Death Loves a Messy Desk

First Line: As the flash went off in my face, I yelped and dove for cover.

Despite professional organizer Charlotte Adams' rather high profile in a couple of recent murders, she's got a waiting list of customers who are in desperate need of her expertise. When there's a cancellation, Charlotte agrees to meet a woman who has a problem with a co-worker's extremely messy desk. In no time flat, the cluttered co-worker goes missing, and Charlotte once again is at the mercy of media cameramen as she tries to solve the mystery.

I have to admit that those cameramen are one of the reasons why I enjoy this series. Charlotte and cameras go together as well as pancakes and jalapeños. If there's any way to get an unflattering photo of her to show to show more all the viewers, those cameramen will, and it's become a running joke throughout the series.

Another reason why I like this series is that Maffini doesn't bury the organizing under the murder. Each chapter begins with an organizing tip, and Charlotte comes up with a brilliant plan to streamline an office and make everyone more productive.

Charlotte does have her faults. One character describes her (to her face) as "a bit bossy, a bit uptight, kind of vain about your appearance. Maybe shallow." Charlotte is all those things... well, maybe not the shallow part... but she is still a likable character and one worth following through a series. She's so earnest that I just have to root for her through all her pratfalls and triumphs.

Although the behavior of one of the office workers didn't fool me, I still didn't figure out what was going on. I look forward to the next book in the series where I hope I'll get to see Truffle and Sweet Marie train to be therapy dogs. show less

The plot of this book was okay, but the characters really threw me off. The organizing case is located in an office, and three of the main office personnel are rather two-dimensional. Office mom Fredelle is too nice, Dyan is extremely aggressive, and the supposedly meek and unassuming Robbie spends the first third of the book in a perpetual Bruce-Banner-like rage. But I warily kept reading for the plot, fluffy as it was. I did like the office setting, and there were certainly some exciting moments (although one scene kind of stretched the limits of credibility), but the characters didn't feel quite right this time around. Charlotte herself at one point finds herself experiencing that feeling.

I wouldn't recommend that newcomers to show more Maffini start with this one -- The Cluttered Corpse might be a better bet if your first Maffini book is going to be a Charlotte Adams. But if you like the plot and are very forgiving of characterization, you may find it a pleasant diversion. And it was certainly easy to get through, don't get me wrong. It just wasn't quite what I thought it would be. show less

Charlotte Adams has been hired to help clean up the desk of a new employee without letting her know that she has been targeted as the messiest desk in town, but what Charlotte isn't prepared for is the office politics that lead not only to the murder of the office b**** but also threats to her own life.

For someone who is supremely organized, Charlotte needs to be a bit more under control. I finds it hard to believe that she can get so involved with a company/person with so little contact as in this book. I think it needed to be thought through a bit more.

In the third Charlotte Adams outing, Charlotte has been hired by the office manager of an importing company called Quovadicon to clean up an employee's particularly messy desk. When Charlotte goes to the office, the employee, Barbara not in. Loathe to do too much without consulting the desk's owner, Charlotte drops by her home. She finds the door wide open, and the landlord worried. Charlotte is convinced that Barb is in trouble, and when the police decline to search for her, Charlotte decides to investigate on her own.
Charlotte is nothing if not persistent, and comes close to getting herself killed. But despite being nosy and pushy, she is likeable enough for the reader to care what happens to her, especially since her closest friends show more are suddenly too busy to spend time with her. show less