Customer Reviews

Mrs. Jeffries Plays the Cook (Victorian Mystery)

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Oh dear. Mrs. Goodge, the cook, is away, and the staff has to help cook the meals in her absence. The trouble is, none of them remotely measure up, and they and the Inspector have to eat horrible meals. The Inspector, of course, is too polite to complain, and only asks now and then if Mrs. Jeffries (the housekeeper and leader of the staff) has found a replacement cook. Of course they can't hire a replacement cook - the staff has to investigate the murder in SECRET, and it wouldn't do to have a stranger in the house. But they can't very well tell the Inspector that. That is the subplot and is hilarious in itself.

The main plot is of course the murder of the odious Mr. Barrett and the list of suspects a mile long. The household is baffled at first, but not for long!

Mrs. Jeffries and her crew (minus the cook this time) are on the trail of another killer. The murder victim though is one that everyone hates and the list of suspects is longer than they're used to. This is actually quite a funny Mrs. Jeffries. The efforts that each of the staff make to cook while the their cook is away visiting a sick relative are creative if not palatable, and poor Inspector Witherspoon is suffering greatly. This is a wonderful cozy series set in Victorian London. There's not much history in the books, but they are fun nonetheless.

In this 6th book in the Mrs. Jeffries series, the staff at Upper Edmonton Gardens is asked to help retrieve and return a stolen item to the home of an unsuspecting victim. It seems that the "thief" is known to have a slight kleptomania problem (but she returns everything after a few days) and is embarrassed that she will lose her social standing if anyone finds out. The last time that the thief stole an item a much-hated man, William Barrett, discovered her taking a small china bird from a friend's home, and he threatens to blackmail her. While trying to take the bird back from Mr. Barrett, one of Inspector Witherspoon's staff stumbles upon Mr. Barrett's dead body in the study and the staff once again have themselves a murder to solve.

The latest book in the series was enjoyable but not my favorite so far. I enjoyed the portions of the book dealing with the failed attempts at cooking for the staff and Inspector Witherspoon (the cook was not present in much of this book due to her visiting a sick relative) by Mrs. Jeffries, Betsy, and Luty Belle Crookshank. However, the mystery was a bit drawn out and Mrs. Jeffries did not seem like her perceptive self (probably due to the horrible food)! I would still recommend reading this mystery for the characters, which grow and develop with each book.

The first book in the series is "The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries". Enjoy!