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    Organize Your Corpses
    Organize Your Corpses
    Organize Your Corpses
    Ebook327 pages5 hours

    Organize Your Corpses

    By Mary Jane Maffini

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    After freeing herself from a cheating fiancé and the other useless clutter in her life, Charlotte Adams moves back to her hometown in Upstate New York to make a fresh start as a professional organizer. But she’s about to learn that foul play can creep into even the most well-ordered life.

    Eager to get her new career started, Charlotte agrees to take on a job from the former high school teacher who filled all her students’ lives with chaos and confusion. But no sooner does Charlotte begin digging through years of accumulated junk than she finds her first client dead—and herself named as the main suspect.

    While any number of the victim’s former students had a motive for murder, Charlotte knows that death is rarely that tidy, and she can’t help meddling in the investigation to prove herself innocent and repair her sullied reputation. But the killer has a to-do list of their own, and the first item is to clean up a little mess named Charlotte Adams . . .

    Organizing Tips Included!

    Praise for the Books of Mary Jane Maffini:

    “A comedic, murderous romp . . . Maffini is a relaxed, accomplished, and wickedly funny writer.” —The Montreal Gazette

    “Mary Jane Maffini provides a first-rate, well-organized whodunit . . . A new series that is fun to read.” —Midwest Book Review

    “Maffini’s new series . . . is off to a brilliant start with this fast-paced mystery!” —Romantic Times

    “Deserves top marks for creating an entertaining, fast-paced thriller filled with witty one-liners, snappy dialogue and crackling suspense.” —The Strand Magazine

    “I’ll look forward to a long life for this series.” —Deadly Pleasures

    “Plenty of twists and turns that kept me turning the pages until the last sentence.” —Dru’s Book Musings

    “Maffini is a relaxed, accomplished and wickedly funny writer . . .” —The Times Colonist

    About the Author:

    Agatha and RT Award winner Mary Jane Maffini is the author of three and a half mystery series and two dozen short stories. Along with the Charlotte Adams professional organizer mysteries, she’s the author of the Camilla MacPhee Mysteries and the Fiona Silk comic capers. As Victoria Abbott, she collaborated on five collector mysteries with her daughter, Victoria. Mary Jane lives and plots in Manotick, Ontario, with a cluster of mischievous dachshunds at her feet.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBeyond the Page Publishing
    Release dateMay 18, 2021
    ISBN9781954717220
    Organize Your Corpses
    Author

    Mary Jane Maffini

    Mary Jane Maffini is a lapsed librarian and a mystery addict. Author of six Camilla MacPhee mysteries, two Fiona Silk adventures, five Charlotte Adams books, and nearly two dozen short stories. She holds two Arthur Ellis Awards for best mystery short story, as well as the Derrick Murdoch lifetime achievement award. Speak Ill of the Dead was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel and Lament for a Lounge Lizard for best novel. She lives and plots in Ottawa.

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    Reviews for Organize Your Corpses

