Waste of a Life

September 15, 2021
That physical chaos in one's surroundings is often a sign of emotional chaos is a basic premise in the psychology of hoarding. It's also the jumping-off point for Simon Brett's most recent series, the Decluttering Mysteries (this is the second installment, following The Clutter Corpse, 2020), in which a "professional declutterer" confronts not just untidiness, but also murder hidden within the clutter. Ellen Curtis, who operates SpaceWoman, her "smallompany," throughout Sussex, is an extremely sympathetic accidental sleuth; she's deft at convincing people to move toward order, while facing down some truly messy realities in her own life, including an egomaniacal mother and a deeply depressed son. This time out, a woman needs a risk assessment on the domestic habits of her mother, a former war correspondent who covered worldwide conflicts in the '80s. The daughter is convinced that her mother's drinking and smoking in paper-strewn rooms could lead to the accidental torching of her home. Tragedy by fire does follow, but was it the result of clutter or murder? Ellen's investigation uncovers many fascinating facts about the harrowing business of covering war and the bitter rivalries it induces. As usual, Brett is brilliant at creating settings that reflect character. Add this series to Brett's acclaimed Charles Paris and Fethering novels.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2022
What better way to orchestrate a contemporary locked-room mystery than to have the murder victim be a recluse who refuses to open his door to anyone? In the third installment of Brett's ingenious new series, The Decluttering Mysteries, heroine Ellen Curtis--who runs a business specializing in helping clients get rid of stuff that is choking their lives--is the only one with a key to the reclusive man's home. When she finds his body, and after forensics determines that the old man was poisoned, Ellen becomes the prime suspect and must use her access to clear herself. Brett reanimates many features of the Golden Age mystery: an impossible crime, a greatly anticipated will, a full quiver of suspects, and a fiendishly ingenious murder weapon. Brett's heroine, Ellen, who narrates, is funny and sympathetic, with a personal life that mirrors the physical chaos of her clients' homes. Ellen and her two adult children are still beset by the shock of her husband's suicide 10 years ago. Brett layers the old-fashioned puzzle with deep psychological insights into the downward spiral of hoarders and recluses, spirals which can be triggered by any kind of loss and which manifest in compulsive accumulation, a refusal to move on, or reclusiveness: think Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. Not to be missed.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2022
Not even the death of a client can keep professional declutterer Ellen Curtis from probing the details of his sorry life. "I get interested in people and I want to see how their stories turn out," says the proprietor and sole employee of SpaceWoman. It's as good an explanation as any for why she attaches herself to Cedric Waites, an elderly widower who'd been referred to her by social services after a nasty fall. At first Cedric, whose accident clearly hasn't mellowed his disposition, won't let Ellen inside; even after he relents, he's not her most cordial client, and their standoffs don't end until she finds him lying dead on his bed. DI Bayles thinks Cedric was poisoned, and he's not pleased that Ellen's unwittingly disposed of some important evidence before the Chichester police could examine it. She expresses due regret, more to herself than him, but her continuing interest in the arc of Cedric's life must compete with her work for retired English teacher Mim Galbraith, whose dementia is worsening, and new client Lita Cullingford; with her dismay that Bayles favors her colleague Gervaise "Dodge" Palmier, who retired from the city to do hauling and woodworking, as the poisoner; and with the distressing complications in the personal lives of her grown children, aspiring animator Ben and aspiring influencer Jools, who's always been "mildly bolshie" anyway. The veteran author, who could probably compose these chronicles in his sleep, distributes his clues cleverly and ties them up with a professional neatness his heroine might envy. Brett's brisk descriptions, pacing, and juggling of subplots temper the sadness of the victim's recovered biography.

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