From Publishers Weekly
As funny and exciting as The Palace Guard and The Bilbao Looking Glass, MacLeod's new novel features Sarah and Max Bittersohn sleuthing again. Sarah's Brahmin but rather improper Bostonian kin, the Kellings, ask for the couple's help when Dolph and Mary Kelling's Senior Citizens' Recycling Center is in danger. One of the street people supported by the Center is killed and scandal threatens when Max finds heroin in the victim's distinctive tote bag, which has been provided by the Kellings for the cans that the elderly collect for recycling. There is a hilarious scene as Max and Sarah (now heavily pregnant) join gypsy cousin Theonia and other relatives, all in disguise, as they in spy on suspects in the Boston Public Gardens. Later, the villain strikes again, at an auction to benefit the center, and Max, using the skills he acquired as a detective specializing in art frauds, solves the two cases conclusively. In a double climax, Sarah gives birth to David Josiah Kelling Bittersohn. (January
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Because of the size and diversity as the Kelling family, the opening chapters of MacLeod's novel may be confusing for the first-timer to the series. However, the creaky start, stuffy with exposition, soon gives way to the charm, wit, and Holmesian logic of detectives Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn, her husband, who is also an art critic. Through Mary Peiffer's able narration, we encounter the possibly psychic Cousin Theonia, an odd assortment of characters who frequent the senior citizens' recycling center, and a drug scheme that inevitably leads to not one, but two, murders. Peiffer's manner is matter of fact, her voice perfectly suited to the wry comments of the older, wiser members of the recycling center and the clan Kelling. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
