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Jan. 5th, 2012 08:54 pm
meirwen_1988: (Christmas House Mouse)
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Mrs. Jeffries and the Mistletoe Mix-Up (Mrs. Jeffries Mystery, #17)Mrs. Jeffries and the Mistletoe Mix-Up by Emily Brightwell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


So, late Victorian housekeeper helps Police Inspector boss solve cases--behind his back, employing a cast of...well, it seems like thousands, but it's really roughly a dozen.



It's one of those books I cast in my head as I read it. Mrs. Jeffries is very Angela Lansbury (Bedknobs and Broomsticks, not Cabot Cove); Mrs. Goodge is played by "Mrs. Hudson"; Smythe is a cross between Bryan Brown and Hugh Jackman; Betsy is Amy Pond; Ludy is Kathy Bates (as in Titanic with just a touch of Cloris Leachman); Hatchett is very Edward Petherbridge; and the Inspector's Constable Barnes is a bit like Jude Law's Watson (albeit slightly older), but with a more unassuming mein. Unfortunately, the inspector himself (Witherspoon) has a bit too much Nigel Bruce and not enough Inspector Morse for my tastes--even his incipient romance with the Emma Thompson-ish Lady Ruth isn't enough to make me not want to clock him over the head so the Yard can promote someone actually competent--like Constable Barnes.



I think I read these books just so I can hang about in this part of London, before electric lights, but after that absurd obsession with the little Corsican bantam tyrant. Well, that and the endless pots of tea.



View all my reviews

Date: 2012-01-06 04:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dagonell.livejournal.com
We have a few others in the series. You're welcome to borrow them if you wish. -- Dagonell

Date: 2012-01-06 11:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jlbooth76.livejournal.com
I do love your reviews, even when you are less than impressed :)

Have you read any of Diana Gabaldon's Lord John books? I'm surprised by how much I like them- despite a fondness for the character I would not have expected to be as charmed by the English side of things, or the very different tone from the Outlander books (which I am completely in love with.)

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