The Withdrawing Room

Name: The Withdrawing Room
Brand: HighBridge Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Charlotte MacLeod
ISBN: 9781696606059

Author: Charlotte MacLeod

Series: Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries #2

Narrator: Susan Boyce

Unabridged: 6 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Highbridge Audio

Published: 12/07/2021

Categories: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Amateur Sleuth, Women Sleuths

Synopsis

Death pays a visit to Sarah Kelling's Boston boardinghouse in this cozy mystery from the bestselling author of the Peter Shandy series.

Though the inheritance from her dearly departed Alexander was meant to set Sarah Kelling up for life, it vanishes quickly in the face of hounding from charitable organizations and the IRS. Facing the loss of her stately Back Bay brownstone, Sarah opens her home to lodgers—deciding she prefers a boardinghouse to the poorhouse. Soon she is cooking meals and serving tea for a cast of quirky residents, a cozy little family that would be quite happy were it not for the unpleasant presence of a certain Barnwell Augustus Quiffen—a man so rude that no one really minds when he is squashed beneath a subway car. Sarah replaces her lost boarder quickly, and the family dynamic is restored. But when another lodger dies suddenly, the boardinghouse appears to be cursed.

Now it will take more than a glass of sherry to soothe Sarah's panicked residents, and she must turn to detective Max Bittersohn for help before her boarders bolt.

About Charlotte MacLeod

Charlotte MacLeod (1922-2005) was an internationally bestselling author of cozy mysteries. Born in Canada, she moved to Boston as a child, and lived in New England most of her life. After graduating from college, she made a career in advertising, writing copy for the Stop & Shop Supermarket Company before moving on to Boston firm N. H. Miller & Co., where she rose to the rank of vice president. In her spare time, MacLeod wrote short stories, and in 1964 published her first novel, a children's book called Mystery of the White Knight.

In Rest You Merry (1978), MacLeod introduced Professor Peter Shandy, a horticulturist and amateur sleuth whose adventures she would chronicle for two decades. The Family Vault (1979) marked the first appearance of her other best-known characters: the husband and wife sleuthing team Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn, whom she followed until her last novel, The Balloon Man, in 1998.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Heidi on July 24, 2022

3.5 Short but sweet cozy mystery that is once again filled with Kelling family members, Kelling acquaintances and some Kelling friends. Sarah is growing a backbone but I found some of her dialogue inconsistent with her nature, as displayed so far. But there’s loads of charm from a number of the new......more

Goodreads review by Blaine on October 27, 2019

Another winner by Charlotte MacLeod. I always thought that too seldom used Tommy and Tuppence were the best detectives that Agatha Christie had in her stable. Here we find a suitable pairing of Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn, two vastly different people who in their own separate ways solve crimes......more

Goodreads review by Jenn on May 15, 2017

I've been sick, so all I've really wanted to do is lie in bed, drink orange juice, read cozies written before the genre embraced the pun so wholeheartedly and feel sorry for myself. Thank goodness I had a few Charlotte MacLeod/Alisa Craig books on deck to help with that.......more

Goodreads review by C. (Comment, never msg). on June 24, 2014

This series is sequential. “The Withdrawing Room” rolls into Sarah’s mismanaged legacy. Rather than give up the house in which she used to tiptoe; it’s remodelled. The withdrawing room, trivial now, becomes a suite with the rest of the manor. Boarders provide the means to keep it. One perishes at a......more

Goodreads review by Lyn on July 16, 2020

The late Charlotte MacLeod has become one of my new favorite authors. I'm so happy her family (i think) has made her wonderful mysteries available. Written around 50 years ago, these books bring back the era of the 70's. But with a twist. Sarah Kelling, the main character, is one of a long-respected......more