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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Professional Organizer Means Business!,
By
This review is from: The Cluttered Corpse (A Charlotte Adams Mystery) (Paperback)
The Cluttered Corpse is the second book in the Charlotte Adams, professional organizer, cozy series. Charlotte is a very likable heroine - she has her faults, but she is very genuine - a person any of us would enjoy knowing. Her friends remind me of very real people living very real lives. Their group dynamic is convincingly authentic - a group of friends who were close in high school but whose lives took them down very different paths and whose relationships have changed along the way. They are now all back in Woodbridge, NY, the small, idyllic town where they grew up. It's just small enough that neighbors know one another (some for all their lives) and aren't afraid to lend a hand, and yet close enough to the big city to be convenient.
Charlotte is hired by Emmy Lou Rheinbeck to organize a collection of stuffed animals that has literally taken over the second floor of her impeccable home. While there, Charlotte notices that Emmy Lou is very nervous and jumpy. She attributes the nervousness to pranks that are being played on Mrs. Rheinbeck by two handicapped adult males, one of whom lives next door. Charlotte wants to call the police, but Emmy Lou basically tells her to mind her own business and then fires her - which only serves to worry Charlotte even more. Emmy Lou later relents and asks Charlotte to meet her again, but this time when Charlotte arrives - late, unfortunately, to their appointment - she encounters an hysterical Emmy Lou in the street and finds a dead man at the bottom of Emmy Lou's stairs. When Emmy Lou is carted away from the scene in handcuffs, Charlotte resolves to do whatever she can to prove that this gentle woman didn't do anything wrong. There has been a lot of strain in the relationship between Charlotte and her policewoman friend, Pepper, but Charlotte decides to ask for her help anyway. When Pepper tells Charlotte, in no uncertain terms, to stay out of it, Charlotte enlists the aid of the rest of her group of friends, which unknowingly puts them all in danger. Nothing on Bell Street is as it seems, and the reader will have a dickens of a time trying to figure things out. Chances are, the reader won't have any better luck than Charlotte! This was a very enjoyable cozy with a very likable female protagonist and a great group of friends. I'll definitely be looking forward to the third book in this series, for the likable characters, the great story, and, of course, the great organizational tips! Carol Ann Hopkins 4/4/2008
20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Awful,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Cluttered Corpse (A Charlotte Adams Mystery) (Paperback)
I couldn't believe that a book that has been professionally written, edited and published could be released with so many errors. Many times, there were complete words missing from sentences (i.e. "Remember in high school we geeks?" "Remember that in future.") or glaring misspellings ("I put the petal to the metal.") At one point, the client tells Charlotte he'll leave a check made out to her contractor at his house for her to pick up -- but then she picks up the check, cashes it, and pays the contractor in cash. How did she cash a check that was made out to someone else?
And that wasn't the worst of it. The character of Charlotte may be one of the most annoying to ever show up in a cozy. She meets a woman who wants to hire her and after knowing her for half an hour, she inserts herself right into the woman's life -- involving herself in what she views as harrassment of the woman, assuming she's innocent of a murder she claims to have committed. Charlotte then goes around barging in on the woman's family and neighbors, decides she should be the one to inform the client's husband of her situation, tries to force her best friend on the woman's husband to be her lawyer, puts her friends in all kinds of danger and disregards direct orders from the police to stay out of their case. I hate stories where the main character has no reason for being involved in what's going on, and this book really took the cake. Charlotte didn't even know this woman to be so involved in what was going on. And despite the fact that Pepper kept telling her to stay out of things, she never did anything about it when Charlotte kept putting herself square in the center of everything. The whole thing became ludicrous after awhile. There have been some outrageous professions chosen in cozies lately, but a professional organizer tops them all. Since there's little to no reason someone like this would be involved in murder and mystery, it seems we're in for more convoluted reasons for Charlotte to get involved in things that don't concern her. Frankly, I'll pass.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another winner,
By
This review is from: The Cluttered Corpse (A Charlotte Adams Mystery) (Paperback)
The second book in Mary Jane Maffini's Charlotte Adams series is a hoot - a really fun read. Her characters are believeable, the setting real and the plot full of twists. The character interplay and dynamics add to overall effect. Her organizing tips add to the enjoyment - they really make sense. I look forward to the next installment. Good job.
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