New Releases by Charlotte MacLeod

Sommerfrische und neue Mordfälle – so lässt es sich urlauben! Jüngst verlobt und längst verliebt wollen Sarah Kelling – Erbin von Beruf – und Detektiv Max Bittersohn eigentlich traute Zweisamkeit an der Küste genießen, doch ihnen stellen sich zwei große Probleme in den Weg: Das Diebesgut einer Einbruchsserie, das in dem sonst unbewohnten Kelling-Landsitz deponiert wurde – und Sarahs alte Tante und Anstandsdame Appie, die Gefahr läuft, das junge Paar zu Tode zu langweilen. Als dann jedoch gleich zwei von Appies alten Freundinnen kurz hintereinander ermordet werden, zeigen die anklagenden Finger der feinen Gesellschaft auf den einzigen Außenseiter: Max Bittersohn, in dessen Zimmer auch noch die Mordwaffe gefunden wird. Sarah muss ermitteln, um ihren Verlobten zu retten – und ihren Urlaub! Band 4 der »Bosten Tea Crimes«-Reihe, in der alle Titel unabhängig gelesen werden können – für Fans von Richard Osman.

Sterben ist eine Kunst für sich – und nicht jeder ist Picasso... Detektiv Max Bittersohn wollte die junge Erbin Sarah Kelling eigentlich zu einer Vernissage in den kuriosen »Palazzo der Madam Wilkins« ausführen und die exquisite Kunstsammlung bewundern – rein freundschaftlich, versteht sich. Und es hätte ein zauberhafter Abend werden können ... wäre nicht der Museumswächter vom Balkon und in seinen Tod gestürzt. Schnell ist klar: Hier handelt es sich um Mord! Der Museumsdirektor Mr. Palmerston heuert Bittersohn an, dem Fall nachzugehen – und als Expertin in der Bostoner High Society ist Sarah Kelling natürlich mit von der Partie. Was verbirgt sich hinter den Kunstwerken im Palazzo? Wusste der Wachmann mehr, als er sollte? Und ist der Mörder Teil der illustren Gesellschaft, in der Sarah ein und ausgeht? Band 3 der exzentrischen »Boston Tea Crimes«-Reihe verspricht humorvolle Krimiunterhaltung für Fans von Richard Osman. Alle Bände der Reihe können unabhängig voneinander gelesen werden.

Illustre Gäste, ein verfluchter Salon und mysteriöse Todesfälle ... Sarah Kelling braucht Geld – es ist immerhin nicht billig, eine Erbin zu sein, wenn man an besagtes Erbe nicht rankommt! Allein in dem altehrwürdigen Herrenhaus ihrer Familie beschließt sie daher, eine Pension zu eröffnen (für die sie heimlich selbst als Köchin fungiert). Dazu kommen Zimmermädchen Mariposa und deren Freund Charles – ein arbeitsloser Schauspieler, der in seiner Rolle als Butler voll aufgeht und das Bühnenbild für die illustren Gäste abrundet. Doch leider sterben diese Sarah einer nach dem anderen weg. Um dem angeblichen Fluch auf den Grund zu gehen, muss sich erneut mit Max Bittersohn zusammentun – seines Zeichens Detektiv, Kunstexperte und ausgerechnet auch noch einer der besagten Gäste ... Cozy Crime für Fans von Agatha Christie – mit einer guten Prise dunklem Humor!

The first three novels featuring the sleuthing Boston couple: “The screwball mystery is Charlotte MacLeod’s cup of tea.” —Chicago Tribune Packed with wit, simmering romance, and complicated crimes, the whodunits in this delightfully cozy collection from the two-time Edgar Award finalist include: The Family Vault An aging burlesque star’s fresh corpse turns up in an old family tomb at Boston Common and Sarah Kelling must investigate in this “first-rate suspense whodunit” (The Cincinnati Post). The Withdrawing Room Facing a dwindling inheritance and the loss of her stately Back Bay brownstone, Sarah opens her home to lodgers—deciding she prefers a boardinghouse to the poorhouse. But when the death of one resident is followed by another, she turns to detective Max Bittersohn for help . . . “One of the most gifted mystery authors writing today.” —Sojourner The Palace Guard A museum robbery leaves a guard dead, and art-fraud investigator Max teams up with widowed socialite Sarah to crack the case, even if it ruffles the feathers of the city’s upper crust . . . “If this is your first meeting with Sarah Kelling, oh how I envy you.” —Margaret Maron

