Cozy Wednesday - The Charlotte Adams Mystery Series by Mary Jane Maffini

The first book in the Charlotte Adams Mystery Series was published in 2007.  I must have liked it because it was on my keeper shelf and the next three were on my To-Be-Read pile.  When I saw that a new book in the series was coming out next month I decided it was time to catch up on this series as soon as possible.

Cover Art
by Stephen Gardner
Cover Design
by George Long

Organize Your Corpses was the first and I did a quick reread to refresh my memory. Charlotte Adams has moved back to her home town  of Woodbridge, New York after she caught her now ex-fiancée cheating on her literally right before the wedding and restarts her life as a professional organizer.  She has her personal to-do list for each day and is compulsively organized.

Her first client is a former teacher who was known as Miss Helen "Hellfire" Henley. While trying to help her organize and clear out an old family home Miss Henley had inherited Charlotte learns there is much more to her new profession than she had bargained for when she finds her client dead under a pile of debris in the house she was hired to organize.  Charlotte is forced to add "find murderer" to her daily to-do list.

Cover Art
by Stephen Gardner
Cover Design
by George Long

The Cluttered Corpse is the second book in this series.  In this story a stuffed animal collection has gotten way out of hand, filling rooms in Emmy Lou Rheinbeck's home. The first day Charlotte visits Emmy Lou to talk about handling the "pet problem" she learns that a neighbor boy and his friend have been tormenting Emmy Lou mercilessly.  Charlotte feels she must talk to the boys about their behavior never thinking that her intervention would result in a mess so big, that it is going to take more than Charlotte's organizational skills to clean it up.

Cover Illustration
by Stephen Gardner
Cover Design
by Edwin Tse

Death Loves A Messy Desk finds Charlotte's business growing and she loves helping people free their spaces of clutter.  Her new task is to help an office employee organize her cubicle at the request of the office manager.  It seems that the employee is not very willing as she disappears just as Charlotte arrives to investigate the situation. When the employee doesn't return to work and can't be found the office secrets start to be revealed and we learn there is much more to this job than a little reorganization, especially when there is a little murder added to the office politics.  Again Charlotte's to-do list includes organization and investigation.

Cover Illustration
by Stephen Gardner
Cover Design
by George Long

Closet Confidential is book number 4 in this series and the one I really loved.  Charlotte is hired by the husband of Lorelei Beauchamp to help organize her many closets.  "Money is no object."   This assignment is truly her hardest. Charlotte has known Lorelei her whole life and Lorelei wants nothing to do with organization. Her daughter was killed in a freak accident at a construction site, but Lorelei believes her daughter was murdered and no one believes her.  Most days Lorelei is so depressed she can't get out of bed. Her husband thinks a little closet project will lift her spirits, but all Lorelei wants is for someone to believe her and investigate her daughter's incident and she thinks Charlotte is the perfect investigator for the job.  The whole thing pulls at Charlotte's heartstrings and she just can't say no.  So using all the techniques has learned she hopes to prove to Lorelei that her daughter's death really was just an accident. Unfortunately her investigation leads her in another very tricky direction.  Is she organized enough herself to keep her safe as she crosses the fence to find the truth?

Cover Illustration

by Stephen Gardner

Cover Design

by George Long

Berkley Prime Crime

A Division of Penguin Books

5th Book in the Series

Release Date:  April 5, 2011
ISBN-10: 0425240606
ISBN-13: 978-0425240601

The Busy Woman's Guide To Murder finds the 911 operator, Mona Pringle, calling Charlotte rather than Charlotte calling 911.  It seems that while in high school the were a group of "mean girls" and Mona is freaking out because the lead "mean girl", Serena Redding, has returned to town and Mona was always one of their main targets. Mona used to talk about how good it would feel to kill Serena, but Charlotte knows Mona well enough to know she would never act on her words.  Then a woman who looks like Serena was killed by a hit and run driver and Mona has disappeared. Charlotte starts to worry that Mona may become the number one suspect.  Charlotte needs to organize her thoughts and get to the bottom of this before anyone else ends up dead or the wrong person is accused.  

What I didn't tell you in the snippets above is the underlying story that runs through all these books.  It is the story of a group of "misfits" that found themselves friends in school.  

There is Charlotte who just recently moved back to town after having her heart broken. She is not quite 5 feet tall. Her favorite word is "craptacular"and her favorite food is Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk. 

Jack, owns a huge Victorian house that has been subdivided into 2 units, and is Charlotte's landlord as she lives in the upstairs unit. Jack is also her best friend and has a bicycle shop called CYCotics.  

Margaret Tang, a lawyer, has also recently returned to Woodbridge. Her parents own Tangs Convenience Store.  Margaret's mother never really acknowledges Charlotte even though her daughter and Charlotte have been friends since grade school.  

Sally, the stay at home mom with a doctor husband, whose life revolves around here children, her spouse and her friends.  

On the fringes is Pepper who is now a police detective with a husband who is a huge flirt.

Then there are Truffle and Sweet Marie, two adorable miniature dachshunds who are training to become Therapy Dogs.  They are main characters in each story, lovable as can be and shed light on what good a little puppy love can do for everyone.


This is a really well written series that truly entertains with ease. To say they are well organized is just too easy. They have great mysteries, funny characters and situations and they are books any cozy lover will enjoy.  We all need a Charlotte Adams in our life, without the murders of course.  I would love to have her show up today to get my house organized and bring along all her friends too.  


To find out more about Mary Jane Maffini and her other books, check out her web page.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: The first four books are from my private collection.  The fifth book was received  free from the Berkley Prime Crime, A Division of the Penguin Group. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”