    3.5/5

    80 ratings11 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Organize Your Corpses by Mary Jane Maffini is the first book in A Charlotte Adams Mystery series. I liked the premise of this series. It has potential for many interesting scenarios. The reality, though, was disappointing. You must suspend all logical thoughts when reading this tale. Some things are farfetched. I ended up not liking any of the characters (not even the dogs). Charlotte Adams is a “professional organizer” whose life is a mess. She is a plucky woman, but I found her too impetuous. Charlotte goes to a client meeting with two unruly dogs (that made no sense whatsoever). I also wondered how she kept getting jobs when she failed to complete any of them. The mystery was interesting. I like solving unique mysteries. Unfortunately, the whodunit was not the focus of the book. Charlotte’s friends seem to do more investigating than Charlotte. For the resolution, you must suspend your disbelief. At the end, we are left with many unanswered questions (what happened between Pepper and Charlotte for example). Avid cozy mystery readers only need to a couple of pieces of information to solve it. I wondered what year this book was set in. It did not seem to be set in the present day (not within the last three years at least). Organize Your Corpses had too much wackiness and cliché elements for my tastes. I did enjoy the organizing tips before each chapter. My favorite tip was, “Keep an interesting book with you in case you find yourself in a boring place with time on your hands.” While Organize Your Corpses was not my cup of tea, I suggest you obtain a sample to see if it suits you. Organize Your Corpses is an offbeat cozy mystery with a disarranged dwelling, a vile victim, a dogged detective, a kindly landlord, a frenzied family, and a perplexing puzzle.
    • 5/5
      small-business, small-town, cozy-mystery, murder-investigation, amateur-sleuth, situational-humor, verbal-humor, friendship, law-enforcement, dachshunds***** The interactions among the majority of the characters is classic Returns To Small Town Where One Grew Up. Been there, done that. But it seems a lot funnier in fiction! Charlotte went from a high powered job in NYC and a scum fiance to her own business and former friends in the hometown. One of her first jobs as a professional organizer is for the teacher voted most hated by all her students, but Charlotte and her beautiful dachshunds are the ones who find her body. Then Charlotte discovers a new aspect of herself in an obsession to find who Don The Deed. Lots of laughs, and the sleuthing isn't bad. I really enjoyed the read! I requested and received a free temporary ebook from Beyond the Page Publishing via NetGalley. Thanks! I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Beyond The Page Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you!
    • 4/5
      Great start to this series!
    • 4/5
      Nice light summer read. Charlotte Adams is a professional organizer who moves back to her home town to start a business. A murder happens very soon after she meets her first client. This is a light hearted story full of kooky characters and two mini dachshunds.
    • 4/5
      Professional organizer Charlotte Adams can't afford to be picky about clients which is why she agrees to help teacher Helen "Hellfire" Henley with a project. Miss Henley made high school life miserable for many a student including Charlotte and her friends. Still, Charlotte takes her on as a client, hoping it will give her some much needed publicity. Sure enough, Charlotte gets a lot of publicity - the wrong kind - when she discovers Miss Henley's dead body and becomes the number one suspect in the murder. Charlotte works frantically to clear her name before she is sent to jail. She'll have her hands filled as the murderer has more than one trick up his/her sleeve."Organize Your Corpses" is a pretty good cozy mystery (the first in the Charlotte Adams series). Having Charlotte be a professional organizer is a good set up for a mystery series and author Mary Jane Maffini does a nice job with it, including giving organizing tips at the beginning of each chapter. The murder victim is an ex-teacher who made a lot of enemies which provides a lot of suspects and the reader will have fun trying to guess who the killer is. Maffini has some Agatha Christie like qualities in her writing that she uses quite skillfully - originally Miss Henley asks Charlotte to search for a missing document, a plot line that is Christie through and through although Maffini takes a delightful u-turn with that plot. Also like in Christie's books, there are plenty of red herrings and plot twists including a doozy of one that will shock readers. The characters are all well done including Charlotte who is a very unorganized professional organizer; her best friends Jack and Sally; and even her dogs Truffle and Sweet Marie. Part of what makes the characters work so well is that they've known each other for a long time, having gone to high school together. However, it's a bit disappointing that Maffini only hints at the reasons why policewoman Pepper and Charlotte, once best friends, are now enemies (I'd have liked a few more scenes with Charlotte and Pepper interacting). Charlotte's character can be a bit judgmental and I'd love to know Pepper's side of things."Organize Your Corpses" is a pretty good cozy mystery and I look forward to reading other books in the series.
    • 4/5
      I tend to avoid most mysteries that seem to be based on hobbies, crafts, or oddball jobs, because I expect them to be too cutesy. However, I'd heard enough praise of Mary Jane Maffini to be willing to try one of her books. I'm glad I did, because it was well-written and the organizing tips didn't get in the way of a very complicated plot and some engaging characters. The setting, a small town in upstate New York, was nicely drawn (the protagonist even shops at the same supermarket I do, and I know that's accurate). My only real quibble with that was that the town doesn't seem to have a public high school, since most of the characters went to Catholic high school together. Ms. Maffini is Canadian, and I know their system is somewhat different. Otherwise, this book provided a welcome relief from some heavier things I've been reading, and I'll look for more in the series.
    • 4/5
      Charlotte Adams has returned to her hometown and started a business to help others with their organizational problems. When she gets a call from a former teacher (that everyone in town hates) her friend Sally warns her not to take the job. But Charlotte is brave and heads over to Henley House to meet with Helen Henley about the job. Charlotte accepts her check and plans to meet her to start working on the following day but in the evening she receives a call from HH demanding her to come right away. Charlotte tells her that she will meet her in the morning as arranged and when she arrives she finds HH dead.Enter Pepper Monahan, Charlotte's former best friend, who is the police detective and who finds great joy in making Charlotte uncomfortable and has her as the chief suspect. Charlotte has t find the killer before Pepper gets sufficient evidence to put her ex-friend under arrest.The characters in this new series are fun and entertaining, the situations are humorous, and the surprise ending has the reader saying wow! I didn't see that coming. Loads of fun, a definite cozy to read!
    • 3/5
      HATED HER DOGS! the story would have been so much better without them.kinda unbelievable solution. not really a bad story. she is personally so disorganized and that's her job!
    • 3/5
      Lightweight themed-mystery fluff. Not bad, but not exciting. The lead character borders on engaging, but falls short with a neurotic need to sort, plan and organize. Throw in female-specific "Organizing tips!" (Keep an extra package of new stockings in your drawer, glove compartment, and briefcase. You'll never know when you'll need them.) of no use to this male reader (as well as the females I asked in random sampling) as well as a minor character used for dramatic tension getting her comeuppance in ONE sentence in the next-to-last page and the result is a series I will likely pass on for the remainder.
    • 4/5
      fast read; decent organizing tips included.
    • 3/5
      I bought this as a silly summer light-weight escape read, and it was a little bit better written than I had expected. The heroine, Charlotte Adams, is a professional organizer, whose life falls apart as she becomes a suspect in the murder of her former high school teacher. Each chapter heading is a tip for personal organization. Fluff, but not too bad. I might read others in the Charlotte Adams series if I find them at the library, but I don't want to collect them all.

    Book preview

    Organize Your Corpses - Mary Jane Maffini

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