From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Mrs, Presumed Dead (Mrs Pargeter, #2)

Simon Brett

Start date: May 15, 2024

Finish date: June 6, 2024

Discussion: Buddy reads

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May 05, 2024 Susan in NC rated it really liked it

Shelves: my-library, kindle, detectives-buddy-read24

Another entertaining outing with my new favorite widow, Mrs. Pargeter!

This time, after trying life in hotels (her first ‘case’ was a murder in an upscale oceanfront residential hotel for senior citizens), our unlikely heroine is trying a house in a fairly new rural, wealthy development. Written in 1988, this allowed the author to poke sly fun at the upper-middle class “yuppie” residents, with well-manicured homes and housewives, and generally absent, hard-charging professionals off earning a pac Another entertaining outing with my new favorite widow, Mrs. Pargeter!

This time, after trying life in hotels (her first ‘case’ was a murder in an upscale oceanfront residential hotel for senior citizens), our unlikely heroine is trying a house in a fairly new rural, wealthy development. Written in 1988, this allowed the author to poke sly fun at the upper-middle class “yuppie” residents, with well-manicured homes and housewives, and generally absent, hard-charging professionals off earning a packet to support the materialistic lifestyle.

Mrs. Pargeter only met the former homeowner wife (Teresa) in the brief, straightforward transaction of buying her new home, never the husband (Rod). The story she was given was that Rod had gotten a big job transfer “up north”, but a series of small discoveries - strange phone calls seeking Teresa, finding a lost letter behind a radiator, trying to contact Teresa about an appliance, and finding the forwarding number and address were fake, indeed, the address didn’t exist - add up to red flags for Mrs. Pargeter. Add in the self-absorbed, barely civil tone of the neighborhood, and Mrs. P is convinced something is definitely “off” about the previous owners. She feels she must investigate, and find out for herself what has become of them.

Luckily, the late Mr. Pargeter left his beloved widow well provided for, and in possession of his address book and contacts from his fruitful “professional” life - teased in the first book, here it’s clear that he did something illegal, and did it well. These former associates, whether gone straight or currently in prison, are more than willing to do anything for her - her husband asked his friends, in his last months, to look out for and be willing to help and protect his wife. A delightful and funny scene gives us Mrs. P visiting a supposedly incarcerated burglar in his cozy family home; the author is clearly poking fun at apparently lax prison regulations that allow him to come and go almost at will!

So, among coffee mornings and casual inquiries about finding garden help, Mrs P interviews the female denizens of the close, trying to discover who had secrets desperate enough to drive one of them to kill. The author pokes fun at a lot of the more ridiculous aspects of the go-go 1980s, and the Yuppie lifestyle, but takes a darker turn when we meet one potential suspect who cracked up and fell through the cracks once he could no longer earn the money to support his extravagant lifestyle.

But overall, another entertaining mystery with the likable, clever Mrs. Pargeter. ...more

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Jan 07, 2022 Ruskoley rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, book-2, 1980s

This is the second Mrs. Pargeter novel - I have read the first one and after reading this one it is likely I'll read the next. I think there are only eight novels in the series.

These are cozy mysteries, I guess, but not so cozy that you become sick over the cozy sweetness. I enjoyed the first novel in the series more than I enjoyed this one. Mainly, the author was not as smooth and engaging with his main character's conversations this time. Mrs. Pargeter in this novel was nearly KGB-interrogator ...more

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May 15, 2024 Jill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The second book in this series, and was as enjoyable as the first. It would seem that in moving to a small very quiet estate, Mrs Pargeter, when her heating breaks down, finds that the people she bought the house from are impossible to contact. Their forwarding address would seem not exist. Their belongings have been put into storage. this strikes Mrs Pargeter as something of a mystery, plus she has had a man phoned twice trying to find the same information as she is seeking. She becomes acquain ...more

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May 23, 2024 Susan rated it really liked it

This second in the Mrs Pargeter series, sees our wealthy widow moving to Smithy's Loam, a development of six executive homes in the Surrey commuter belt. When the boiler goes wrong, Mrs Pargeter attempts to call the former owner, Theresa Cotton, and finds the address she was given was fake. Finding this odd, she begins to investigate slightly and it soon becomes clear that Mrs Cotton is missing and that her neighbours are possibly involved.

Another enjoyable outing, which was good fun. I like Mrs ...more

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Jan 31, 2023 ShanDizzy rated it it was amazing

No settling comfortably into her sixties for this lady!

I really like Mrs.Pargeter. She’s self-aware and very comfortable with who she is. I like too that she is intelligent and still very interested in living a full life. The murder mysteries are also engaging.

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May 14, 2024 Sandy rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, rread-2024, own, z2024-own-24

This is turning out to be a fun series with Mrs. Pargeter able to call on a variety of shady characters as she moves around looking for her perfect home. Good plot with suspects in a close(d) community.

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May 20, 2024 Frances rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-series

3.5 stars but a nice, short, engaging mystery with an interesting older female sleuth with a background that includes a lot of acquaintances in "the game" who help her out with her researches. In this outing she moves into a new home, realizes there is something fishy about the previous owners and where they've gone, and proceeds to sort it out, all while maintaining a Merry Widow lifestyle. Quite fun and I suspect these don't need to be read in order. ...more

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