Death Tidies Up (Charlotte LaRue Mystery Series, Book 2) [Mass Market Paperback]

Barbara Colley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004

Between running her maid service and fretting about her upcoming birthday (the dreaded 6-0), Charlotte LaRue doesn't have much time for gossip. She's trying her best to forget all the rumours she's heard - she has more important things to worry about these days. Like vacuuming, window-washing...and her new job at the old Devilier house. The gorgeous historic home is being transformed into luxury apartments, and maid-for-a-day is in charge of the cleanup. Should be easy enough, Charlotte thinks-until she finds a barely cold corpse in one of the closets. The police are sure the dead man is Brew Bergeron. Funny, considering Drew supposedly died years ago - and Charlotte distinctly remembers attending his funeral. Suddenly all that gossip about the Herberts and Bergerons seems incredibly timely-and Charlotte wishes she'd listened just a little but closer...With old rivalries flaring - and past secrets suddenly back in the present - Charlotte has a feeling this job will involve some real dirty work. Good thing she has a knack for cleaning up crimes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After Colley's strong series debut, Maid for Murder (2002), featuring house-cleaning sleuth Charlotte La Rue, the author stumbles in her second outing, set in New Orleans' Garden District. A scantily clad corpse found in a closet turns out to be real-estate baron Drew Bergeron, whose funeral Charlotte attended two years earlier. This tale of blackmail, fraud and injustice offers little investigation, most of the "evidence" deriving from hindsight and gossip … la Miss Marple but without Christie's insight into human nature. Charlotte's circular musings and personal affairs serve to pad the story rather than add substance to the plot or depth to the supporting characters. Readers tired of the Big Easy as a locale of grim police procedurals, though, may welcome this cozy approach.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A pleasant, easy-paced narrative, familiar New Orleans surroundings, and an appealingly down-to-earth sleuth. Fans of Southern cozies will enjoy."

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575668769
• ISBN-13: 978-1575668765
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #316,907 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A maid in New Orleans helps investigate murder, February 10, 2003

By 

Dawn Dowdle "Mystery Lovers Corner reviewer" (Lynchburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death Tidies Up (Charlotte LaRue Mystery Series, Book 2) (Hardcover)

Charlotte LaRue owns Maid For A Day in New Orleans, LA. Charlotte and Janet, Chere, and Emily, who work for her, clean the new apartments in the renovated Devilier house. Drew Bergeron is discovered dead in one of the apartments. Charlotte faints after he is found. Drew was supposed to have died 2 years ago.

Charlotte's niece, Judith, who is the detective on this case, encourages Charlotte to contact her son Hank who is a doctor. Judith calls Hank the next day. He sets up an appointment with a fellow doctor for his mother for a physical. She is feeling tired and forgetful. She begins worrying that she has some terrible disease. She is also very nervous about her upcoming 60th birthday.

Through families Charlotte cleans for, she gathers information and does some sleuthing. There are plenty of suspects. Charlotte believes in not gossiping about her customers, so she finds it difficult deciding when she should contact Judith with information and when she needs to stay quiet. Sometimes this puts her in dangerous situations.

This author has done a great job creating the characters in this series. I found myself really feeling for Charlotte in her concern for her health and her frustration with turning 60. It is all very believable and well constructed. This series is definitely a quick read. You will want to keep reading until you get to the end.

I like the relationship developing between Charlotte and Louis, Judith's soon to be ex-partner. I hope this will develop even further in future books.

This is the second book in this series. I highly recommend this series. It is definitely a great cozy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cute Series, February 1, 2005

By 

A Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Tidies Up (Charlotte LaRue Mystery Series, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a cute little series, which is good for a night of light reading. If you're looking for an in-depth mystery, then it's not for you.

The problem I do have with the series is that Charlotte constantly talks about not butting into the personal lives of her clients, and how confidentiality and discretion are so important to her that they're grounds for immediate termination of her employees. Yet she goes right ahead and sticks her nose into things and places where it doesn't belong, such as tracking down BJ at school and sneaking into Sam's bedroom to snoop while supposedly using the bathroom. The author should let up a bit on how goody-goody Charlotte is if she's going to do these things and get herself so involved with her clients.

Also, one discrepancy from the first book bothered me. In Book 1, Judith didn't want Charlotte to let the victim's wife know that she's her niece. In this book, when Judith shows up at the house where Charlotte is working to talk to the owner, the owner stares at the two of them and Charlotte comments on how she probably recognized the resemblence between them, since she and Judith are often mistaken for mother and daughter. Shouldn't the wife in Book 1 have noticed this same resemblence if it's so strong, considering she had much more dealings with Judith than the homeowner in Book 2?

I look forward to Book 3.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Another Mess To Clean Up, May 25, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death Tidies Up (Charlotte LaRue Mystery Series, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

Charlotte LaRue, owner of Maid For A Day in New Orleans has two problems. One is that she hasn't been feeling too well lately and the other is she's about to turn the big 60.

But both of these seem unimportant when while cleaning the old Devilier House, which has been converted to apartments, her cleaning crew stumbles across a body.

Being braver than her crew, Charlotte goes to the closet to check and realizes that the half-dressed man sitting on the floor is indeed dead. And even though he's wearing a purple Mardi Gras mask, there's something familiar about him.

But even she was shocked to hear that the dead man was Drew Bergeron, who supposedly died in a plane crash years before. Where had he been, and why had he come back.

Charlotte couldn't help wondering if his death had anything to do with the "accidental" death of Bill Hebert, husband of Marion Hebert, one of her clients. Bill had been fired by Drew years before and had fell into a depression over it. Marion still blames that firing for Bill not paying as close attention as he should have to his new job and that was what caused the accident.

Or maybe it was the secret that Marion, Bill and Drew shared, going back 20 years which was the real problem.

Charlotte tries to solve the mystery, before the killer can kill again.

Highlights:

I really like the relationship between Charlotte and her family friends, especially her niece, Judith who's a Police Detective and her son, Hank, who's a doctor.

She has a great just beginning, but not quite a romance, yet starting with Detective Louis Thibodeaux, who is getting ready to retire and is living in the other half of Charlotte's Duplex while he's building his new house. If you read the first book in this series, "Maid For Murder" these two would have been the least likely people to have ever gotten together.

Lowlights:

The mystery. I figured out who did it and why halfway through the book and then spent the rest of the book, thinking, it must be a red herring because it can't be that easy. But it was.

Too many loose ends. Why did Drew leave. You have theories, but no one ever comes right out says this is why Drew disappeared. How did he do it, and why did he come back?

There are several things the killer does that don't make sense and they're not explained, I can't say what they are because it would give away who the killer was.

Overall it was an nice read. Nothing that makes you really excited to get the next book in the series. But good enough that you want to read the next one.