wrong was she or will she figure it out?

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 first appears to be a drowning by accident.