Book info

• Title Waste of a Life
• Author Simon Brett
• Year 2022
• Genre Mystery

Declutterer Ellen Curtis has been working to bring order into the life of Cedric Waites, a recluse in his eighties who hasn’t left his house or let anyone inside it since his wife died. On one of her regular visits, Ellen finds the old man dead. Sad but, given his age, perhaps not unexpected. Nothing to get worked up about... until the police raise the suspicion that Cedric might have been poisoned! The cause seems be something he ate, and as Ellen cleared away the old man’s food containers, she is under suspicion. As is Dodge, who works for Ellen and has unhelpfully done a runner... Meanwhile, a rival declutterer is out to sabotage Ellen’s reputable business, her two grown-up children are back home and in crisis, and she has a potential love interest. Ellen’s life has taken on a chaotic turn of its own! Can she uncover the killer and bring order back to her own life?

Thoughts

I was less keen on the previous book in this decluttering series but this one was a bit better. I liked that the family were all back together and had some revealing conversations, alongside the backdrop of another murder (you do have to wonder if the police might start thinking ‘everywhere this declutterer turns up, there’s a murder!’) and everyone’s favourite woodsman Dodge is firmly in the frame. It reads better and went by in a flash, still not perfect, but showing the hints of Brett’s genius that I normally love.

Rating: 3 / 5