A young art student catches a thief—and finds her soul mate—in this charming, early YA novel from the million-selling “mistress of the ‘cozy’ mystery” (Los Angeles Times). Possessed of cool common sense and burning ambition, nineteen-year-old Corin Johansen leaves home to attend a prestigious art school in Boston. But Corin never met anyone back in Proctor’s Crossing, Pennsylvania, like the larger-than-life landlady at her new boardinghouse. A former circus star known as Daring Dina who trained lions and leopards under the big top, Madame Despau-Davy now contents herself with teaching her four beloved pet ocelots tricks in the kitchen. Corin soon learns the boardinghouse kitchen is supposedly haunted by the ghost of the Fat Lady from the circus, Dina’s old friend Rosie Garside. Corin is skeptical, but when she cooks, she can’t shake the feeling she’s being watched. The tall redhead has also caught the eye of some of the young male boarders: playboy Jack Banks and standoffish but gifted art student Alex Bodmin. When Corin discovers jewelry hidden in the haunted kitchen and hears the real story of how Rosie met her demise, she begins to suspect one of them may be a jewel thief—and possibly a murderer.

A young woman must escape family conflict—and find her own identity—in order to track down a thief in this novel by an acclaimed mystery writer. Persis Green’s existence has been overshadowed by the looming prospect of her older sister’s wedding. Her family was once normal—boring, but normal. Then the engagement was announced and all hell broke loose. Now, Persis’s father acts like a zombie at dinner parties, her mother goes from zero to shrieking in seconds, and her sister is utterly self-absorbed. When Persis wins a statewide piano competition and a scholarship to a prestigious music conservatory, her big news is pushed aside. In addition to the general chaos of the impending nuptials, one of her sister’s wedding gifts, a wildly expensive piece of jewelry, has disappeared. Feeling like the only sane member of the family, Persis commits her cool head to solving the mystery. But there are other surprises she’ll discover in the course of her investigation in this absorbing tale by the author of the popular Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn series.

A historical mystery set in early twentieth-century New England from the acclaimed author of the Peter Shandy series. Upon graduating from an academy for respectable young ladies, Lavinia Tabard heads to the New England countryside and her rich cousin Zilpha’s summer cottage with the low expectations of a charity case. Lavinia intends to endure Zilpha’s saccharine sweetness and her “companion” Tetsy’s bullying ways only until she can plan an escape that doesn’t involve marriage. A welcome distraction comes when, as she works on a grave rubbing at the local cemetery, Lavinia notices something strange about the dates on the stone. Her questions lead to the doorsteps of several interesting neighbors, including a self-made young architect with a temper as fiery as his red hair. Hayward Clinton and his partner have an office on Zilpha’s property, an awkward situation that won’t change until the mysterious disappearance of the business’s original owner is solved. It’s a case too curious for Lavinia to resist—but someone will stop at nothing to ensure that she does. King Devil is an entertaining tale of suspense from the acclaimed author of the Peter Shandy Mysteries, as well as the Boston-set Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn series.

A young woman investigates the death of her wealthy, estranged father in a small Rhode Island town in this novel by the author of the Peter Shandy Mysteries. Murder can happen anywhere, even in sleepy Meldrum, Rhode Island. And while the town’s old-money families may prefer to sweep such unseemliness under their Oriental rugs, its newest resident can think of nothing else. Nineteen-year-old Jenny Cirak has moved into the house her father, a once-famous movie producer, willed to her. She’s also using an assumed name, just like he did when he lived—and died—in Meldrum. But why did he leave a fortune to the child he abandoned . . . and what really killed him? Hoping to make sense of the father she never knew, Jenny must get to know his neighbors and expose their secrets and feuds. Somewhere among this cast of characters, which includes a retired corporate accountant from Baltimore who shows up on her doorstep with a clue, is a person who knows the truth—and will do anything to keep Cirak’s daughter from uncovering it. From the acclaimed author of the Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn series and other popular mysteries, this is a twisting tale of small-town secrets and suspense.

