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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Clever Mystery, May 7, 2009
This review is from: Death Loves a Messy Desk (Charlotte Adams, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
Charlotte Adams is a control freak, a busybody, and a compulsive organizer who likes to neaten up everything she can get her hands on. While these qualities may make her somewhat irritating to her friends, they also make her a stellar professional organizer and de-clutterer. They also get her in over her head when she is hired by the office manager of Quovadicon to clean up the desk of an employee whose messiness is leading the rest of the office into chaos. Charlotte discovers is that Barb Douglas's messy desk is the least of the company's problems though, as a flaky receptionist, a viperous instigator, and an asocial son of the boss all run rampant under the ineffectual leadership of Fredelle Newhouse. When Charlotte is nearly run off the road and Barb disappears Charlotte is unable to prevent herself from investigating despite the many warnings of her friends and her own post-traumatic stress from previous incidents. Not helping matters is that Charlotte finds herself isolated from her fellow childhood misfits who are all involved in their own relationships, including her best friend Jack who ignores her and whose new girlfriend sends a spike into Charlotte's heart. Between unsuccessfully training her miniature wiener dogs to become therapy dogs, juggling her other organizing jobs, and avoiding getting arrested (again) by the police, Charlotte barely has time to discover why Barb has mysteriously disappeared and what connection she may have had with a murdered man.
Mary Jane Maffini continues to entertain readers in her third mystery featuring Charlotte Adams. This is a mystery full of quirky, humorous, and engaging characters, many of whom are as frustrated with Charlotte's investigative compulsion as she is with it herself. Charlotte is quite aware that she often acts rashly and unwisely, but her need to tidy up loose ends and retain control override all saner impulses. The close circle of friends that Charlotte has reunited with in the small Woodbridge town of 25,000 is what makes her so likable, and at times, vulnerable. This is a fun read for anyone who has ever been trapped in an office with crazy coworkers or who simply enjoys light-hearted, character-driven mysteries.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyed the mystery, disliked the friction with best friend, June 11, 2009
This review is from: Death Loves a Messy Desk (Charlotte Adams, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
Maffini delivers another solid mystery featuring Charlotte Adams, professional organizer. In this installment, Charlotte is hired by an office manager to organize a co-worker's terrifying messy desk. However, even before Charlotte can dive in, office politics ignite in full force and the occupant of the messy desk goes missing. Charlotte joins forces with Detective Tierney to solve the mystery (which kept me turning pages until midnight to learn whodunnit).
Maffini weaves two subplots in with the main mystery: Charlote training her mischievous daschunds to be service dogs and a trend of surprising aloofness from her best friend and neighbor, Jack.
I enjoyed reading about Charlotte's successes and failures in training Truffle and Sweet Marie. Anyone who has tried to train a playful dog will relate to Charlotte's challenges.
I didn't enjoy the plotline where Jack behaves like a jerk. Perhaps Maffini was trying to create sexual tension between Charlotte and Jack; however, for me, it made a previously likeable character into a jerk who dumps his friend for a bimbo. I'm bummed because it will be difficult for me to like reading about Jack in Maffini's future books.
All in all, a good cozy mystery, perfect for whiling away a lazy Saturday. If you liked Maffini's previous mysteries, "Death Loves a Messy Desk" will not disappoint.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A bigger mess than just the desk, June 21, 2009
This review is from: Death Loves a Messy Desk (Charlotte Adams, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
Personal organizer Charlotte Adams has been hired to help clean up one of the messiest desks in business history. At least, that's the situation according to Fredelle Newhouse, the office manager at Quovadicon. Barb Douglas just doesn't seem to know how her disorder is affecting the rest of the staff. Charlotte decides to take the job, and she hopes to solve the problem without getting involved in office politics. But that's not likely: not with Dyan George making waves, Robbie Van Zandt mooning over and defending Barb's reputation, Autumn being the whifftiest receptionist ever, and Fredelle flitting around and trying to play the placating mother figure. In the meantime, Barb has disappeared under questionable circumstances. And before Charlotte can launch a plan of attack, she finds herself too close to what quickly becomes a dangerous murder investigation. Can she trust ANYONE at Quovadicon?
Charlotte is a generally likable protagonist who lives with her companionable dachshunds, Truffle and Sweet Marie. But her organizational mind-set spills over into her personal life, and she can't seem to mind her own business. She dispenses advice constantly to her friends, sometimes without thinking. It's a good thing she has a set of VERY understanding friends who are forgiving of her behavior -- especially since she has to rely on them to take care of her when her impromptu detecting gets out of hand.
Every desk I have ever worked at has been considered messy by some (!), so I felt as if I HAD to read this book. Fortunately for me, no one has been murdered around any of them. Yet. Author Maffini thoughtfully heads each chapter with some organizational tips from Charlotte's notebook. They're good suggestions; but they probably won't change my work habits. Though this is Book Three in the series, it's the first one I've read. And I liked it enough to want to go back and read the first two. A entertaining read featuring a somewhat flawed but realistic main character.
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