Edgar finalist Brett's diverting sequel to 2020's The Clutter Corpse opens with Alexandra Richards asking Ellen Curtis, the kind, empathetic owner of a decluttering company called SpaceWoman in Chichester, England, to visit her mother, Ingrid Richards, a former journalist, as Alexandra believes the woman's apartment has become a fire hazard. Ellen does so and realizes that the stacks of newspapers and books are merely a "personal filing system," as Ingrid is in the throes of writing a new book. Ellen goes on to her to her next client, who casually informs her that he has murdered his wife. Later, while still pondering the veracity of that remark, she learns that Ingrid has indeed died in a fire in her apartment. Convinced that Ingrid has been murdered, Ellen sets out to investigate. (The other client, as it happens, was just trying to get a rise out of her.) Brett has a gift for creating vivid, complex characters, and he gently massages in teaching moments about clinical depression (Ellen's manic-depressive husband died by suicide, for instance) and psychological triggers for hoarders. Despite a pretty obvious motive and murderer, cozy fans will be delighted. Agent: Lisa Moylett, CMM Agency (U.K.) (Sept.)

That physical chaos in one's surroundings is often a sign of emotional chaos is a basic premise in the psychology of hoarding. It's also the jumping-off point for Simon Brett's most recent series, the Decluttering Mysteries (this is the second installment, following The Clutter Corpse, 2020), in which a "professional declutterer" confronts not just untidiness, but also murder hidden within the clutter. Ellen Curtis, who operates SpaceWoman, her "smallompany," throughout Sussex, is an extremely sympathetic accidental sleuth; she's deft at convincing people to move toward order, while facing down some truly messy realities in her own life, including an egomaniacal mother and a deeply depressed son. This time out, a woman needs a risk assessment on the domestic habits of her mother, a former war correspondent who covered worldwide conflicts in the '80s. The daughter is convinced that her mother's drinking and smoking in paper-strewn rooms could lead to the accidental torching of her home. Tragedy by fire does follow, but was it the result of clutter or murder? Ellen's investigation uncovers many fascinating facts about the harrowing business of covering war and the bitter rivalries it induces. As usual, Brett is brilliant at creating settings that reflect character. Add this series to Brett's acclaimed Charles Paris and Fethering novels.

Ellen Curtis, whose profession is decluttering her clients' homes, cleans up a lot more in her second case. It's ironic that Alexandra Richards wants SpaceWoman, Ellen's company, to clean out her mother's home in Brighton because Ingrid Richards herself seems to be the main thing clogging her daughter's life. Ingrid has traveled the world as a flamboyant journalist, but she's never taken proper responsibility for the daughter her brief relationship with fellow reporter Niall Connor left her with. Now that Niall has married celebrity Daily Mail columnist Grace Bellamy, everyone seems to be well over the birth of Alexandra, leaving Ingrid surrounded by unsorted papers and Alexandra left to solace herself with the smugly lukewarm endearments of computer repairman Walter Rainbird. Meantime, Ellen frets over the welfares of waitress Mary Griffin, whose abusive husband has been imprisoned since trashing her place, and her own children, remote, London-based Juliet and Nottingham Trent student Ben. Brett's exposition is a model of effortless efficiency. In no time at all, he sketches out Ellen's fraught relationship with the ex-actress mother she calls Fleur, details the 1986 hostage rescue in Beirut that left Ingrid scarred and BBC cameraman Phil Dickie crippled, traces Ellen's uphill battle to declutter the household of widowed Edward Finch, who coyly intimates that he may have murdered his wife, kills off Ingrid in a sadly predictable house fire, and hints that her death may not have been accidental. A neatly constructed whodunit punctuated by series regulars who periodically break in to speak their piece. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.