Today I'm joining Berkley Mystery

in hosting author

Emily Brightwell

and her new release

MRS: JEFFERIES DELIVERS THE GOODS

Book 37 in the Mrs. Jefferies Mysteries

When poison fells an arrogant and rude businessman in public, Mrs. Jeffries and Inspector Witherspoon both realize they are looking for a deranged maniac in this all new installment in the beloved Victorian Mystery series 

On a cold night in February, the popular Lighterman’s ball festivities are cut short when a guest of honor, Stephen Bremmer, goes into spasms and abruptly collapses.   Once again Inspector Witherspoon returns to the Wrexley Hotel to investigate a murder. 

The victim was considered a boorish snob who felt entitled to anything and anyone he wanted. Yet despite his Oxford education, he was barely literate, lazy, and prone to make stupid mistakes – his last mistake turned out to be crossing a killer. 

The owners and management of the Wrexley Hotel clearly don’t welcome the return of Inspector Witherspoon but he has his job to do, and Mrs. Jeffries, and the rest of the household must do their best to catch a murderer who shows no signs of slowing down… 

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A Word from Emily Brightwell

Coincidences and Mysteries

Writers long to write about what captivates them, and I’m no exception. When I was working on Mrs. Jeffries Delivers the Goods, I explored an idea that has always intrigued me: coincidence. In my opinion, coincidence is a great, unknowable, and exciting mystery. Skeptical people believe that coincidence is merely two random and logically unrelated events happening simultaneously, but I want it to be more than that. I see coincidences nudging us towards a different way of looking at the universe; to questioning the great unknowns of existence. Do we get any answers? I’m not sure, but when it happens to me, the coincidence makes me stop and then think about the world from a different point of view. One of my main characters in the novel, Mrs. Goodge, feels the same way.

You see coincidences all the time in daily life. You are about to call someone you haven’t contacted in months; the phone rings, and it’s that very person. When you’re on vacation in Hawaii, you run into someone from your church, or you get on a plane and find out that two people you used to work with are on the same flight (yes, that really happened to me.) Something like that has happened to all of us, but usually we can brush it off without too much thought. Not if you are a mystery author.

Since the beginning of time, storytellers have used coincidence, random chance, fate, and destiny to make philosophical points, or simply to move their plot lines along. All of those ideas can and have been at the heart of some wonderful tales….but is it okay to use “coincidences” in a murder mystery? Of course it is, as far as I’m concerned. Anything that happens in real life can and should be used in fiction. You just have to play fair with your readers.  

In Mrs. Jeffries Delivers the Goods, the idea of playing and having a bit of fun with my love of coincidence was too hard to resist.  Oh, don’t panic now. I didn’t cheat and solve the murder by using any “coincidence” trick to catch the killer. I’d never do that. But I did use the device to illustrate something I genuinely believe: sometimes the universe uses coincidence to tell us that no matter how smart or clever we might think we are, there could well be forces impacting our lives that we don’t acknowledge or understand. Just ask Mrs. Goodge. She’s a strong, no-nonsense character who has lived a long time and isn’t easily fooled.  Yet she sees the coincidences in “Mrs. Jeffries Delivers the Goods” as a mysterious force giving our intrepid band of sleuths a helping hand. The others in the household aren’t so sure. There’s only one-way to resolve this conflict – you’ll have to read the book and decide for yourself. 

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