The Clutter Corpse: 1 (The Decluttering Mysteries)

Watching Ellen investigate... on her own is thoroughly fascinating. Brett fans, along with readers who liked Richard Roper's How Not to Die Alone (2019), will love this quirky, warmhearted mystery - Booklist Starred Review

Introducing an engaging new amateur sleuth, declutterer Ellen Curtis, in the first of a brilliant new mystery series.

Ellen Curtis runs her own business helping people who are running out of space. As a declutterer, she is used to encountering all sorts of weird and wonderful objects in the course of her work. What she has never before encountered is a dead body.

When Ellen stumbles across the body of a young woman in an over-cluttered flat, suspicion immediately falls on the deceased homeowner's son, who has recently absconded from prison. No doubt Nate Ogden is guilty of many things – but is he really the killer? Discovering a link between the victim and her own past, Ellen sets out to uncover the truth. But where has her best friend disappeared to? And is Ellen really prepared for the shocking revelations to follow?

Simon Brettworked as a producer in radio and television before taking up writing full-time. He is the author of more than 100 books, including the much-loved Fethering, Charles Paris and Mrs Pargeter mystery series. He lives in an Agatha Christie-style village in the South Downs. In 2014 he won the Crime Writers' Association's prestigious Diamond Dagger for an outstanding body of work, and in 2016 he was awarded an OBE for services to literature.