Polished Off (Charlotte Larue Mysteries)

Rating:
Summary: superb clean cozy
Review: In New Orleans, Charlotte LaRue, owner of Maid for a Day cleaning service, feels really good that her "favorite" (and only) nephew Daniel married her best worker Nadia and plans to adopt the young son of his new wife as his. Only, Daniel's mom Madeline acts irate over the elopement. When Maddie fails to hide her odious opinion, Charlotte becomes angry with her sibling, who never has a good thing to say about anyone.

At the mansion of client Patsy Dufour, workers drop a large urn revealing human bones inside it. These are the remains of Nadia's former boyfriend and father of her son Ricco Martinez. The NOPD immediately go after Nadia as the prime suspect because Ricco was abusive and sired her son so eliminating him got him out of the way for her to marry Daniel. Charlotte does not believe for one nanosecond that Nadia POLISHED OFF her odious ex. Since the police refuse to look elsewhere, she begins her own inquiries.

The latest Charlotte cleaning service amateur sleuth tale is a fine story that fans of the series and the sub-genre will enjoy due to a strong cast headed by the heroine, her less cantankerous neighbor and her extended family. The story line reads like a clean cozy with Charlotte retaining her Ms. Clean label by tidying up deaths by murder as only a maid can.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Cute concept, problems in execution
Review: When one of her clients discovers a skeleton in an ornamental pot, cleaning lady Charlotte LaRue tells herself that it's none of her business. But when Charlotte discovers that the body is the ex-boyfriend of one of her employees--a woman who is now her niece by marriage, she knows that she'll have to involve herself. Because it isn't long before her niece disappears, her nephew is charged with murder, and Charlotte herself is stuck taking care of their young child.

A cleaning lady who solves mysteries is a cute concept and New Orleans, where the books are located, makes a charming setting. Author Barbara Colley is a smooth and professional writer who keeps the pages turning as she introduces a tangle of long-lost love, blackmail, and political corruption.

Unfortunately, I found Charlotte LaRue to be an unlikable character. She is hypercritical of those around her, unsympathetic to her clients' concerns, and completely self-absorbed. Together with Colley's reliance on coincidence (how likely is it that Charlotte would be in one suspect's office just as he receives a suspicious call? How did the criminals arrange that Patsy end up with the pot? What are the odds of Charlotte's showing up just in time to see the bones? Would the first person connected with Tulane University that Charlotte thinks of really know the private life of her students and be able to tell Charlotte all about it?), and unexplained behavior (why, exactly, did Nadia do her disappearing act?) I found myself pulled out of the story.