“Mrs. Jeffries Dusts for Clues” - Emily Brightwell

(Mrs. Jeffries book 2)

🧹 This is going to be the first (and only) time I will offer (unsolicited) fitness advice on here. I listened to this book as an audiobook, and made it exclusively my workout soundtrack. The mystery isn’t so complex that it requires full engagement, but it was interesting enough to motivate me to hop on the Peloton, cc the instructor, and tumble into cozy, Victorian mystery land. Fin.

🧹 Mrs. J and her staff take on a more active role in this case than the last one. Mrs. J even goes so far as to accompany a friend to the morgue to identify a body (I thought this was a stretch given Victorian sensibilities of a housekeeper’s proper role).

🧹 We met Luty Belle Crookshank, the rich American who made her fortune in various schemes in the American West, in the first novel. She’s a major player in this one, which is unfortunate because her accent is like nails on a chalkboard.

🧹 I found MJDC slightly confusing as new players in the mystery keep popping up - romantic rivals, former employees, new maids. The connection between all of them is hard to keep straight. There were a couple of points of weakness in the plot. For example, Luty’s identification of the body is weak - first she insists it is Mary because those are Mary’s clothes, but later concludes it can’t be Mary because those aren’t Mary’s shoes (how the wealthy American is so familiar with a neighbor’s maid’s shoes, no matter how kindly she treats the maid, is a stretch IMO). Brightwell struggles a bit to maintain the Victorian upstairs/downstairs dynamic.

🧹 Overall, a fantastic distractor for workouts. In the immortal words of Cody Rigsby, “it’s not that deep, boo”. It’s a light mystery, with charming characters (except for Luty; she’s annoying AF).