Sun 11 Jul 2010
Archived Review: EMILY BRIGHTWELL – The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[2] Comments
EMILY BRIGHTWELL – The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries. Berkley, paperback original; 1st printing, February 1993.
I haven’t seen it, but wasn’t there a movie in which Sherlock Holmes was a bumbling fool and Dr. Watson was secretly the brains of the pair? I don’t know, but that had to be the idea behind this new paperback series set in Victorian England.
The inspector is Inspector Gerald Witherspoon of Scotland Yard. Mrs. Jeffries is his housekeeper, and she solves his cases for him. He is a nice man, but he is so bewildered he does not even suspect that she is doing all his work for him. His entire household staff is brought in on the secret in this case, and together they do 80% of the legwork, 90% of the questioning, and 100% of the thinking.
The dead man is a doctor who has been poisoned. He also had a good many secrets and was universally disliked. (Put two and two together and see what you come up with.)
Personally, I think that this is a good idea that gets awfully tired awfully fast. (Sort of like a TV series that after one or two episodes has no place else to go.) The book is fun to read, without requiring any major brainpower, perfect for late at night when you can’t fall asleep anyway.
The characters are fine, except for the excessively dimbulb wit of the inspector, but just how long can the charade be kept up?
Note: The second of the series, Mrs. Jeffries Dusts for Clues, has just come out, and the third, The Ghost and Mrs. Jeffries, is scheduled for October. Does that answer my question?
[UPDATE] 07-11-10. I might have gotten tired of the idea after only one book, since I’m sure that this one is the only one I’ve read, but the target audience for the series surely hasn’t. There have been 27 in series, so far, and still counting. Some but not all have come out in hardcover.
Obviously the “gimmick” in this case has had longer legs than I was willing to admit back in 1993, but do note my concluding Note at the time.
July 11th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
WITHOUT A CLUE featured Michael Caine as a dimwitted Sherlock Holmes whose brain work was done by Ben Kingsley’s Dr. Watson. Mildly diverting comedy and worth seeing if you missed it with Caine and Kingsley very good together.
I had wondered about these books, but feared they might be too cozy for my taste. Sounds as if I will have to try one. I don’t see why an idea that could easily support a television series should fail to support a series of books. Series have run longer on less sturdy gimmicks before.
July 11th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Let me add that while I haven’t read any of them, I have picked up all of the books in the series as soon as they’ve come out in paper.
The books are “cozy” enough, as I recall, but I suspect that the characters are more appealing than usual for mystery tales of this particular genre.
They couldn’t have lasted this long otherwise.
— Steve