Ellen Curtis is a professional declutterer and so goes into the houses of a wide range of people and gains an insight into their lives and emotional states. In the course of one job she comes across a body which is plainly the victim of murder. Ellen feels something of a suspect in the case and tries to get to the bottom of the mystery herself, while carrying on with her other jobs and her personal life and an involved mystery emerges.
As ever with Simon Brett, it is a well written story with a faintly unbelievable plot, which we happily forgive for the enjoyment and for the very well drawn characters. This time, however, the overall tone is rather more serious and I think he gets a bit bogged down in both background and some slightly dodgy psychology. There is a good deal about depression which is very well done, but which rather dominates the book in places so that I thought the balance was somewhat off. There were one or two other places where I found the psychological analysis a little dubious.
I read An Untidy Death, the second in the series, before this and then came back to The Clutter Corpse with high expectations. I thought An Untidy Death was excellent, with a similar, somewhat more serious tone, but a far better balance of plot, character and psychology. I can only give this one a slightly cautious recommendation in itself, but the series as a whole promises to be very good indeed. Try this first, but even if you don’t get on too well with it, do persist with An Untidy Death – and I shall certainly be looking out for the next in this series.
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