Mrs. Jeffries and the Yuletide Wedding

Two weddings provide the backdrop for Brightwell’s enjoyable 26th Victorian mystery, the first of the series in hardcover, featuring mild-mannered Insp. Gerald Witherspoon and his indomitable housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries (after Mar. 2009’s Mrs. Jeffries and the Nick of Time ). As Christmas approaches, the inspector’s servants are busy preparing for the marriage between Smythe, the coachman, and Betsy, the maid. Meanwhile, Rosemary Evans and her older fiancé, Sir Madison Lowery, are celebrating their impending nuptials with a formal tea, which is interrupted by the discovery of a former governess of Rosemary’s lying dead with a knife in her chest outside the Evanses’ house in a posh London neighborhood. As usual, Mrs. Jeffries and her fellow servants gather and sort through clues while their sometimes dilatory master investigates. Cozy fans will be well satisfied. (Nov.)