In A Messy Murder, professional declutterer Ellen finds another dead body.
Humph was a D List celebrity with a chat show cancelled long ago. A copy of an article published by him explaining why humans should stop taking up resources when they turn 80 years old is found near his body. Humph had just celebrated his eightieth birthday the night before. The police quickly ascertain that his cause of death was prescription sleeping pills ground up in his liquor bottle. They assume it is a simple case of suicide.
But is it really suicide or could it be murder? Humph’s wife thinks Humph was murdered. Because of Ellen’s previous publicity about solving another murder, she asks Ellen to investigate. Ellen’s investigation will bring up family secrets left long buried.
While the mystery was good, it was relatively easy to solve—though some of the motives of the suspects were fairly convoluted. Because of this simplicity, the book fills up two thirds of its pages with Ellen’s relationships with her two adult children and elderly mother. There is also a side story about a man she knows who believes wood is being stolen from his house. Both of these asides serve only to clutter up the book. They add nothing at all to the main mystery. For that reason, I dropped my rating to 3 stars. A Messy Murder is a good, but not great, cozy mystery.
Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for providing me with an advanced review copy.