“Organize Your Corpses” by Mary Jane Maffini

This is book one of the Charlotte Adams professional organizer series. I’ve never read this book, and I haven’t read anything by this author before. That said and 4 chapters later, I am enjoying it.

The book opens with Charlotte meeting a former schoolteacher of hers for a business appointment. The teacher’s name is Miss Helen Henley. Practically all of her students gave her the nick-name of “Hellfire” because she could make your life a living hell. (Haven’t we all had a teacher like that at one time or another?)

Miss Henley has just inherited the family mansion after the death of her cousin. Unfortunately her cousin has left so much stuff in the mansion that it’s hard to turn around. Wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor boxes of junk: papers and more papers, tools, building materials, household items, lamps, rags, tires, kitty litter, etc, etc! Some usable, most not. Charlotte notes the house is a disaster as well as being a fire hazard, and feels she has her work cut out for her.

Miss Henley believes there are some very important historical documents hidden amongst all the trash, and gives Charlotte just two weeks to get everything cleaned up and cleared out. Miss Henley asks Charlotte if she has done any of this type of work before: meaning searching for hidden documents, not organizing and cleaning up stuff. Charlotte says (to herself) that she’s read enough Nancy Drew books to help her figure it out!

(Stay tuned for more posts on this book).