{"id":6976,"date":"2026-03-30T05:11:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6976"},"modified":"2026-03-30T05:11:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:11:03","slug":"simon-brett-a-disorganised-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/simon-brett-a-disorganised-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Brett: A Disorganised Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Decluttering Mystery #5<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I love series fiction.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure I love it for the reasons many others love it \u2013 the deep and extended look at characters we grow to love as readers.\u00a0 Some we love so much they seem real, to the point where when a series character is occasionally killed off, readers revolt and grieve, as though the characters actually were real, not fictional.\u00a0 Simon Brett has written several series (Charles Paris, Mrs. Pargeter, Feathering) but I am hooked on this one.<\/p>\n

This series follows Ellen and her family \u2013 she\u2019s a widow with two twenty something children and an irritating and self-involved mother, Fleur.\u00a0 By book five they are now old friends I am happy to reunite with, though Brett writes in such a way that a reader could enjoy the books in any order.\u00a0 Ellen works as a home declutterer \u2013 often helping hoarders come to terms with their reasons for hoarding and letting go of some of their stuff.<\/p>\n

In each book, Ellen also seems to function as a defacto social worker slash therapist as she gently takes people through their lives, as reflected in their accumulations.\u00a0 Of course, into this heaven, a little rain must fall, and as these are mystery novels, the rain comes in the form of murder.<\/p>\n

There are two households Ellen works with in this novel.\u00a0 One is the home of a now deceased and retired pub owner whose death came after a fall down the stairs. His daughter and son in law have taken over (and fancied up) the comfortable old pub and want to live in the attached house.\u00a0 Ellen says repeatedly she doesn\u2019t do house clearance, but when the daughter assures her she\u2019s also looking for her father\u2019s missing will, Ellen can\u2019t resist the mystery and dives in.<\/p>\n

The other household is directly above her daughter Jools\u2019 flat. Jools lives in London with her boyfriend and has recently joined her mother\u2019s company\u00a0 She\u2019s started her work in her upstairs neighbor\u2019s apartment but when she and Ellen go to take a look at her progress, with the assurances that the neighbor is in one of his other apartments for the night, they find him on his bed, smothered by the Amazon packages he ordered \u2013 so many that he had to hire Jools to deal with them.<\/p>\n

Are either of these deaths accidents, or are they more deliberate?\u00a0 In each case there\u2019s a missing or contested will and there\u2019s some classic scenes in a solicitor\u2019s office as well as some true detective work on Ellen\u2019s part.\u00a0 These are gentle stories told in a seemingly casual manner, but like all golden age style writers, Brett includes no detail that is not relevant.\u00a0 You may be enjoying your read, but pay attention!<\/p>\n

The not so gentle portion of the books lies in Ellen\u2019s family life.\u00a0 Her husband died by suicide, and Ellen\u2019s son, Ben, suffers from depression.\u00a0 He\u2019s in a bad state at the moment, living in Ellen\u2019s house in his old childhood bedroom.\u00a0 The depiction of Ben\u2019s depression and his shifting moods are heartbreakingly authentic.\u00a0 It lends an undertone of sadness to the novels.\u00a0 In this particular novel, Ellen\u2019s daughter is having some possible relationship issues which play into the plot.\u00a0 Her problems aren\u2019t as serious as Ben\u2019s, but Ellen is still dealing with two grown children in a believable way.<\/p>\n

The mystery has a nice golden age style wrap up in a solicitor\u2019s office, as well as a settling of some of Ellen\u2019s personal issues.\u00a0 These books are so nicely written, so well plotted, and so full of characters I\u2019m happy to revisit that my wait for the next book always seems like a long one.\u00a0 The 80-year-old Brett shows no signs of slowing down \u2013 he\u2019s just begun another series.\u00a0 Write on! —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

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Decluttering Mystery #5 I love series fiction.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure I love it for the reasons many others love it \u2013 the deep and extended look at characters we grow to love as readers.\u00a0 Some we love so much they seem real, to the point where when a series character is occasionally killed off, readers revolt … 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":[2450,1057,2451,1276,486,1823],"class_list":["post-6976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-a-disorganised-death","tag-amateur-sleuth","tag-decluttering-mystery","tag-robin-agnew","tag-severn-house","tag-simon-brett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976","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=6976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6978,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976\/revisions\/6978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}