Mrs. Pargeter's Pound of Flesh: A Mrs. Pargeter Mystery - Hardcover

Brett, Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684195658 ISBN 13: 9780684195650

Publisher: Scribner, 1993

Synopsis

While visiting the health spa her friend attends, Mrs. Pargeter discovers evidence of a suspicious death and she soon sets off on a torturous trail through the charlatanism of the health industry

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Reviews

The late Mr. Pargeter left his widow pots of money and his address book, "a compendium of contacts which could procure a surprising range of unconventional services." When a young friend wants a slimmer self with which to welcome her husband (a former employee of the late Mr. Pargeter) home from jail, Mrs. P. uses her new sources not only to get them a free sojourn at a health spa, but also to assist in her investigation of some peculiar corpses she encounters there. Brett makes the most of the milieu, serving up delicious descriptions of "Dead Sea Mud Bath" treatments and "Mind Over Fatty Matter" products. There's even an attempted murder using a passive exercise machine. Although Brett's Charles Paris mysteries offer superior characterization, this third to feature Mrs. Pargeter (after Mrs. Presumed Dead ) is consistently witty and convincing. Readers will gobble it up, especially its six happy resolutions.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Melita Pargeter, that impossibly well-connected underworld widow (Mrs. Pargeter's Package, etc.), checks into the Brotherton Hall fat farm, along with her friend Kim Thurrock, and finds surprises unthinkable outside Brett's world of high comedy--from the cordon bleu diet she's secretly allowed, to the number of Brothertons tied into a botched burglary in Streatham that her late husband masterminded, and to the sudden death of anorexic client Jenny Hargreaves, whose improbably thin corpse promptly disappears. The death is clearly tied to self-promoting author Sue Fisher's Mind Over Fatty Matter diet empire--and also, just as clearly, to the Streatham job. A gossamer plot beefed up with the heavy jocosity Brett reserves for Mrs. P. and her raffish criminal cohorts. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The ebullient, amusing, and sixtyish Melita Pargeter ( Mrs. Presumed Dead, LJ 4/1/89), widow of a talented and much-loved ex-con, takes the waters at a health spa in order to help a friend. Melita starts snooping, however, when she spies men removing a body in the dead of night. Still, using the services of her late husband's criminal cronies, Melita courts disaster as she nears the truth. The author's wry tone, coupled with Melita's cheek, will make everyone want to visit. This is up to Brett's usual high standards.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684195658
• ISBN 13: 9780684195650
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 207