An Untidy Death

by Simon Brett

Overview

When Alexandra Richards approaches professional declutterer Ellen Curtis to ask her to help sort out her mother’s chaotic flat, Ellen gets the impression Alexandra doesn’t like her mother very much. Then Ingrid Richards’ body is discovered in her burned-out home, and Ellen’s convinced that there’s something decidedly suspicious about her death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780291284
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Series:	Decluttering Mystery Series , #2
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.98(h) x (d)

About the Author

Simon Brett worked as a producer in radio and television before taking up writing full-time. He is the author of more than 100 books including the much-loved Fethering, Charles Paris, and Mrs Pargeter series, and the brand-new Decluttering mysteries. In 2014 he won the CWA's prestigious Diamond Dagger for an outstanding body of work, and in 2016 he was awarded an OBE for services to literature. He lives in an Agatha Christie-style village in the South Downs.

Editorial Reviews

06/07/2021

Edgar finalist Brett’s diverting sequel to 2020’s The Clutter Corpse opens with Alexandra Richards asking Ellen Curtis, the kind, empathetic owner of a decluttering company called SpaceWoman in Chichester, England, to visit her mother, Ingrid Richards, a former journalist, as Alexandra believes the woman’s apartment has become a fire hazard. Ellen does so and realizes that the stacks of newspapers and books are merely a “personal filing system,” as Ingrid is in the throes of writing a new book. Ellen goes on to her to her next client, who casually informs her that he has murdered his wife. Later, while still pondering the veracity of that remark, she learns that Ingrid has indeed died in a fire in her apartment. Convinced that Ingrid has been murdered, Ellen sets out to investigate. (The other client, as it happens, was just trying to get a rise out of her.) Brett has a gift for creating vivid, complex characters, and he gently massages in teaching moments about clinical depression (Ellen’s manic-depressive husband died by suicide, for instance) and psychological triggers for hoarders. Despite a pretty obvious motive and murderer, cozy fans will be delighted. Agent: Lisa Moylett, CMM Agency (U.K.) (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

An intriguing mystery is made more compelling by Brett's sympathetic understanding of human frailties - Daily Mail

A neatly constructed whodunit - Kirkus Reviews

An Untidy Death Simon Brett Brett has a gift for creating vivid, complex characters … cozy fans will be delighted - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2021-06-02
Ellen Curtis, whose profession is decluttering her clients’ homes, cleans up a lot more in her second case.

It’s ironic that Alexandra Richards wants SpaceWoman, Ellen’s company, to clean out her mother’s home in Brighton because Ingrid Richards herself seems to be the main thing clogging her daughter’s life. Ingrid has traveled the world as a flamboyant journalist, but she’s never taken proper responsibility for the daughter her brief relationship with fellow reporter Niall Connor left her with. Now that Niall has married celebrity Daily Mail columnist Grace Bellamy, everyone seems to be well over the birth of Alexandra, leaving Ingrid surrounded by unsorted papers and Alexandra left to solace herself with the smugly lukewarm endearments of computer repairman Walter Rainbird. Meantime, Ellen frets over the welfares of waitress Mary Griffin, whose abusive husband has been imprisoned since trashing her place, and her own children, remote, London-based Juliet and Nottingham Trent student Ben. Brett’s exposition is a model of effortless efficiency. In no time at all, he sketches out Ellen’s fraught relationship with the ex-actress mother she calls Fleur, details the 1986 hostage rescue in Beirut that left Ingrid scarred and BBC cameraman Phil Dickie crippled, traces Ellen’s uphill battle to declutter the household of widowed Edward Finch, who coyly intimates that he may have murdered his wife, kills off Ingrid in a sadly predictable house fire, and hints that her death may not have been accidental.

A neatly constructed whodunit punctuated by series regulars who periodically break in to speak their piece.

Kirkus Reviews

Brett fans, along with readers who liked Richard Roper's How Not to Die Alone, will love this quirky, warmhearted mystery

Booklist Starred Review of The Clutter Corpse

The first in a new series featuring professional tidier-upper Ellen Curtis ... This psychologist in rubber gloves is an engaging narrator

Guardian on The Clutter Corpse

An imaginative plot with a generous quota of surprises ... Highly enjoyable

Daily Mail on The Clutter Corpse