As Christmas approaches, Inspector Witherspoon’s household is full of plans: Wiggins will attend several football matches with his buddies, Phyllis intends to see several plays with a friend, Betsy and Smythe are taking Amanda to Paris for a few days, Mrs. Jeffries is thrilled to attend several lectures on Egypt, Mrs. Goodge is looking forward to having the house mostly to herself, and the Inspector and Lady Cannonberry are going to the countryside where he will meet some of her relatives. All is great - until, that is, the Inspector is given a murder to solve. And not just any murder, but one that had taken place six weeks earlier, and that therefore will be almost impossible to solve! It had originally been thought a robbery gone wrong and had been given to the detestable Inspector Nivens, who had done almost no investigating at all. Now everyone is resentful and angry at the thought that they will lose their planned activities with probably nothing at all to show for it in the end…. This, the 36th in the long-running cozy series, may well be my favourite so far, because it emphasizes the humanity of the characters. Of course they’ve always been human, but sometimes they’re a bit too noble - all that “we work in the cause of justice” attitude, while commendable, is sometimes a bit supercilious, I think. Here, we see the entire cast of characters acting selfishly, with resentment and, at times, even a bit dishonestly. When they finally turn around and start actually investigating, the reader feels that they’ve overcome something significant - call it pettiness, perhaps - and like them even more for it. Recommended. ( )

Victorian era cozy that has many likable characters. Inspector Witherspoon once again gets help from his household staffs finding a killer before Christmas holiday. ( )

It took me a bit longer to get into this one than some of the others, but then again, it took most of the characters a while to get into it. Once again, Christmas is upon us and a murder has occurred. The problem, it occurred six weeks prior and given to Inspector Nivens as it looked like a robbery gone wrong. He, as is his want, has bungled the whole thing and now Witherspoon must try and solve the thing. Problem, none of his usual helpers want to help. They all have plans this Christmas and they don't want to give them up. It's up to Mrs. Goudge, Ruth, and Luty to give them swift kick on the butt they all need to get this case solved in time to keep their plans on track. Must admit, sort of strange to have them all complaining about getting a murder, but once they got their groove back, so did the book. ( )

I know that I came across a description of this series a while back, and I found it – the idea of a detective's housekeeper doing the lion's share of the work to help him achieve arrests – off-putting. Perhaps because of the covers I've seen for the series I thought it was all played for laughs; the artwork on most of the books makes Inspector Witherspoon look completely oblivious, with Mrs. Jeffries peering in from the side. I was never interested. So it's odd that I requested this book from Netgalley.

But I did, and in the end it was much better than I expected it to be. It wasn't great – I can't imagine reading 35 more along the same lines, and I was startled to read a description of a couple of earlier books in the series that sounded a whole lot like this one; there was one in which it was important that a case be solved by Christmas, and at least one other in which a case was given to inferior Inspector Nivens and, of course, botched.

I did like the characters – Inspector Witherspoon is not a nincompoop, thank goodness, and that makes all the difference. And the author did a nice job at keeping a fairly large cast of characters distinct from each other and pretty consistently interesting … though I really wish the one American character wasn't written in the dreadful manner of Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie writing an American. Goldarnit. There are a few things the Golden Agers did not do perfectly, and in which they should not be emulated.

There was a bit too much repetition of the basic ideas of "we'll never solve this old mystery" and "I goofed off today and I'm ashamed but I'll probably do it again tomorrow because we'll never solve this old mystery", and much too much whining about having their holiday plans disrupted. In that they reminded me of my coworkers, who spend half the day talking about the news and the weather and their love lives and tv and a hundred other inane things, and then complain that they don't have time to do their work. Shut up and buckle down, and maybe you'll manage.

All in all, I'm not sorry I read it – but I'm in no rush to go read the rest of the (astonishingly long) series.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review. ( )

Mrs Jeffries & cohorts are at it again, or are they?

When Inspector Witherspoon's rival botches the investigation of a murder that happened six weeks prior, he is called upon to solve the murder, unfortunately it is just before Christmas and the entire household has plans, which they put on hold in order to help the Inspector.

There is quite a bit of disappointment and the household lags behind on their end of the investigation, which pushes Luty, Mrs. Goodge, & Besty (?) into a position where they shame the others into putting their laments aside in order to achieve justice.

The murdered man, was brought into a family company in order to find the monetary discrepancies. The man had a past with the company & the family, as he had previously been dealt with unfairly and him finding the missing money would be his form of revenge.
However, prior to his starting, he is invited to a Guy Fawkes night dinner party, where he makes upsetting comments to the guests regarding their pasts, whereupon the guests leave abruptly.

It is on his way back to his lodgings that he is met in the dark Mews and gunned down.....

I liked the plot and was able to get through the book in one evening.

I'm not overly enamored of Inspector Witherspoon's household staff but I am mostly able to ignore their side stories. ( )