Review by Booklist Review
Brett, who writes the Charles Paris mysteries, the Fethering mysteries, and the Mrs. Pargeter mysteries, and who has won the UK's Crime Writers Association's Diamond Dagger Award for sustained excellence in the genre, now launches a new series. This first Decluttering mystery provides a genially literal take on the role of the detective as someone who straightens out a very big mess. Ellen Curtis is a declutterer. Her job, sometimes at the invitation of people who need help with organization, sometimes at the behest of British social services for people whose hoarding has made their homes dangerous, means that she sees things most people never see and finds ways to deal with it. Ellen narrates, and we learn about the traumas in her past that make her compelled to bring order out of chaos. Ellen's first case with a corpse is in a hoarder's flat, which belongs to the mother of a young man just out of prison. Ellen finds a hand under a pile of mattresses attached to an emaciated young woman, a woman Ellen knew before the victim's descent leading to drug addiction and death. Watching Ellen investigate this crime on her own is thoroughly fascinating. Brett fans, along with readers who liked Richard Roper's How Not to Die Alone (2019), will love this quirky, warmhearted mystery.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in Chichester, England, this gentle series launch from Brett (the Fethering mysteries) introduces Ellen Curtis, a widow with two grown children who runs her own business called SpaceWoman, which offers decluttering and interior restyling. As Ellen goes about a typical workday, she chats engagingly about her clients, her friends, her actor mother, her children, her deceased husband, and her adventurous youth. However, her afternoon takes an unexpected turn when she stops in at the cluttered apartment of Maureen Ogden, whose grown son, Nate, has recently been released on parole from prison where he was serving time for his live-in girlfriend's murder. Amid the stacked newspapers and piles of debris, Ellen finds the body of an emaciated young woman. Could Nate be the killer? Ellen decides to investigate. The languid lead-up to the body's discovery turns out to be necessary preparation for another murder and the denouement. The appealing Ellen is fortunate to pursue a profession that allows her to enter into the homes and minds of her clients. She is sure to win many loyal fans. Agent: Lisa Moylett, CMM Agency (U.K.). (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Ellen Curtis owns a business, SpaceWoman, helping people declutter their homes in southern England. Most of her jobs come from people whose family members are hoarders, and she tries to help them deal with their life issues as well. One of Ellen's best friends, Hilary, is a psychotherapist who works with prisoners who are about to be released. Because Hilary doesn't believe Nate Ogden will be released to his mother's home unless the house is cleaned up, Ellen agrees to help. Unexpectedly, she uncovers a drug addict's body stuffed in a back room, something that usually doesn't happen on her job. When Ellen recognizes the corpse, she's curious enough to dig into the past, meet with a drug dealer, and put herself in danger, typical behavior for an amateur sleuth. VERDICT Brett, author of the "Fethering" and "Charles Paris" mysteries, launches a new series with a story that dwells too much on the protagonist's past and family history to make for a tedious, stuffy account. Readers may want to skip this cold introduction, which has more framework than mystery. [See Prepub Alert, 11/18/19.]--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Brett, long a prolific and sharp-eyed observer of the British middle class's crimes and misdemeanors, launches a new series whose heroine wants to declutter your life. Despite some misgivings about the aeronautical implications of the name, Ellen Curtis is content that SpaceWoman aptly communicates her vocation: to give her clients more room to grow in all sorts of ways by helping them clean out their domiciles. Her matter-of-fact approach to both her clients and the work she does, often aided by a hauler she's dubbed Dodge, usually bulldozes obstacles that intimidate the hoarders who've erected them. This time, however, she's stuck with three problem cases at once. Historian Tobias Lechlade's wife, Dorothy, is so intimidated by him that she can't commit to engaging SpaceWoman, and once she does, Tobias is more interested in hitting on Ellen than in letting her clean out his attic. Jeanette Tallis, who's filled an entire outbuilding on her homestead with outfits she's never worn and mostly never even unpacked, doesn't want the services her wealthy husband, Bruce, is willing to pay Ellen to provide, and things get even messier after she changes her mind. Worst of all is Ellen's trip to see Maureen Ogden, a serious hoarder whose son, Nate, paroled years after killing his girlfriend with a frying pan, plans to live with her if everything works out. Catching sight of a hand attached to a female corpse in Maureen's cluttered home is enough to persuade Ellen instantly that everything's not going to work out. As usual, Brett develops his mystery in fits and starts, with a particularly lumpy flashback to Ellen's years of marriage, but he fits most of the pieces together smartly in the end. Come for the clues, stay for the heroine's appealingly no-nonsense new voice. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
