{"id":5935,"date":"2024-08-31T08:06:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T15:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=5935"},"modified":"2024-08-31T08:06:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T15:06:15","slug":"simon-brett-a-messy-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/simon-brett-a-messy-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Brett: A Messy Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Decluttering mysteries #4<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m not sure why I haven\u2019t read this series before, but this book is so good it makes me want to go back and check out the first three installments.\u00a0 Main character Ellen Curtis is a \u201cprofessional declutterer,\u201d a job that sounds very silly but really isn\u2019t.\u00a0 As the story begins she\u2019s working for a husband and wife looking to downsize, with the wife being all for it and the husband, a fading former TV host, not so enthusiastic.\u00a0 Ellen is a widow, having lost her husband to suicide, and when the husband, \u201cHumph\u201d to his friends, dies, apparently a suicide as well, Ellen\u2019s skills\u00a0 and familiarity with grief come to the fore.<\/p>\n

My sister is always informing me that hoarding is all about grief, and indeed, it seems to be an emotion that Ellen deals with on a daily basis.\u00a0 The hoarders she is helping to declutter have deeper issues that extend well beyond simply saving magazines.\u00a0 In the case of Humph\u2019s widow, Theresa, the two bond over their similar traumatic experience, and Ellen agrees not only to continue the decluttering, but to go ahead and investigate Humph\u2019s apparent suicide, which Theresa is sure is murder.\u00a0 She may just be right\u00a0 \u2013 this is, after all, a murder mystery.<\/p>\n

This book is both cozy and traditional \u2013 Ellen\u2019s job is certainly a typical cozy element,\u00a0 but veteran writer Brett deals with some more serious issues as well.\u00a0 Along with being a widow, Ellen is saddled with a needy mother, the demanding and egotistical Fleur, a semi-retired actress. She also has two children \u2013 Jools, who now works with her, and Ben, who is presently in California dating an up-and-coming movie star.\u00a0 (Fleur is delighted by this development.) This is background, but it\u2019s not only interesting, but well developed and even deep, giving Ellen\u2019s relationships with her children real resonance.<\/p>\n

In the foreground, of course, is the investigation into Humph\u2019s death, which finds Ellen interviewing members of his not extremely bereaved family.\u00a0 Brett has the golden age skill of sketching a character quickly and indelibly in a very few strokes.\u00a0 Characters then stay with you as you read on, gaining real life as more details are added. He\u2019s also funny, adding another underrated golden age ingredient, humor, into his classic mix.<\/p>\n

Ellen also deals with a few other clients, along with a mystery about her daughter\u2019s former neighbor.\u00a0 Her compassionate skills are such that you may feel like looking up declutterers in your area as the book makes it sound like the perfect thing for loneliness and grief. An added bonus is that the junk is often reused or recycled rather than simply being discarded.<\/p>\n

The clever central mystery has a satisfying wrap up which demonstrates another golden age skill \u2013 you\u2019re left guessing the identity of the killer until practically the very last moment.\u00a0 I found this to be one of the best written and enjoyable mysteries I\u2019ve read all year.\u00a0 Simon Brett has produced almost 80 books to this point, and he remains a great gift to all of us who love the genre.\u00a0\u00a0— Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decluttering mysteries #4 I\u2019m not sure why I haven\u2019t read this series before, but this book is so good it makes me want to go back and check out the first three installments.\u00a0 Main character Ellen Curtis is a \u201cprofessional declutterer,\u201d a job that sounds very silly but really isn\u2019t.\u00a0 As the story begins she\u2019s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1824,1057,328,1825,1276,486,1823],"class_list":["post-5935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-a-messy-murder","tag-amateur-sleuth","tag-cozy","tag-decluttering","tag-robin-agnew","tag-severn-house","tag-simon-brett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5935"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5938,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5935\/revisions\/5938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}