The Cluttered Corpse by Mary Jane Maffini
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I dove into this one right after reading the first in the series featuring Charlotte Adams, the non-stop organizer of people and things. Probably not a good idea. The protagonist’s unflagging energy and curiosity, disguised as concern, can be a bit wearing taken in big doses. Also, it felt sort of like I was still reading the first book.
But then some of the irritating aspects of book one were changed. The annoying extension of the plot through “just missed getting the answer” once-twice-thrice device, was dropped in this book. There were again the consistency errors (which a good editor would’ve picked up on, so much for traditional publishers being superior to indies), but not quite so glaring as in the first book. And though I felt that Charlotte’s constant need to talk to her estranged friend was a little forced and more like a plot device to create greater chaos and drama than an extension of her character, I did towards the end of the book start to see the character motivations for doing so.
The book does get better as it goes along, which is preferable to some books that get worse! And all in all, it’s a nice time-waster to escape the turmoil of one’s own life.
