Mrs. Pargeter's Public Relations

January 16, 2017
In Brett’s sprightly eighth outing for Mrs. Pargeter (after 2015’s Mrs. Pargeter’s Principle), the shrewd but always ladylike Melita Pargeter professes to know little of what the late Mr. Lionel Pargeter did to earn his money (“He was always a great believer in the principle of ‘need to know.’ So what you didn’t need to know you didn’t know. That way you could never be made to stand up in court and talk about it”). At an auction gala in London for PhiliPussies, a charity that finds homes for feral Greek cats in Britain, she meets Rochelle Brighouse, Lionel’s sister, whose existence he never mentioned, and Rochelle’s son, Haydon, a true-crime writer. Within a few days, Mr. Pargeter’s little black book of “business” contacts goes missing, and a member of the PhiliPussies society turns up in a shallow grave in Epping Forest. These events set Mrs. Pargeter’s investigative antennae tingling. With the aid of some of her husband’s former employees, she sets off to track down a thief. Mystery fans seeking pure escapist fun will be rewarded.

April 1, 2017

Mrs. Pargeter'shusband left her well off. Attending a charity event for a feline welfare organization, she meets a woman who claims to be the late Lionel Pargeter's sister. When Mr. Pargeter's little black book of "business" contacts disappears and one of the organization's members is found dead, Mrs. Pargeter must act to preserve the memory of her supposedly saintly husband. This eighth series entry follows Mrs Pargeter's Principle.--ACT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2017
In the sixth in Brett's Mrs. Pargeter series, the well-off widow of the late, lamented Mr. Pargeter must deal with the disappearance of Mr. Pargeter's little black book. Pargeter ran a criminal empire like a medieval guildthe black book contains contact information for people with supreme skill sets in, say, picking locks, cracking safes, and forging documents. Mrs. Pargeter has inherited the book and the loyalties of her husband's craftspeople; its disappearance could spell ruin. The tale takes off from a charity auction to aid orphaned cats in Greece. At the auction, Mrs. Pargeter is accosted by a woman claiming to be Mr. Pargeter's sister. Afterward, she receives a threat about what can happen in Epping Forest and learns that the body of one of the charity's mainstays has been found there. The action percolates like a coffee pot, with Mrs. Pargeter summoning her husband's cronies to help solve the mystery. However, the ongoing uncertainty about whether Mrs. Pargeter knows her husband was a crook has moved from mildly amusing to cloying. An enjoyable cozy but not as sure-handed as most Brett mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)