The first three cozy mysteries in a series featuring a Royal Canadian Mountie and his resourceful wife from an international-bestselling author. The beloved sleuthing couple solves a trio of murder cases in the austere beauty of Canada’s New Brunswick. Originally published under the pseudonym Alisa Craig, these three tales are a witty look at murder in a small town—“the epitome of the ‘cozy’ mystery” (Mostly Murder). A Pint of Murder: When Janet Wadman realizes her friend Agatha was murdered with a jar of tainted green beans, her discovery leads to another untimely death. Height-challenged Mountie Madoc Rhys proves more capable than he looks, and Janet is duly impressed. Murder Goes Mumming: Madoc decides to ask Janet for her hand in marriage. But when the newly engaged couple finds their Christmas plans spoiled by murder, the investigating duo once again finds they have a gift for serving justice. A Dismal Thing to Do: Janet witnesses a terrible accident on the back roads of Canada. But after dashing into a nearby barn to get help, someone thanks her by stealing her car and then trying to kill her. Or were they? Madoc arrives and together they work to stop a deadly crime wave in its tracks.

Before Agatha Christie, there was America’s Mistress of Mystery. This is the story of her life and creative legacy, from the butler who did it to Batman. In the decades since her death in 1958, master storyteller Mary Roberts Rinehart has often been compared to Agatha Christie. But while Rinehart was once a household name, today she is largely forgotten. The woman who first proclaimed “the butler did it” was writing for publication years before Christie’s work saw the light of day. She also practiced nursing, became a war correspondent, and wrote a novel—The Bat—that inspired Bob Kane’s creation of Batman. Born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, before it was absorbed into Pittsburgh, and raised in a close-knit Presbyterian family, Mary Roberts was at once a girl of her time—dutiful, God-fearing, loyal—and a quietly rebellious spirit. For every hour she spent cooking, cleaning, or sewing at her mother’s behest while her “frail” younger sister had fun, Mary eked out her own moments of planning, dreaming, and writing. But becoming an author wasn’t on her radar . . . yet. Bestselling mystery writer Charlotte MacLeod grew up on Rinehart’s artfully crafted novels, such as the enormously successful The Circular Staircase—“cozies” before the concept existed. After years of seeing Christie celebrated and Rinehart overlooked, MacLeod realized that it was time to delve into how this seemingly ordinary woman became a sensation whose work would grace print, stage, and screen. From Rinehart’s grueling training as a nurse and her wartime interviews with a young Winston Churchill and Queen Mary to her involvement with the Blackfoot Indians and her work as doctor’s wife, mother of three, playwright, serialist, and novelist, this is the unforgettable story of America’s Grande Dame of Mystery.

Zu Weihnachten gibt’s Mord – zwei Fälle in einem Band In ›Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh‹ findet ein Professor für Botanik und Nutzpflanzenzucht die Leiche seiner Nachbarin unter dem Weihnachtsbaum – er glaubt nicht an einen natürlichen Tod und beginnt in seiner unmittelbaren Umgebung, am Balaclava-College, zu ermitteln. Und der Täter kann sich warm anziehen: Mit wissenschaftlicher Präzision und dem ihm eigenen Scharfsinn nimmt sich der Professor des Mordfalls an ... Dass es auch anderenorts am Fest der Liebe hochhergeht, zeigt ›Kabeljau und Kaviar‹: Der sehr elitäre Club vom Geselligen Kabeljau gibt seine alljährliche Weihnachtsfeier. Nachdem erst eine wertvolle Amtskette verschwindet, sterben nicht weniger als drei Mitglieder der Bostoner Oberschicht. Zu allem Überfluss scheint der edle Kaviar vergiftet worden zu sein ...

