The Silver Ghost (A Sarah Kelling Mystery) (Sarah Kelling Mystery)

Description

Sarah Kelling and her husband Max Bittershohn are back in a whimsical whodunit involving a ghost--a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. When a friend's classic car disappears and a gardener is found murdered, Sarah and Max untangle a tapestry of Renaissance clues to ferret out the killer. HC: Mysterious Press.

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Customer Reviews

A Fun Read
I'm currently working my way through all of the Sarah Kelling mysteries, and this one was no different, being equally enjoyable.

In this book, we're revisit old friends, the Billingsgates. We've met up with them in the Convivial Codfish mystery. This time, they were robbed. The burglar took two Rolls Royces from a locked room, along with the very "Kelling" Aunt Bodicea Kelling. Only Sarah and Max Bittersohn can solve this mystery, and do so in such an interesting, enjoyable way...well, excluding the murders anyway.

We also get to visit other characters from the Convivial Codfish, like the Dorks, the Tolbathys, Cousin Lionel of the hyena pack, and even his mother, Aunt Appie. Needless to say, this is an pleasant and swiftly read story. By the time you realize you've gotten to the middle, you'll already be 3/4 of the way done. Hope you enjoy!

2001-04-24 | starloch (Virginia Beach, VA USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Luck Runs Out (Peter Shandy Mysteries)

Description

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Customer Reviews

Gentle, wacky mystery
When Belinda of Balaclava, prize sow of Balaclava Agricultural College is pig napped, Professor Peter Shandy is called in to investigate. Peter is even more disturbed when the body of Miss Flackley, farrier, is found by Belinda's pen. Armed with only twenty-six sunflower seeds as a clue, Peter must solve the murder before the Senior Plowmen's Competition takes place. He also has to play matchmaker for his wife's friend, the delightful Iduna Bjorklund. This is a gentle mystery with a slightly wacky cast of characters. The first (and in my opinion, the best) in this series is Rest You Merry.

2002-07-22 | alibrarian | Helpful Votes: 9 | Rating: 4

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Humorous mytery with Peter Shandy at Balaclava College
This is the second humorous mystery involving Professor Peter Shandy, his wife Helen, and the folks at Balaclava Agricultural College. This time, the local farrier, who tends to the college's horses, has been murdered, and the college's prize sow, Belinda, has been pig-napped! Can the two events be related? And are these two heinous crimes linked to a robbery and kidnapping? There is certainly a lot for Peter Shandy to investigate. MacLeod also provides romantic suspense, as new and recurring characters in several generations become attracted to each other. MacLeod seems to have had as much fun writing this book as I had reading it, especially those scenes involving the Viking-like college president, Thorkjeld Svenson. This is a book that should leave you with a smile on your face and is an excellent example of writing that combines mystery, suspense, and humor.

1998-09-15 (Sterling, VA USA) | Helpful Votes: 18 | Rating: 4

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The Family Vault (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries)

Description

Great-uncle Frederick has passed away, and the Kelling clan of Boston has made plans to put the old gentleman's remains in the family vault on Beacon Hill. When the vault is opened, however, there's someone already there that no one could have ever expected -- the skeleton of a burlesque queen who disappeared thirty years ago!

With the help of private detective Max Bittersohn, it's up to Sarah Kelling to hold the shocked family together, and try to find out what happened. What they unravel is a complex murder plot that not only stretches into the past, but also has Sarah marked as a victim!

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Customer Reviews

Great way to kill an afternoon (so to speak)...
While it's a little too "TV movie" in spots, there's more than enough wit and grace to make up for that. The plotting pulls the reader along until you find you've covered an awful lot of ground, foul play, and family history without realizing it. And there are a couple of twists at the end that are truly surprising! Nothing seems forced to make the plot work and there are plenty of plausible red herrings to confuse things along the way. A truly great read and highly recommended.

2009-08-23 | who reads a lot of books (Louisville, KY United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A step above the rest
The late Charlotte MacLeod taught the rest of the mystery community how to write humor with straight characters. The Kelling clan will keep you glued to your seat as we find Sarah Kelling, for the first time, trying her best to weave her way through intricate puzzles, while preserving her place within the family circle.
MacLeod was a master of plot with few dull moments and her pace never lags. Sarah loses her husband and finds her mate, but those are other books in this fun-filled series.
Grab them up when you can and keep them close by for a good fix for what ails you. A word master at her very best.
Nash Black, author of Writing as a Small Business and Sins of the Fathers.

2008-05-15 | Troubadour (Jamestown, KY) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Eccentricities and suspense
This is a well-weaved, humorous mystery about the bad things that occur to the quirky Kelling clan, their friends and associates. I was crestfallen about the turn of events half-way through the book, but can't say why for fear of revealing too much of the story. Nonetheless, it was very fun to read, with many suspenseful moments. I especially enjoyed all the eccentricities of the characters in the book, in addition to the Boston setting.

