Death Loves a Messy Desk

Death Loves a Messy Desk
Author: Mary Jane Maffini
Publisher: Beyond The Page
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2021-07-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1954717318

Fans of Marie Kondo and mysteries will love this series! For professional organizer Charlotte Adams, cleaning up other people’s messes can be murder . . . When a local company calls in professional organizer Charlotte Adams to help straighten out their offices—and especially the hopelessly cluttered desk of one of their employees—she’s soon tangled up in office politics and dodging clashing coworkers. And when the woman behind the disorderly desk goes missing, Charlotte senses foul play and is determined to get to the bottom of it. But not everyone at the company appreciates Charlotte’s thoroughness, and no sooner does she begin looking for the missing woman than someone makes an attempt on her life. Then one of the employees is murdered, and Charlotte’s convinced that everyone at this company is bad company, and that one of them is setting her up for a nasty piece of work . . . Organizing Tips Included! Praise for the Books of Mary Jane Maffini: “A comedic, murderous romp . . . Maffini is a relaxed, accomplished, and wickedly funny writer.” —The Montreal Gazette “Mary Jane Maffini provides a first-rate, well-organized whodunit . . . A new series that is fun to read.” —Midwest Book Review “Maffini’s new series . . . is off to a brilliant start with this fast-paced mystery!” —Romantic Times “Deserves top marks for creating an entertaining, fast-paced thriller filled with witty one-liners, snappy dialogue and crackling suspense.” —The Strand Magazine “I’ll look forward to a long life for this series.” —Deadly Pleasures “Plenty of twists and turns that kept me turning the pages until the last sentence.” —Dru’s Book Musings “Maffini is a relaxed, accomplished and wickedly funny writer . . .” —The Times Colonist

The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder

The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder
Author: Mary Jane Maffini
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2011-04-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101477717

Mona Pringle, the local 911 operator, is calling Charlotte Adams with her own emergency: Serena Redding, a high school "mean girl" who used to torment Mona, is coming back for a reunion. When Mona talks about how good it would feel to kill Serena, Charlotte doesn't believe she means it. But when a woman who looks like Serena is killed in a hit- and-run, and another former mean girl is also run down, Charlotte realizes she needs to look both ways for the now-missing Mona.

Closet Confidential

Closet Confidential
Author: Mary Jane Maffini
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2010-07-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101188596

Fourth in the series featuring organizer and amateur sleuth Charlotte Adams, following Death Loves a Messy Desk. A friend hires Charlotte to organize her closets and prove that her daughter's accident was murder. And now Charlotte has to get a house-and her suspects-in order.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
Author: Margareta Magnusson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2018-01-02
Genre: House & Home
ISBN: 1501173251

*The basis for the wonderfully funny and moving TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout Productions* A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life. In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming. Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.

The Summer of Dead Birds

The Summer of Dead Birds
Author: Ali Liebegott
Publisher: Amethyst Editions
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2019
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9781936932504

A queer poet documents depression and grief in this autobiographical novel-in-verse.

Organize Your Corpses

Organize Your Corpses
Author: Mary Jane Maffini
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2007-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440624690

Charlotte Adams is a professional organizer. Nothing is out of place in her closets-but her life's a mess. So she's dumped her cheating ex-fiancé, moved back home to Woodbridge, New York, and started making up to-do lists-some of which include solving the occasional murder. Charlotte's new job has her digging through years of accumulated junk to find some important documents. Instead she finds her client, the meanest teacher in town, dead under a pile of the debris that plagued her. And there's no end to the list of suspects-starting with Charlotte herself.

Death and the Penguin

Death and the Penguin
Author: Andrey Kurkov
Publisher: Melville House
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2011-06-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1935554557

"No summary can do justice to the strange appeal of this unusual, short book, which is at once a crime novel, a comic novel and a serious political satire on contemporary Ukraine." —Anne Applebaum, The Wall Street Journal With the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly-free Ukraine is a shell-shocked land . . . In poverty-and-violence-wracked Kyiv, unemployed writer Viktor Zolotaryov leads a down-and-out life with his only friend, Misha, a penguin that he rescued when the local zoo started getting rid of animals it couldn't feed. Even more nerve-wracking for Victor: a local mobster has taken a shine to Misha and wants to borrow him for events. But Viktor thinks he’s finally caught a break when he lands a well-paying job at the Kyiv newspaper writing “living obituaries” of local dignitaries—articles to be filed for use when the time comes. The only thing is, the time always seems to come as soon as Viktor finishes writing the article. Slowly understanding that his own life may be in jeopardy, Viktor also realizes that the only thing that might be keeping him alive is his penguin.

The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder

The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder
Author: Mary Jane Maffini
Publisher: Beyond The Page
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2021-09-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1954717407

Winner of the RT Reviewers Choice Award for Best Amateur Sleuth! Professional organizer Charlotte Adams has to clean up a mess from the past to stop a killer in the present . . . Given the number of times she’s dialed 911 in a panic, professional organizer Charlotte Adams is more than a little startled when she answers a distress call from the 911 operator herself. Mona’s calling to alert her that the “mean girls” who terrorized her in high school are back and that she wants to wring their necks. Charlotte writes off the threat as angry exaggeration—until a woman resembling one of the mean girls is killed and Mona goes into hiding. Worried that some lingering trauma from being bullied may have sent her friend over the edge, Charlotte decides she’ll have to investigate the murder to find out who’s behind it. But then another mean girl is run down, and she’s certain that someone from the past is settling old scores. Desperate to learn whether Mona is making her revenge fantasies come true or if there’s a vindictive killer on the loose, Charlotte will have to sort through all the clues to save her friend—and maybe her own life . . . Organizing Tips Included! Praise for the Books of Mary Jane Maffini: “A comedic, murderous romp . . . Maffini is a relaxed, accomplished, and wickedly funny writer.” —The Montreal Gazette “Mary Jane Maffini provides a first-rate, well-organized whodunit . . . A new series that is fun to read.” —Midwest Book Review “Maffini’s new series . . . is off to a brilliant start with this fast-paced mystery!” —Romantic Times “Deserves top marks for creating an entertaining, fast-paced thriller filled with witty one-liners, snappy dialogue and crackling suspense.” —The Strand Magazine “I’ll look forward to a long life for this series.” —Deadly Pleasures “Plenty of twists and turns that kept me turning the pages until the last sentence.” —Dru’s Book Musings

Good Grief

Good Grief
Author: Theresa Caputo
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2017-03-14
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1501139088

The star of "Long Island Medium" shares inspiring, spirit-based lessons on how to work through and overcome grief, in a guide that also offers example testimonies about the experiences of her clients

Then We Came to the End

Then We Came to the End
Author: Joshua Ferris
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2007-03-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780759572287

The National Book Award finalist and debut novel by the bestselling author of The Dinner Party: "A readymade classic of the office-novel genre. . . . A truly affecting novel about work, trust, love, and loneliness." --Seattle Times No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week.