Cliff House may be haunted, but no ghost is as scary as the women who live there. Holly Howe is just beginning to get traction in the cutthroat world of New York modeling when a car accident ruins her good looks forever. She retreats to the backwoods of Canada, to recuperate in her brother''s ramshackle country house. Howe Hill is a wreck - dusty, ugly and utterly lacking in modern facilities - and her brother is no more hospitable. When she hears of a job in town taking care of an ancient invalid, Holly leaps on it. If nothing else, Cliff House must have indoor plumbing. Eerie by day, the.

A supposedly haunted house contains even more frightening secrets among the living in this cozy mystery from the international bestselling author. Holly Howe is just beginning to succeed in in the cutthroat world of New York modeling when a car accident ruins her good looks forever and she is forced to retreat to the backwoods of Canada, to recuperate in her brother’s ramshackle country house. But Howe Hill is a wreck—dusty, ugly, and utterly lacking in modern facilities—and her brother is no more hospitable. So when Holly hears of a job in town taking care of Mrs. Partlett, an elderly, widowed invalid, she leaps at the opportunity. If nothing else, the Partlett mansion must have indoor plumbing. But Holly soon finds that while Cliff House is eerie by day, it’s terrifying by night. The other housekeeper is convinced it’s haunted by the ghost of Mr. Partlett, but Holly fears no poltergeist. It’s the old widow in the upstairs room that frightens her—and the secrets that lurk behind her dull, silver eyes.

Christmas crimes hit close to home for Boston’s favorite art sleuths. “Charlotte MacLeod’s mysteries are witty and full of humor” (Maine Crime Writers). The angry old men of the Comrades of the Convivial Codfish club celebrate yuletide doing what they do best: eating, drinking, and greeting the season of giving with a spirited “bah, humbug!” Though well past sixty, Jem Kelling is a relative infant compared to some of the club’s elder statesmen, and he has waited decades to host their annual Christmas scowl. And during his first evening as Exalted Chowderhead, he is thrilled to find the wine abundant, the chowder superb, and the humbugs as lusty as ever. But as the night winds down, Jem is horrified to find that the ceremonial Codfish necklace has vanished—right off of his neck! His nephew-in-law, art investigator Max Bittersohn, is convinced his new uncle was the victim of a practical joke. But when the old man takes a hip-snapping tumble, Max is forced to conclude that one of the scrooges is trying to perpetrate a deadly Christmas jeer.

A Christmas scrooge discovers a murdered librarian in this holiday novel from an Edgar Award finalist known for her “witty, literate, and charming” mysteries (Publishers Weekly). Each December, the faculty of Balaclava Agricultural College goes wild with holiday decorations. The entire campus glitters with Christmas lights, save for one dark spot: the home of professor Peter Shandy. But after years of resisting the school’s Illumination festival, Shandy suddenly snaps, installing a million-watt display of flashing lights and blaring music perfectly calculated to drive his neighbors mad. Then the horticulturalist flees town, planning to spend Christmas on a tramp steamer. It’s not long before he feels guilty about his prank and returns home to find his lights extinguished—and a dead librarian in his living room. Hoping to avoid a scandal, the school’s head asks Shandy, sometimes detective, to investigate the matter quietly. After all, Christmas is big business, and the town needs the cash infusion that typically comes with the Illumination. But as Shandy will soon find out, there’s a dark side to even the whitest of white Christmases.

DIVSeventeen priceless stories from the author often referred to as “America’s Agatha Christie”/divDIV /divDIVCharlotte MacLeod’s heroes were men and women like Peter Shandy and Sarah Kelling—genteel sleuths who fight crime with brains, not brawn—and her settings were the drawing rooms and servants’ quarters of New England and beyond. With a keen wit and a strong eye for detail, she crafted some of the most memorable victims, murderers, and innocent bystanders of twentieth-century detective novels. In this volume, she proves herself a master of the short story as well./divDIV /divDIVHere is the original Peter Shandy story, featuring the school that would eventually metamorphose into Balaclava Agricultural College. Here is peculiar Cousin Claude, who strangles himself with his own necktie. And here is the tale that answers the question “What does Max Bittersohn do when his wife is not around?” Whether the characters are familiar or not, the style is irresistible, and the mysteries are as delightfully puzzling as ever./div

