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The Daily Dose/January 7, 2009
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
More notes from around the Human Experience, campers, including Valerie Bertinelli as the Column Four Foto!
CAPSULE SHORT STORY REVIEW: The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries, from Mrs. Jeffries Learns The Trade, by Emily Brightwell: We have always been big fans of the mystery genre here at the Writer's Shack, from the time we were introduced to Nero Wolfe as a kid, to Sherlock Holmes, Lew Archer, the 87th Precinct, Spenser, Dick Francis, you name it. We haven't read every mystery every written, but we've certainly read our share.
And it's always nice to meet someone new.
Brass Tacks: Mrs. Jeffries is the housekeeper for one Inspector Witherspoon of Scotland Yard. Witherspoon has little interest in, and little talent for, solving crimes. In fact, he had spent most of his career in the records department, for which he appeared to be well suited.
It is not immediately clear when he began solving crimes, nor is it clear when Mrs. Jeffries came to work for him after he inherited his house from an aunt, although it is not the biggest stretch to presume both incidents happened at the same time, however, because Mrs. Jeffries, assisted by the Inspector's household staff - a cook, a maid, a coachman and a footman, is the one who actually solves the Inspector's crimes.
Thank You Joe Friday: Witherspoon is such a combination of density and disinterest in crime fighting that Mrs. Jeffries usually has to spoon feed the Inspector what he should do next. For example, this from the end, when Mrs. Jeffries is trying to wrap up the case, though she is getting no help from the Inspector:
"Now, don't tell me, let me guess. Your next step will be to send Constable Barnes over to bring that footman here. Once the lad is here, you'll confirm precisely how long the colonel was actually gone. Am I right, sir?"
You've Got To Be Kidding: We are not making that up! Inspector Witherspoon is that dense! And this isn't a bulletin thrown in at the end of the story, either.
Leading Off: In the opening paragraph Witherspoon is staring at a corpse slumped over a desk. He is day dreaming about sitting in front of a fire with a glass of port and it is plain he is not entirely sure what he should be doing. After a minute or two of this dawdling. a constable and a doctor also on the scene start to get impatient, so Witherspoon declares:
"The gentleman is definitely dead."
No Duh: The doctor's response:
"Yes, we know. That is, of course, why I summoned the police."
A Break In The Action: Whenever we've found ourselves reading about Victorian England we have always been amazed (a word we do not throw around lightly) at how many servants a household has. Inspector Witherspoon, a bachelor - and it is not too difficult to imagine as inept socially as he is professionally - has a staff large enough for a large family.
Good thing for the Inspector he does have a large household staff (like the house, inherited from his late aunt) or else no crimes would ever get solved. Mrs. Jeffries, herself the widow of a policeman, expertly details the staff out in the field to search for clues, and expertly analyzes the findings and even finds clues herself, all the while keeping the inspector pointed in the right direction.
Standard Internet Disclaimer: Though Gaylon is better read than most of our fellow humans, he's not a scholar for Pete's sake and, in fact, barely graduated high school, though it should be noted this was back when graduating from high school actually meant you had some skills and didn't require remedial college classes. He not only makes no claims to being a professional book reviewer, but does not even warrant that the reviewed book is current, or even being read for the first time.
We Interrupt This Program For A Word From The Ratings Department: Following Is The Official Writer's Shack Rating scale:
EX - Excellent; as good as the medium can produce in every respect.
VG - Very Good. Well worth your time.
GD - Good. More or less worth your time.
AR - All Right. Not completely without merit.
SP - Nothing of substance; a steaming pile, utterly without merit.
Final Rating: GD. Ms. Brightwell, who was actually born in West Virginia and graduated from Cal State Fullerton before visiting England and marrying a limey in the 1970's, has written a very engaging story, that has us eagerly anticipating reading the other two stories in the Mrs. Jeffries trilogy we bought. Witherspoon, despite some bumbling, comes off as a well-meaning, decent man, and Mrs. Jeffries is a saint. The mystery is pretty good, too, though we must confess we long ago stopped trying to solve the mysteries we read, because we were never any good at it.
GOING BACK, A WAY BACK: On this date, in 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei sighted four of Jupiter's moons. Galileo is 46 at the time of the discovery, a little less than two-thirds of the way through his useful life, and at this point can look back on a variety of success in both pure and applied science, as well as inventing the telescope he used to see Jupiter's moons. He also fathered three children out of wedlock, including two daughters who, deemed unfit for marriage due to their illegitimacy, spent their lives in a convent.
Uh-Oh: He has trouble to look forward to for his remaining years, though, as his discovery of Jupiter's moons would begin his troubles with the Catholic Church, as it tended to support Copernicus' view that Earth and the planets revolved around the Sun, instead of the Church's official view that everything revolved around the Earth. In just two years official opposition had started to form and he was officially admonished in 1616, and his books began annoying people around 1621. In 1633 the Church tried and convicted Galileo on heresy charges and he would spend the rest of his life under house arrest, except for some brief periods of travel for medical care. He died in 1642.
Uh, We Would Like To Request Some Assistance With Our Maritime Disaster At Your Convenience: The letters CQD are established as a maritime distress signal on this date in 1904.
While the letters CQD in Morse Code are not conducive to easy typing like SOS, CQ was in common use at the time for land telegraphs to indicate message for all stations, and as a "general call" signal for maritime use, and the "D" was added to indicate distress. It would be replaced by "SOS" in 1906.
Oh, Lookie Here: President Jimmy Carter signed legislation authorizing $1.5 billion (about $4.06 billion in today's dollars) in loan guarantees for Chrysler on this date in 1980. Chrysler would have the loans paid back in 1983.
Order In The Court...Er, Senate: The second impeachment trial of a US president begins on this date in 1999, when Bill Clinton goes on trial in the US Senate on one count each of perjury and obstruction of justice. He would be acquitted on both counts in February.
Thought For The Day: Lethargy [is] the forerunner of death to the public liberty.- Thomas Jefferson
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Samuel Morse was a painter. Congratulations to Antoine, for providing the correct answer in our message boards!
Today's Stumper: Where did Lee Iacocca work before taking over the Chrysler Corporation? - Answer next time!
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
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