2004-10-03 | Aimskee (New York City) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 4

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A Great Read!
As a avid mystery reader I found this book to be very exciting. I couldn't put the book down! It was never really dull or boring and had a very ingenius plot. Out of all the Charolette MacLeod books I have read, I found this one to be the best. It starts off when the Kellings go to bury an uncle only to discover that someone had already been buried in the family vault. It was fun to read and was very thrilling at times.

2003-01-15 | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 3

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The Family Vault
The Family Vault is the first in MacLeod's Sarah Kelling/Max Bittersohn mystery series, in which we are introduced to Sarah and her convoluted family. The book begins as the heroine prepares the family vault mentioned in the title prior to her uncle's funeral only to find it already occupied by the skeleton of a showgirl, Ruby Redd. All is made (mostly) clear by the end of the book, leaving plenty of hooks for subsequent mysteries. "The Family Vault" is a bit stiff compared to her later books, but a fun fast read nevertheless.

2000-01-10 | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 4

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The Plain Old Man

Description

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1985 Original Publisher: National Academies Original Identifier: NAP:04882 Notes: This is an OCR reprint of the original rare book. There may be typos or missing text and there are no illustrations. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.

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Customer Reviews

Gilbert & Sullivan & Murder & Mayhem
Sarah Kelling Bittersohn has agreed to help her Aunt Emma put on her swan song, a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Sorcerer," and is happily fetching and carrying and painting flats when one of the cast, who plays the small but significant role of the notary (the Plain Old Man of the title) dies at home alone. Other disturbing events are marring the production: Emma is being threatened, and a full-length portrait of a Kelling ancestor is stolen and held for ransom.

It soon becomes clear that Charlie's death was not accidental, and Sarah must unravel all the threads of the complicated case while bearing in mind that, for Emma's sake, "the show must go on."

I thoroughly enjoyed the backstage operations of the amateur dramatic company, the references to Gilbert and Sullivan, and the delightful characters that populated this story.

2007-05-21 | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 5

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The Convivial Codfish

Description

After years of toiling upward through the ranks, Jeremy Kelling has finally attained his goal: to preside as Exalted Chowderhead over the Annual Scrooge Day revels of the Comrades of the Convivial Codfish. Suddenly, at the height of the ceremonies, Jeremy discovers that he's been robbed of his extremely valuable emblem of office. The Great Chain of the Convivial Cod is gone! He calls his new nephew-in-law, Max Bittersohn, who isn't inclined to take the Codfish seriously -- until Jeremy falls victim to what may, or may not, be a particularly vicious practical joke. From then on, it's champagne, caviar, and cold-blooded mass mayhem in high society as Max puts his life on the line to find a killer.

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Customer Reviews

Murder in the Chowder
Max Bittershon, Sarah Kelling's new husband does solo sleuthing in this fine holiday caper when Jeremy Kelling loses his badge of office for the exalted Grand Chowderheads and breaks his hip.
Egbert, Jeremy's faithful man and Max discover Jeremy's fall was no accident. Someone does not want Jeremy to attend an elite train party. Max crashes the festivities as the escort of a society matron, but before he can do any detecting the train is stopped, the engineer is murdered, and all the guests are in the hospital suffering from poison.
Charlotte MacLeod's crafty pen pulls out all the quirks and quibbles of the Chowderheads down to the "nose hairs."
Having a bad day? Grab this delightful mystery and laugh your way into a great day.
Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil WarSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early Settlers

2008-05-29 | Troubadour (Jamestown, KY) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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Caviar is the life of the party
I liked the mystery except Sarah Kelling was barely involved in this mystery. It keeps you guessing as to whodunit. Uncle Jem unable to go to the train party Max fills in for him and ends up with his hands full.

1999-09-20 | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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The Balloon Man

Description

With a serenely beautiful, picture-perfect day as a backdrop, what could possibly go wrong at the glorious seaside wedding on the Kelling estate? Plenty. First, Max is knocked unconscious by someone trying to steal the bride's gold and ruby necklace. Then a hot air balloon suddenly crashes into the tent leaving a mangled corpse beneath its wicker basket. Later, Uncle Jem's vintage Rolls Royce is stolen. It will now take all of Max's formidable skills as the world's greatest expert on art theft to pop this mystery wide open.

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If Noel Coward or P.G. Wodehouse wrote mysteries, they would probably be very much like the books that Charlotte MacLeod writes, featuring the charming art detective Max Bittersohn and his socially connected wife, Sarah Kelling. There would be lots of style and witty dialogue, people with names like Tweeters Arbuthnot and Calpurnia Zickery, but not much meaty content.