The international bestselling author “again demonstrates her skill and with incomparable whimsy makes her bucolic puzzles great fun” (Publishers Weekly). Although he towers over his neighbors, Jim Feldster is otherwise unremarkable, except for his mastery of cow milking and his membership in every lodge, rotary club, and brotherhood that Balaclava County has to offer. And anyone who’s met his wife, Mirelle, a vicious gossip with a hysterical streak, can understand why he never misses a meeting. But one night their neighbors, the sleuthing academics Peter and Helen Shandy, wake at 2:47 a.m. to the sound of Mirelle screaming. Jim hasn’t come home, and she will lose her mind if he isn’t found quickly. None of Jim’s lodge brothers know where to find him, and Peter’s investigation turns up few clues. But when a mystery author comes to town and Mirelle is found murdered, Peter begins to wonder if the master milker is less wholesome than he appears.

DIVChasing a vile English plant, Professor Peter Shandy and his friends go on a most peculiar trip/divDIV /divDIVThe giant hogweed, a creeping menace known for crushing the life out of any plant foolish enough to get in its way, has put the hedgerows and pastures of the English countryside in jeopardy. Fishermen find their streams clogged, young lovers are caught with rashes in embarrassing places, and the English nudist colony has been all but exterminated. Only Peter Shandy, the famed horticulturalist responsible for the world’s finest rutabaga, can save the day. But when Shandy and his colleagues set out to find hogweed samples, they stumble into an unusually mystical adventure./divDIV /divDIVQuite by accident, Shandy trips through a publican’s portal, and finds himself conversing with a giant. Trapped in a land of castles, wizards, and knights, Shandy must use every scrap of his horticultural genius to get back home—lest the hogweed triumph in his absence./div

A small town gardening—and archery—club must solve a murder case and save their town from developers in the first cozy mystery featuring Dittany Henbit. Anyone growing up in Lobelia Falls is taught to learn the elegant, ancient, and occasionally deadly art of shooting with a bow and arrow. Practicing the craft, freelance secretary Dittany Henbit is strolling through the woods with her bow at her side when she meets a surveyor making surveys where he shouldn’t. Dittany is giving him what-for when an arrow goes whizzing above her head. It is sharp enough to kill, and was not fired by accident, but Dittany wasn’t the target. She and the surveyor find Mr. Architrave, the head of the water department, not far away—lying dead beneath the trees that he loved so much. Progress is coming to Lobelia Falls, and one resident will do anything to stop it. But in a town where every child can shoot, how can Dittany discover who drew the killer bow?

A horticulturist and amateur sleuth roots out an irritating professor’s killer in the Nero Award–winning mystery series. An unpleasant man in every respect, university professor Herbert Ungley is exceedingly vain. One morning, his landlady catches her cat coming in with Ungley’s hairpiece between its teeth. It’s clear something has happened to the old grouch, because he would never be caught without his toupee. Ungley is found in the yard behind his social club, with his head bashed in and his baldness plain for the world to see. Although the police are content to call it an accident, sleuthing horticulturalist Peter Shandy is unconvinced, and finds there are too many unanswered questions: How did Ungley come to have such a bulging bank account? Who was Ungley’s long-lost heir, and what did he have to do with the professor’s lost hair? And whose is the second body in the woods? Shandy must answer these questions and more if he’s to discover who pulled the rug out from the balding corpse.

Antique weather vanes point Peter and Helen Shandy toward a gang of thieves in a mystery that’s “the ultimate escapism . . . utterly hilarious” (Publishers Weekly). The weather vanes of the famous craftsman Praxiteles Lumpkin are one of the great cultural treasures of rural Massachusetts. Helen Shandy, librarian at Balaclava Agricultural College, is roaming the countryside, camera in hand, capturing images of these lovely copper sculptures, trying to give them the attention they deserve. But each time she takes a picture, the featured vane vanishes. Could there be a gang of breezy-minded burglars on her tail? The night after Helen photographs the vane atop the famous Lumpkin soap works, the building burns to the ground. With the help of her husband, Peter, she tries to track the thieves-turned-arsonists. But when the things take a dangerous turn, Helen doesn’t need a weather vane to see that a deadly wind is blowing.