The Spring Cleaning Murder Ellie Haskell Mysteries Book 8 by Dorothy Cannell

288 Pages
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Alibi, Alibi
Release Date: May 9, 2017

Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, British, Murder, Amateur Detective

Ellie Haskell is a wife and mother of young twins. When her housekeeper Mrs. Mallory tells her she must tender her resignation, they are both in tears. Mrs. Mallory’s son wants her to live with her and be a full time help for his newborn daughter. Ellie is now on the hunt for a new housekeeper. The first recommendation is Mrs. Large but on her first day on the job, she arrives late and breaks a mirror. Not an auspicious way to begin a new job. Ellie is visiting a friend who wants design ideas for her home when Mrs. Large is found dead from an apparent fall of a ladder while dusting. Ellie begins to question whether this was an accident or murder.

The book has a steady pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. Ellie is a busybody there is no other way to say it. She is always investigating and questions. She is supposed to be spring cleaning her house, but everything distracts her. She is kind and wants to believe the best in everyone. This is a fast read and if you enjoy cozy mysteries, you will like not only this book but the entire series.

Thank you to NetGalley for an E-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. I've had the opportunity to read other titles by this author and this series. It's a nice English cozy mystery. I love to pick up a book like this as a break from heavy reading, and this one met that quality and exceeded it. So fun to read.

An English cozy, Ellie and Ben Haskell take care of their own, including their hired help. This becomes more evident with the murder murders. Ellie jumps right in with the ladies to find the killer, including going undercover.

Readers get a slice of English culture, with its mannerisms and everyday comings and goings. The characters are likable and funny, especially Roxie.

This is seventh in a series of at least twelve books by Cannell. It was an enjoyable escape and can be read as a stand-alone mystery. It might be even better though if you started with the first one. At a time when travel is somewhat testy, take a trip to England with Ellie and Ben and forget the daily stressors.

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in the hopes that I would post an honest review. This has not affected the content of my review in any way.

What a fascinating book. I was impressed by the storyline and the characters were all well written and complex. Where there are complex storylines combined with intriguing characters the reader experience is magnified tremendously. To have a book that is well written as well as entertaining is a delight. Reading is about escaping your world and entering another one. The word building was phenomenal in this book. Here I forgot about my own life and was immersed in the world created by the author. I would recommend this book.

Excellent selection of books for this year! I am looking forward to these for sure! I do recommend reading these to get good ideas for what to read for the next year.

A fun cozy mystery. I will go back and read the series from the beginning so I can enjoy all aspects of the books and characters.

An unlikely scenario, an obvious 'who did it' and language that made it difficult for this American to understand made for a difficult read.

I had this book on my Kindle forever but when I started it, it was a quick entertaining read. It's a little more intense than a usual cozy mystery, but there's more focus on plot than sordid details.

I liked this book. The characters were fun, well written and witty. The plot kept moving with a few twists and was well wrapped up.

While I think there are/will be more, this was a pretty good stand alone story and an excellent distraction to any sort of chores!

I read this years ago when it was first published and enjoyed it then. While I think the first book or two in the series were the strongest, it was enjoyable to return to a familiar world and follow along as Ellie tries to figure out what happened to cause the death of her charwoman.

Light humorous mystery story starring Ellie. Her cleaning lady leaves and Ellie hires a new one. Soon, that one is murdered. Ellie plays detective to see who did it.
I had not read all of the previous books in the series, but it didn't matter. They are almost stand alone stories.

In this latest installment or the Ellie Haskell mystery series, Ellie is looking for the killer of one of the members of the Chittrton Fells Charwomen's Association.

This was my first book by Dorothy Cannell, which happens to be the seventh in the Ellie Haskell series. I'm not sure how much I missed by not reading the previous 6, but it feels like a lot. It seemed that there were a lot of inside jokes, and behaviors that many of the other characters let slide, that made me wonder if their quirks were all flushed out in the previous works. As for my review of this book. Wow. That was extremely hard to follow. In the end, the mystery was ok, but I did enjoy the overall cleaning theme of the work with the tips at the beginning of the chapters. Eventually I might get around to reading the previous entries in this series, but it will be a while.

Ellie is enlisted to help discover who is killing cleaning women in their district. An easy read, liked the small, British feel.

