When Organization Fails

Careful What You Wish For - Hallie Ephron

Like the Bushes and the Kennedys in politics and the Barrymores in theater, there are dynasties in fiction. Some are more successful than others: think Steven King and his son, Joe Hill (ignore Tabitha, though…) in the world of horror; or James Lee Burke and daughter Alafair if your taste runs to mysteries. And then there are the Ephron sisters… everyone knows Nora for such films as “Sleepless in Seattle” or “Silkwood,” but did you know that her sister Hallie Ephron is also a writer? Neither did I, at least before I picked up a copy of Careful What You Wish For… and I’m still not sure.

Meet Emily Harlow, erstwhile third-grade teacher turned Marie Kondo clone; right down to that whole “spark joy” bushwa. She and a buddy operate Freeze-Frame Clutter Kickers, one of those “organizer” services that help hoarders and near-hoarders clean out their closets. Yeah, as if… Truth be told, Emily should be helping her husband, Frank, clean up all his junk.

Whatever the case, Clutter Kickers has itself not one but two new clients, one a widow who wants to clean out the storage room she didn’t know her late husband had; the other is a frantic call from one Quinn Newell who, for some reason, needs help getting rid of all the stuff her husband won’t let her bring into the house; all of it stashed in the garage. That someone needs “help” getting rid of everything she needs doesn’t seem to bother Emily. It also doesn’t seem to bother her that a lot of the stuff looks strangely familiar…

All that’s before Emily finds herself the hottest suspect in the death of Quinn’s husband, at the same time she’s caught up in a ring of thieves ripping off libraries. Hmmm… something is rotten in the state of Massachusetts.
Roger Ebert used to rail about something he called the “idiot plot,” a plot that would collapse under its own weight if everyone involved weren’t an idiot. Idiot number one is Emily, who just doesn’t seem to get it. All these “coincidences”?  All these strange things that go on, beginning with the woman who wants everything thrown away and right now! to finding the body of one client's husband in the storage unit belonging to another client's husband. Yeah as if all that seems likely.

Ultimately, Ephron’s plot hangs together only because her protagonist has sufficient density to keep it anchored. That’s too bad because otherwise, except perhaps for the whole “ripped-from-the-(living-section)-headlines” joy-sparking stuff, Careful What You Wish For could be a nicely cozy little mystery. My problem? I guess I just don’t much like cozies, at least partially because all the men in them seem to be either clods or creeps, and this one's no different.

Summary

Plus: It isn't offensive.

Minus: It's cozy

What They're Saying: Hallie Ephron's latest, unfortunately, doesn't spark much joy in this reader.

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