Mrs Pargeter's Patio

Starred review from June 22, 2015
Last seen in 1999’s Mrs. Pargeter’s Point of Honour, Mrs. Melita Pargeter is in top form in her long-overdue seventh outing. The late Mr. Pargeter, a thief, left his wealthy widow a little black book containing the names of the “Old Boys,” the people who were involved in his so-called business enterprises. At the funeral of one of them, Sir Normington Winthrop, held at the Abbey in London, a menacing stranger warns her not to approach Sir Normington’s widow. Her curiosity piqued, Mrs. Pargeter determines to learn more about the deceased. Truffler Mason, one of her husband’s former associates turned private investigator, provides assistance. She also seeks to lend financial assistance to any Old Boy dependents who may be hard up. Benevolent and optimistic, Mrs. Pargeter is able to turn a blind eye to the foibles of others as necessary. Brett’s customary wit and good humor abound. Agent: Michael Motley, Michael Motley Ltd. (U.K.).

July 1, 2015

After a hiatus of 17 years, Brett resumes this charming series about a crime boss's widow who makes amends by assisting her late husband's old colleagues. A funeral leads Mrs. Pargeter to confront murderous gunrunners and shifty politicians as well as a bride-to-be and a fiance with criminal intent. The coziest of cozy reads.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2015
Brett, awarded the Crime Writers' Association's Diamond Dagger Award last year for lifetime achievement, has created multiple mystery series, including the Fethering, Blotto and Twinks, Charles Paris, and Mrs. Pargeter series. Theatrical sleuth Charles Paris was resurrected in 2014 (after Brett rested him, as British out-of-work actors call it, in 1997). Now, Brett has revived his other departed amateur sleuth, Mrs. Pargeter, last seen in Mrs. Pargeter's Point of Honour in 1999. Mrs. Pargeter represents a special brand of cozy, more like P. G. Wodehouse than Agatha Christie, stories in which comedy and criminality bubble up together. Mrs. Pargeter is the widow of the director of a hugely successful, if criminal, enterprise that had skilled specialists, including forgers, locksmiths, and safecrackers, in its employ; these workers had names like Passport Pinkerton and Hedgeclipper Clinton. They all appear in the little black book Mr. Pargeter left his wife, and remain on call whenever she needs some special service. In this, the seventh in the series, Mrs. Pargeter wants to know what connection recently deceased Sir Normington Winthrop (whose name is in the black book) had to her husband. As she and her minions look into this matter, some threatening types get interested, as well, and a Pargeter operative, a thief turned vicar (Holy Smirke), is kidnapped from his tiny Norman church's vestry. It all adds up to great fun, a delightfully madcap romp.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 1, 2023
The ninth in the Mrs. Pargeter series, starring a well-off widow who seems blithely unaware that her late husband ran a criminal empire, is a comic caper on par with the finest by Brett, who won the 2014 Crime Writers' Association's Diamond Dagger Award for an outstanding body of work in crime fiction. When Mrs. Pargeter trips over a paving stone on the patio built for her Chigwell, Essex, mansion by one of her husband's former associates, "Concrete Jacket," she discovers a skull underneath. Mrs. Pargeter doesn't immediately go to the police. Instead, to figure out how the skull got there, she contacts her husband's former colleagues, who include a locksmith, a disguise artist, a plastic surgeon, a getaway driver-turned-chauffeur, and a thief-turned-private eye, all fiercely devoted to her (and wonderfully written). A subplot, involving Mrs. Pargeter's gardener, whose reggae musician father disappeared decades ago, dovetails beautifully with the main plot, leading to a harrowing climax. The book draws its vibe from '20s gangster movies, but Brett also satirizes contemporary TV game shows in a gardening contestant show with a snarky host, the insider details of which will thrill fans of his theatrical Charles Paris mysteries. Pure fun.

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August 15, 2023
An unfortunate discovery triggers another dunk in the pool of felons the late Lionel Pargeter ran with for his imperturbably ignorant widow. The trouble with Melita Pargeter's patio is that there's a skeleton buried beneath it. It's not the first time a body has been found on the construction site, but the 25 years since Mrs Pargeter's Plot (1998) have lulled the homeowner into a deceptive sense of placidity. As so often before, Mrs. Pargeter reaches out to private investigator Truffler Mason, an ex-crook who worked closely with her husband, and he reaches out to a long list of variously shady types from builder Concrete Jacket, who's now in prison once more, to makeup artist Tina the Transformer and plastic surgeon "Melting Maurice" Sinclair, for their help in identifying the corpse and explaining how it came to its final resting place. The news that villainous Chippie Lex frequently hired Marek Grabowski, the Polish builder who worked with Concrete on the project, to hide awkward bodies produces a strong air of suspicion, especially since Concrete refuses to add Mrs. Pargeter to his visitors list. Relief is promised by Mrs. Pargeter's interest in the private life of her gardener, Kirstie Rollins, a former burglar whose father disappeared on her ninth birthday. But the two cases inevitably turn out to be connected, and the responsible parties behind them both are pretty obvious from early on. Even so, fans will appreciate Brett's customary inventiveness in unveiling crimes and misdemeanors old and new and the wit of the elaborate circumlocutions with which all interested parties disavow any criminal intent. A one-joke story, but the joke is a rich one.

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