Death Tidies Up

Light mystery with a group of people in and out of the story line. I've read all the books and they are enjoyable. I wish there were more.

Charlotte LaRue owns Maid For A Day in New Orleans, LA. Charlotte and Janet, Chere, and Emily, who work for her, clean the new apartments in the renovated Devilier house. Drew Bergeron is discovered dead in one of the apartments. Charlotte faints after he is found. Drew was supposed to have died 2 years ago.Charlotte's niece, Judith, who is the detective on this case, encourages Charlotte to contact her son Hank who is a doctor. Judith calls Hank the next day. He sets up an appointment with a fellow doctor for his mother for a physical. She is feeling tired and forgetful. She begins worrying that she has some terrible disease. She is also very nervous about her upcoming 60th birthday.Through families Charlotte cleans for, she gathers information and does some sleuthing. There are plenty of suspects. Charlotte believes in not gossiping about her customers, so she finds it difficult deciding when she should contact Judith with information and when she needs to stay quiet. Sometimes this puts her in dangerous situations.This author has done a great job creating the characters in this series. I found myself really feeling for Charlotte in her concern for her health and her frustration with turning 60. It is all very believable and well constructed. This series is definitely a quick read. You will want to keep reading until you get to the end.I like the relationship developing between Charlotte and Louis, Judith's soon to be ex-partner. I hope this will develop even further in future books.This is the second book in this series. I highly recommend this series. It is definitely a great cozy.

In New Orleans, though she fears her upcoming sixtieth birthday because that sounds old, Charlotte LaRue feels quite good about her cleaning company, Maid for a Day. Her small firm won a contract from realtor Marian Hebert to clean the renovated Devilier Apartments before the tenants take residency.However, the cleaning crew finds a dead body in a closet in one of the rooms. The police led by Charlotte's niece and her tenant arrive to investigate. The corpse turns out to be Drew Bergerson, who allegedly died two years ago in a plane crash into the Gulf of Mexico. Though told to stay out, Charlotte wonders if this death is connected to the supposed accidental explosion nine months ago that killed Marian's husband as she tries to sweep clean the homicide in her own unique manner.DEATH TIDIES UP is an attractive amateur sleuth-police procedural that reader will relish because the engaging staff, especially the charming star, makes for fun reading. The cozy style who-done-it will hook the audience because of the warm cast though the answers to the murder mystery seem strange. Barbara Colley provides an entertaining cozy that will send the audience seeking the first LaRue novel, MAID FOR MURDER, which is being re-released as a paperback in January.Harriet Klausner