Mrs. Jeffries Sweeps the Chimney Lib/E

She keeps house for Inspector Witherspoon . . . and keeps him on his toes. Everyone's awed by his Scotland Yard successes--but they don't know about his secret weapon. No matter how messy the murder or how dirty the deed, Mrs. Jeffries's polished detection skills are up to the task . . . proving that behind every great man there's a woman--and that a crimesolver's work is never done. Inspector Witherspoon is perplexed. No one seems to know the identity of the dead man dressed like a vicar and propped up against the outside wall of St. Paul's Church. A paper clutched in the corpse's hand reveals the address of a dilapidated and seemingly abandoned cottage--abandoned if you don't count the human skeleton stuffed in the chimney. To link these two bizarre incidents will take all of the resources at Witherspoon's command--and a little help from the efficient Mrs. Jeffries . . .

Emily Brightwell was born in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia. Her family moved to Southern California in 1959 and she grew up in Pasadena. After graduating from CSU Fullerton, she decided to work her way around the world and started in England. She didn't get any further because she met her future husband there, got married, and moved back to California. While living in Long Beach, she decided to pursue her dream and be a writer--despite having two children and a full-time job. She began the Mrs. Jeffries series in 1993 and has written more than thirty more mysteries in the series in the following twenty-plus years. Now that her children are grown and have left home, Emily and her husband live in the Bay Area.