Most Popular Books by CHARLOTTE MACLEOD

Chasing a vile English plant, Professor Peter Shandy and his friends go on a most peculiar trip The 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. Quite 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.

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.

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.

Murder upstages a Kelling family theatrical production—and Boston’s art sleuths are on the case. “The screwball mystery is Charlotte MacLeod’s cup of tea” (Chicago Tribune). Producing a Gilbert & Sullivan opera requires a special kind of madness, and the Kelling family is large enough and peculiar enough to undertake an entire company by themselves. For years now, Sarah Kelling’s Aunt Emma has supervised these annual productions—from The Pirates of Penzance to The Mikado—and this year she has invited her cast of relatives to rehearse The Sorcerer in her stately mansion. The show is nearly ready when a team of burglars drugs the cast and crew to make off with a priceless portrait. Theft or no theft, Aunt Emma insists the show must go on. Even when one of the cast dies suddenly, she finds a replacement and continues rehearsal. But when Sarah begins to suspect the actor was murdered, it becomes clear that dear Aunt Emma may be in danger of taking her final bow.

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 couple finds an antique mirror that isn''t broken, but still brings bad luck—"MacLeod can be counted on for a witty, literate, and charming mystery" ( Publishers Weekly). According to Max Bittersohn, he and Sarah Kelling have witnessed enough murder and unhappiness, so it''s high time they got married. And though Sarah hasn''t yet agreed to such drastic measures, she invites Max to summer with her at Ireson''s Landing. But they haven''t been in the house ten minutes when they stumble upon summer''s first mystery—a mint-condition, antique Spanish mirror that is tremendously rare and valuable. Sarah has never seen it before and she doesn''t know how it ended up in the summerhouse, but the sleuthing couple will soon find this looking glass to be more troublesome than anything Lewis Carroll ever invented. As the zany Kelling clan descends on Ireson''s Landing, Sarah and her beau try to uncover the mystery of the Bilbao looking glass—a quest that is disrupted when a vicious next-door neighbor is found hacked to death with a woodshed ax. By summer''s end, Sarah and Max will learn that some murders can be solved simply by looking in the mirror.

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.

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.

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’s 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’s 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’ll 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. “The epitome of the ‘cozy’ mystery” (Mostly Murder), award-winning author Charlotte MacLeod’s Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries have charmed readers the world over.

A professor ponders the possibility of an ancient Viking curse while investigating a death by quicklime, in a novel by the Edgar Award–nominated author. When 105-year-old Hilda Horsefall tells young reporter Cronkite Swope of a stone carved with Norse runes that once sat in the nearby woods, the writer starts salivating at the thought of breaking the news that Vikings once marauded through their sleepy Massachusetts countryside. But while he''s jotting down notes, a scream rings out, and Cronkite finds an even bigger story. A farmhand has been burned to death by quicklime, and Cronkite gets an exclusive scoop. In this neck of New England, strange deaths are invariably referred to Prof. Peter Shandy, the only local with the know-how to connect fearsome quicklime to the Vikings of old. But as he digs into the ancient mystery, the professor finds the forgotten Norse gods aren''t above demanding a modern sacrifice.

Professor Peter Shandy returns in "a high-flying farce with humor that ranges from broad slapstick to quiet witticisms. . . . This murder most fowl is a hoot" ( Publishers Weekly). Emory Emmerick comes to Balaclava Agricultural University as a scout for a television station. Although the faculty and students are hardly ready for prime time, Emmerick''s interest is in environmental programming—a subject that inspires even the driest Balaclava professor to wax poetic. In his search for material, Emmerick joins Peter Shandy and a few of his colleagues on the annual owl-count. And though the television producer''s loud mouth and heavy feet make him a dismal birdwatcher, none of the academics expect him to make a fatal blunder. Chasing what appears to be a badly lost snowy owl, Emmerick stumbles into a trap that yanks him into a tree. By the time the professors reach him, he''s been stabbed to death. Discovering that the snowy owl was nothing more than a handful of feathers attached to a fishing pole, Shandy concludes that Emmerick was murdered. Plenty of people might like to kill a television producer, but which would-be killer had the gall to make the helpless Nyctea scandiaca an accomplice?

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.

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.

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 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.

A museum robbery leaves a guard dead, and two Boston sleuths investigate: “If this is your first meeting with Sarah Kelling, oh how I envy you” (Margaret Maron). It’s only been a few months since Sarah Kelling’s elderly husband passed away, and she’s struggling to adapt to life as a penniless young widow. To make ends meet, she converts her stately Boston home into a boardinghouse, a decision that brings something even better than money: the company of art-fraud investigator Max Bittersohn. The budding couple is standing on a balcony, recovering from a second-rate concert at a third-rate museum, when something plummets past them. The museum has been robbed, and a guard has fallen to his death. Dozens of priceless paintings have been stolen and replaced with forgeries, and recovering these masterworks will mean tearing the lid off the quiet life of the Boston upper crust. But it’s a chance Sarah and Max must take, lest they join the guard on his long trip down.

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.

Missing Rolls Royces, Renaissance fair revelry—and murder: “A witty, literate and charming mystery” featuring Boston’s married art sleuths (Publishers Weekly). Sarah Kelling and her husband, Max Bittersohn, have made names for themselves tracking down stolen paintings, sculptures, and, when necessary, the occasional murderer. But this is the first time they have been asked to find a missing Rolls Royce. When Bill Billingsgate’s prize 1927 New Phantom disappears, they head for his estate on the Massachusetts coast, arriving—to their horror—just in time for Billingsgate’s annual Renaissance fair. Donning period dress, they grab pints of mead and start searching the crowd for the thief. Instead they find a corpse. When the local police bungle the investigation, Max and Sarah take it upon themselves to find the killer. In the course of their search, they confront a car thief, corruption at a radio station, and a horde of murderous bees. If this is the Renaissance, Max and Sarah can’t wait to return to the present.

Adelaide Cutter had been scarred physically as well as emotionally by the ugly circumstances of her father’s death. Now, as a shy but enthusiastic beginner in an art studio, she was starting a new life for herself. If her tiny Beacon Hill apartment wasn’t much by the standards of her materialistic guardians, at least it meant that Adelaide could have a place to call her own—place where, if nothing else, she could hide from anyone who might notice what a bullet had done to her cheek. But her quiet life was to change suddenly. Late one night, a well-dressed stranger knocked on Adelaide’s door seeking assistance for her elderly landlady who had collapsed. The emergency was taken care of quickly. But the stranger—Nathaniel West—had become intrigued by tiny, blonde Adelaide, and—when he learned her name—he was intrigued also in learning the details of her father’s death. So, she was soon to learn, was his invalid father, who was full of questions as well as theories. From her association with the wealthy and independent Wests, Adelaide discovered that she was not, after all, the ugly duckling she had thought she was—nor was she living a very safe life!