Mrs. Jeffries Plays the Cook

Lady Cannonberry asks Mrs. Jeffries and the rest of the staff at the home of Scotland Yard Inspector Gerald Witherspoon to retrieve an item from the home of Mr. Barrett. It seems that a friend of hers, Minerva, was in the habit of filching small items from the homes of other people; it’s not really stealing because she always returns the items a day or two later with no one the wiser. But this time, the wicked Mr. Barrett caught her stealing from the Astleys and is threatening to expose her secret, so Lady Cannonberry thinks the staff at Upper Edmonton Gardens can help. When one of the group sneaks into the house to retrieve the object, he also finds the householder, Mr. Barrett, quite dead. And that is only the beginning of the show more troubles the household staff will encounter during this adventure…. I quite like this minor cozy series, set in Victorian London and featuring a very endearing cast of characters, about whom the reader learns a bit more with each new entry (this is the seventh). I must say that I found the subplot here, having to do with the cook out of the house to look after a relative and the resulting disaster that the following meals become, a bit hard to swallow - surely *one* of the women in the house can at least cook something decent! And the idea of a member of the aristocracy (albeit by marriage) interacting with the servants on a first-name basis is a bit much, but then this type of book isn’t meant to be terribly realistic. Generally recommended. show less

One of my favorite series and this book was not disappointing. Once again Mrs Jeffries and the staff help Inspector Witherspoon solve a murder but things are interesting when so many people disliked the victim. Very good book I enjoyed it. If you are a fan of Miss Marple I think you will enjoy this book.

As always it's the regular (expanding) set of chatters that gives this series so much charm