Who would have thought that the time honored tradition of Spring Cleaning could end up in murder? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening in the quiet little community of Chitterton Fells. Ellie Haskell finds herself right in the middle of the mystery when she finds her new cleaner, Mrs. Large, dead in the study at the home of the Miller sisters. At the same time, her long time cleaner Mrs. Malloy has left town to care for her new grandchild, leaving Ellie at loose ends just as she is starting her spring cleaning. Then protestors show up at her husband’s restaurant and Jonas’s health seems to be declining. Adding to the confusion are her 3-year old twins, Tam and Abbey, who are very busy indeed. Will Ellie and the members of the C.F.C.W.A. be able to figure out who is killing off the cleaning women?

This is such a fun cozy mystery. The author has created a charming community, full of all kinds of characters. Ellie and Ben are a delightful married couple and the twins are adorable, if a little nerve-wracking at times. The story line had a lot of twists and turns and really kept me guessing. I really enjoyed how the author didn’t just tell the story of the mystery but also told the story of the daily lives of Ellie and Ben. I found that the book overall had a bit of a literary fiction feel because of this. This is the 7th book in the Ellie Haskell mysteries and I will definitely be keeping my eyes out for future installments. Pure delight is to be had here!

This is the first book by Dorothy Cannell that I have read. I know that it is a cosy mystery but I couldn't stop laughing. The characters of the various ladies were very entertaining. Although there were several murders which were eventually solved without any input from the police the story itself was more a comedy of errors. Great fun to read.

Originally done in 1998, I was now able to enjoy this light and airy read. It's time for spring cleaning, and that includes pesky murders. Funny, cute and clean in all regards, this book didn't disappoint me. I really enjoyed it and I want to read the entire series.

My copy came via Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

Ellie Haskell swaps scrubbing for sleuthing when yet another member of the Chitterton Fells Charwomen's Association bites the dust. Someone has more than dust bunnies and dirty dishes to hide. Ellie is helped by handsome husband Bentley, feckless cousin Freddy, and caustic home helper Mrs Malloy.



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I am not sure quite how I stumbled upon the seventh book in this series but I do want to give Ms. Cannell kudos due to the fact that I didn't even realize that it was part of a series until I went to write up this review. THE SPRING CLEANING MURDERS does a wonderful job of standing on its own.



This book is set in England so once I got used to everyone enjoying tea rather then a coffee I really enjoyed the story. Ellie has a bunch of interesting friends and family members that keep the story moving along at a nice clip as they attempt to figure out just who is killing charwomen. I was surprised to discover the actual villain at the end.



I think that any of my readers who are looking for a whodunit without a lot of graphic violence and no sex will quite enjoy this tale. Now I just need to find the rest of this series as I hate leaving Ellie behind.


*** I received this book at no charge from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed within are my own.

I have to start out saying that I am NOTHING like the woman at the Prologue of this book. I laughed as I read this, wishing I had that desire sometimes. The thought of the book that was found in the attic and read by the wife/mother of the house made me shudder a bit. When at a meeting of local minded people at the house of a couple of sisters, Ellie is asked to look at another room in the house and perhaps offer up some tips on how they can make that room more inviting. What is found in that room? I'm not sure of what to make of Freddie. Who is he? How is he involved in all this? Who or what is behind the death of one of the Charwomen in the book? Who is Ben? What does he do? What does Ellie suggest to him? What about Jonas, who is he and what is his relationship to the others in the book? The title of this book took on a new meaning for me once I got into it and realized what the core group of women being Charwomen was about. You're going to have to read to see who or what is behind the death.

RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS A GIFT FOR A FAIR/HONEST REVIEW and REVIEWER FOR Bloggin' With M. Brennan.

Princess Fuzzypants here:
I have enjoyed every one of the Ellie Haskell books. In fact, I have liked each one successively more. I guess I have gotten to know the characters and the humour better. It is interesting as this book which was released in May is actually one of the earlier stories. Some of the things referred to in later books happen in this one. Oddly, even reading the series out of sequence does not detract at all.
Ellie has decided to do a thorough spring cleaning. She is disappointed when Mrs. Malloy says she must quit to go live with her son, his wife and new born daughter in London. She finds other chars to fill in for Mrs. Malloy but they have a nasty habit of being murdered, one by one. Ellie wonders if it is something personal.
At the same time, things are not going well in her husband's restaurant and the old gardener who lives with them is going downhill fast and there are several newcomers to town who figure in all of the goings on. It is quite a muddle that does not get resolved until the very end. I did suspect one of the culprits but the second was a surprise, as was the motives.
Ellie and her family are delightful characters- sweet but not saccharine. There are plenty of quirky characters and some laugh out loud moments but the humour is not slapstick. It is gentle and endearing.
This is a great holiday book, perhaps a good one with which to sample the series. It is light and entertaining.
I give it five purrs and two paws up.

A fun read, characters very well developed, a good whodunnit