Mrs Pargeter is the widow of Mr Pargeter, a much-loved man, especially by those with criminal inclinations, who he often engaged in his activities – activities that never crossed over into his married life. Yet on his passing, Mrs Pargeter has become close friends with some of his associates, all of whom have gone straight-ish – so when a slab on the patio at the home that Mr P had built for her cracks, revealing a skull underneath it, it is those associates she enlists to get to the bottom of things. Because it certainly wouldn’t have been there because of anything Mr Pargeter was involved in…
Soon, Mrs Pargeter finds herself up against a mysterious local crime lord, someone with a finger in every pie. But when you don’t know who you’re up against and you don’t know who was killed, it does make things a tad more difficult to sort out.
You know what you’re getting with a Simon Brett book. Actually, that’s not really true. Lovers of the Fethering mysteries might get a shock if they encountered Blotto and Twinks, for example, and the gentle humour of Mrs Pargeter is a counterpoint to the melancholy of Charles Paris. OK, you know what you’re getting with a Simon Brett Mrs Pargeter book – an enjoyable cosy mystery with endearing lead and support characters.
I do like the Mrs P books. Yes, they’re cosy mysteries – one death, and it’s very off panel – but they’re fun and Brett has a good time taking a pop at whatever’s currently irking him. It’s reality/competition shows, this time, as there’s a good portion of the book about Dirt Under The Fingernails, basically Bake-Off with gardening, and the washed-up tedious comedian who hosts it.
The mystery… well, it’s not much of one as we’ve another break of Rule 7 of the Doc-alogue as the villain comes out of nowhere to everyone’s surprise to try and kill our heroes and there aren’t any clues of any sort to be seen (that I noticed).
But it’s charming, fun, and was exactly what I was in the mood for. So where’s the harm in that?
Mrs Pargeter’s Patio is out now from Severn House in ebook and hardback. Many thanks for the review e-copy.
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
I prefer Brett’s Charles Paris mysteries, though I haven’t tried Blotto and Twinks yet. Murder in the Title, about a provincial reperatory theater putting on a bad GAD play, is bitingly funny.
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I think the early Paris ones are supposed to be better. I’ve mostly read the later ones.
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I found Blotto and Twinks unendurable, and gave up after one; I could see the stylistic target he was aiming for, but to my mind it missed by a mile. I enjoyed Fethering through a number of titles, though I eventually got irked by the difference between what I was apparently intended to feel about the two protagonists, and what I did feel (I found the uptight one thoroughly sympathetic, while the supposedly free-spirted all-accepting one infuriated me with her withholding of information that her “friend” wanted to know). I generally enjoyed Charles Paris, though the sameness (his personal life always seems to get a reset on the last page, after teasing us with the idea that he’ll change for the better) got to me after a while. I found Mrs. Pargeter a lot of fun, though I haven’t read one in what seems like decades, and I didn’t even realize that the series had continued into the present.
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You did better than me with Blotto. I think I managed one chapter.
And you’re spot on about Paris’ character “development” – quite frustrating…
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I don’t know about the story but just saying that EVERY book right now has this cover (color, font, style, graphic design). I don’t know consumers will tell the difference!
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Oh, yes, forgot to say something about the cover. V disappointing…
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RebPar: it’s the Osman-ification of mystery covers…
I love the early Charles Paris books, which are kind of moody sardonic tragicomedies, but I do think the series loses steam by the 80s and onward. Fethering and Mrs Pargeter are solidly entertaining, and I also like his new decluttering series a fair bit. Blotto and Twinks I’ve not even attempted.
I do think it’s interesting that Brett gets slapped with the “cozy” label. It’s true that the violence takes page off stage and his sleuths are amateurs, but the plots are rarely very comforting in themselves. Few characters get happy endings, and in fact a lot of his characters are completely awful people. The Fethering books especially are largely peopled with absolute vipers.
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I didn’t get far when I tried Feathering. I wasn’t enjoying either protagonist.
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I read one of the Mrs Pargeter books and I thought she was sweet, but it bothered me that she was so oblivious to her husband’s true activities. Was she just not that bright, or was she turning a blind eye, or what? I read some of the Paris books too, They were often funny, but I was eventually turned off by his attitude towards women. I wasn’t sure if that was Brett’s attitude as well, but it soured me a bit on his books.
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I found Mrs. Pargeter’s blind eye more irritating with repetition over several books, and especially how affronted she would be if one of his former associates made any reference to his illegal activities, the profits of which she now enjoys.
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I always saw it as apparently turning a blind eye whenever faced with other people in order to push his old cronies onto the straight and narrow – she knows full well what her husband was up to, even if she doesn’t know the details. But there are times when it comes across as hypocritical even with this interpretation
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