Book ~ "Organize Your Corpses" (2007) Mary Jane Maffini

From MaryJaneMaffini.com ~ When thirty-year-old Charlotte Adams returns home to set up her personal organizing business in the historic town of Woodbridge, NY, she's expecting to find clients who need professional help sorting out their clutter, collections and just plain junk. She's expecting to reconnect with her old school friends, the lovable misfits: Sally, Margaret and Jack.  She's expecting that her two rescued miniature dachshunds will help her forget her lying, cheating ex-fiancé and the square-cut diamond she's just tossed into the Hudson. 

She's not expecting to find her first client dead in the debris of a historic home. Not even a little bit. The death of the tyrannical retired teacher Helen "Hellfire" Henley makes the news in a big way. That's got to be bad for business. Naturally things get worse when the police find Charlotte's pen under the body. This is particularly tricky since Charlotte's former friend and current nemesis, Sgt. Pepper Monahan is in charge of the investigation. Try organizing your way out of that, lady.

This is the first book in Maffini's Charlotte Adams series ... and I liked it. I'll read the others.

The story moves along at a good pace. The main character, Charlotte, is likable. The other cast of characters are quirky but also likable. I didn't figure out the ending, the "who dunnit", which is always a fun surprise for me.

Charlotte has a soft spot for animals, as does her pal, Jack, which I liked. Charlotte's two dogs are in dire need of training and discipline, though ... I didn't find them cute.

There were a lot of references to the fact that Charlotte and Pepper, the head of the police, had been best friends in school but hated each other now. It would have been nice to know why.

Better editing would have been nice as there were a couple typos in the "organizational tips" at the beginning of each chapter.