MacLeod's latest mystery meringue begins at a fancy Boston wedding staged by Sarah for Max's nephew, where missing rubies, long-lost neighbors, the crash of a hot air balloon, and the discovery of a dead body are last-minute additions to the festivities. Things go downhill from there, with smoke bombs going off, more corpses piling up, and both Max and his 3-year-old son, Davy, soon among the missing. This is the kind of book that requires a dozen pages in the last chapter to explain everything, and that should be read with little finger firmly extended. Fans of Poirot, and of Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles, will be delighted. --Dick Adler

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Customer Reviews

Fun, murder, and zany cousins
Charlotte MacLeod produced two major cozy-mystery series under her own name, the Peter Shandy series and the Sarah Kelling/Max Bittersohn novels, of which this is the twelfth and last (MacLeod died in 2004). I've always had a sneaking preference for the Kelling series, and though this volume may not be the best of the lot (the author was 74, beginning to suffer from Alzheimer's, and probably not at the height of her powers when she wrote this last of her books), it does have all the elements that show why I like them so much. Sarah is a scion of a very old and very rich Boston clan; Max, her second husband, is an urbane but wry Jew, the son of a garage owner, and a free-lance private detective specializing in stolen and forged art. His nephew is getting married, and Sarah, along with a slew of relatives who've taken Max to their bosoms (some of the Kellings definitely haven't), has undertaken to host the wedding at their home in Ireson's Landing. The sudden and inexplicable appearance among the displayed gifts of a ruby parure stolen many years ago from Sarah's first husband is only the first of a series of unusual problems, culminating in the discovery, the following day, of a dead body in the ruins of the catering tent, under the hot-air balloon that crashed in it just as guests were beginning to depart. Since it's on their property, Max can't help but get involved. Sarah's ancient and salacious Uncle Jem (one of her favorite relatives) insists on taking a part, as does his faithful valet Egbert, and when Max mysteriously goes missing, Sarah, with their assistance, must take on the task of finding out the truth. The brief vanishment of her three-year-old son Davy makes it clear that something potentially hazardous to the entire family is going on.

Filled with red herrings, wry humor, eccentric relatives (Max's sister, parents, and grandparents have their own markers, including big sib Miriam's devotion to cookery), and a few weird neighbors (not just the ballooning Zickerys, but birdwatcher Tweeters Arbuthnot, who proves critical in delivering Max from a Crusoe-esque fate), this is a delightful cozy and a definite high note for MacLeod to depart the scene on.

2009-04-18 (Scranton, PA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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An Okay Book
I have read many Charlotte MacLeod books in the past however this one was my least favorite. It took you forever to get into it. I was already half way through the book before any thing happened. It was long and boring at times. In the end it was okay but not one of her best. If you like Charlotte MacLeod, I reccomend The Family Vault.

2003-01-15 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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The Last One
All of Charlotte MacLeod's books are zany and frequently require the reader to leap in joyful, but strange directions. The characters are charming if rarely life-like and that is part of the attraction. If you haven't read the books in both major series, please do. We will have no more. Ms. MacLeod is tragically "retired from writing" as a result of Alzheimer's.

2001-10-26 | pcreader (Panama City, FL United States) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 5

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I would have loved this book if not for one thing...
I've read the entire series and I haven't missed Alexander. Until this book I had no idea that Max still wondered about how he compared to Sara's first husband. I don't understand why Ms. MacLeod felt it necessary to demean Alexander. It was particularly difficult to understand how Sara could have been so unfair about Alexander because she had to work so hard to overcome her strict upbringing in the earlier books. Had she forgotten that? Shouldn't that have given her some sympathy, some insight into Alexander's soul? Alexander's mother was a domineering, EVIL woman. She was undoubtedly crushing any sign of independence from the time he was a child. I can tell you from personal experience how difficult it is to assert yourself if you were abused as a child. It took years of therapy for me to realize that I wasn't worthless and undeserving of happiness -- and my father was a fluffy kitten compared to Alexander's mother. I think Ms. MacLeod needs to bone up on adults who were abused as children. Perhaps then she'll realize why I say that the end of THE BALLOON MAN was a slap in our faces. Otherwise, this was another good entry in a delightful series.

2000-04-07 (Sierra Vista, AZ United States) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Meet Old Aquaintances!
Yes, we meet them all again, Sarah, Max, Davy - who is less wooden than in previous books, more alive, if not yet perfect, but then a child can't be the shrewd, hardheaded original, as MacLeod's grownups usually are - Well, to continue, Theonia and Brooks, Jem and Egbert... Anybody out there, who did not know them yet? Read the other books! Because my only point of criticism is, that this new sequel lacks the "outer world". The good ones (old aquaintances!) are good. And the bad ones don't feature as much as they used to.. I miss some uglies, like the yachtclub-crew from "The Bilbao Looking Glass" or some new convincing crazies like in "The Convivial Codfish". Does it only seem to me, that the darker side of the previous stories has faded some, because none of the now very closely woven group can be sacrificed? (Like in other books, where at least one Kelling or several other group-members die?). OK, I don't mind! From time to time I want to read books where husbands are wonderful, eternal honeymoon is the rule, creeps and crazies are either family or dealt with efficiently, - well, Charlotte MacLeod will get you hooked on that easily accessible wonderful world of her literature. And this book is one of the entrances to it!

2000-02-22 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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