A Messy Murder

by Simon Brett

Overview

Ellen Curtis – professional declutterer, amateur sleuth and woman of a certain age – investigates the puzzling death of a TV personality who’s past his prime

"Brett laces the plot with show-biz details that fans of Brett’s Charles Paris series will relish. This very special series grows more fascinating with each entry" Booklist Starred Review 

Professional declutterer Ellen Curtis doesn’t need to like her clients to help them sort their homes out. Aging TV personality and curmudgeon Humphrey Carter might have a chip on his shoulder the size of England about the decline of his career, but a job’s a job.

But when Ellen arrives the morning after Humph’s eightieth birthday party, primed and ready to tackle his study – no matter his protests – she gets the shock of her life. Humph’s dead . . . and all signs point to him having taken his own life.

Did the egotistical chat show host really die by suicide? His wife is adamant he’s been murdered, and the more Ellen looks, the more dirt on Humph she digs up . . . and the more suspects she uncovers.

Can she track down a killer – if there even is one? And, just as importantly, can she keep herself from killing not only her own infuriating mother, but also her two grown-up children, who all seem determined to destroy her peace of mind?

This thoroughly engaging contemporary mystery is perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Janice Hallett and M.C. Beaton.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448316496
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	05/27/2025
Series:	The Decluttering Mysteries , #4
Edition description:	Main ed.
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Simon Brett worked as a producer in radio and television before taking up writing full-time. He was awarded an OBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours for services to Literature and also was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2014 he won the CWA’s prestigious Diamond Dagger for an outstanding body of work.

Editorial Reviews

Ellen is an extremely sympathetic accidental sleuth . . . Brett is brilliant at creating settings that reflect character

Booklist Starred Review of An Untidy Death

Brett laces the plot with show-biz details that fans of Brett’s Charles Paris series will relish. This very special series grows more fascinating with each entry

Booklist Starred Review

Witty and amusing feelgood fiction

The Times on Waste of a LIfe

[Readers] will love this quirky, warmhearted mystery

Booklist Starred Review of The Clutter Corpse

Brett layers the old-fashioned puzzle with deep psychological insights . . . Not to be missed

Booklist Starred Review on Waste of a LIfe

2024-07-04
Ellen Curtis, the decluttering expert of SpaceWoman, is called on to tidy up the suspicious death of her latest client’s husband.

Now that their daughters, Chloe and Kirsty, are grown and gone, Theresa Carter thinks it’s high time that she and her husband downsize. Before they can leave Staddles, their spacious home outside the West Sussex village of Amberley, they’ll have to get rid of clothing, books, papers, tools, and the rest. What may need downsizing most urgently is Humphrey Carter’s ego. Though he’s no longer a journalist or a chat show host, the approach of his 80th birthday finds him still a freelance celebrity trailing clouds of glory, at least in his own skies. Humph’s self-infatuation has crashed to an end by the time Ellen finds him dead from an overdose of sleeping pills in his bottle of Famous Grouse—exactly the recipe he’d once prescribed for octogenarians in a column for the magazineRant Ellen finds at his side. The circumstances scream suicide, but Theresa’s not so sure. She wants Ellen to look deeper into the case, and her recommendation of Ellen’s services to Niall Fitzpatrick, the longtime producer of Humph’s TV show whose wife died of cancer six months ago, seems designed specifically to help Ellen gather more evidence. But that won’t be easy, since Ellen’s also busy helping her friend Dodge figure out who’s stealing the wood he’s recovered from old houses and dealing with the drama provided by her own children, animator Ben and online fashion writer Jools, whose stint of working for SpaceWoman after a mysterious breakdown clearly won’t last forever.

Solid, unspectacular, and, despite its title, as economically told as if the story had been decluttered itself.

Kirkus Reviews