If a health spa sounds like an unlikely spot for Mrs. Pargeter, you’re right. But, the kindly widow agrees to accompany a friend, Kim Thurrock, to Brotherton Hall health spa for a few days. In fact, Mrs. P and Mrs. Thurrock have something in common. They both had husbands who “went away” for a year or more at a time. But, in Simon Brett’s Mrs. Pargeter’s Pound of Flesh, she finally gets revenge for a betrayal, Streatham.

When Mrs. P. learns one of her husband’s old acquaintances, Mr. Arkwright, manages the spa, she quickly takes advantage of his allegiance to her late husband. She was not happy to be served cottage cheese for the first meal, but she finds a way to eat meals made by the hall’s chef, and escape the exercise programs. She’s really not interested in the Dead Sea Mud Baths. Her happiness doesn’t prevent her from investigating, though, when she overhears a young woman saying they were going to kill her. It isn’t long before Mrs. P. sees two attendants carrying out a body.

As Mrs. P. digs in, she’s shocked to learn she might not be able to trust some of the men who used to work with her husband, including Mr. Arkwright. And, she definitely doesn’t trust Sue Fisher, owner of Mind Over Fatty Matter, a health empire. But, she still has a few reliable men to call on, including the mournful lawyer, Truffler Mason. But, who is behind the deaths and disappearances at the spa?

Mrs. Pargeter’s Pound of Flesh is my favorite in the series so far. It’ was fun to see Mrs. P’s methods of avoiding spa activities And, I was happy to see her get revenge for her late husband’s time away from her. Brett continues to put our heroine in unlikely spots, and make it work in an enjoyable mystery.

Simon Brett’s website is https://www.simonbrett.com/

Mrs. Pargeter’s Pound of Flesh by Simon Brett. Charles Scriber’s Sons, 1993. ISBN 9780684195658 (hardcover), 207p.

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