The Palace Guard (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries)

by Charlotte MacLeod

Hardcover, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

813

Publication

I Books (2003), Hardcover, 192 pages

Description

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.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member drruth

The third Max and Sarah book. This one has never been nearly as much of a favorite as the first two, despite having the actual boardinghouse setting that disappears later in the series. The "hep-cat" art forgery scene just seemed too silly for me.

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LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

It always takes me a while to get into the story. Sarah Kelling and her assorted friends and relatives are - distinctly weird, in many ways. The beginning, with a death and a mystery, feels awkward and uninteresting. But then I get caught up in the story and the characters, as they start to expand

from the initial cardboard list of quirks and turn into people I can believe exist; the mystery expands in several directions, and I'm firmly drawn in. The romances are sweet - Sarah and Max make some progress, among others - the mystery is far less obvious than it seems at the beginning, and by the end of the book I'm grinning and remembering why I like these stories. Charlotte MacLeod's style is to have characters do some very odd things, believing them to be perfectly normal. Sarah has Boston and specifically Kelling quirks - strong frugality, long-held grudges, and odd family history - behind some of her choices; they strike me as odd but believable. The Grub-and-Stakers mysteries are over the top for me - my disbelief gets strangled from being suspended so high. The Madoc Rhys mysteries, on the other hand, make a good deal of sense - they're my favorite MacLeods. The Kelling ones are in between - the first few are reasonable, then they get weird. This one is still reasonable.

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LibraryThing member librisissimo

Substance: Delightful romantic-mystery romp through high-ish society. Hasthe flavor of an earlier decade except for the lightly risqué episodes ( such as 1960s romantic movies). Reasonably decent mystery, fair clues.
Style: Light humor.
Will definitely look for more of MacLeod's work.

LibraryThing member jetangen4571

cozy-mystery, Boston, murder-investigation, fun, vintage

Sarah and Max come up right in the middle of things once again! Sarah is surrounded by relatives and also her boarders as murder intrudes once again, but romance is finally in the air for Sarah and Max as well as cousin Brooks Kelling and an

interesting boarder. I love this vintage series!
Andi Arndt is great as narrator!

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LibraryThing member ChazziFrazz

The body of a security guard being pushed off the third floor balcony of Madam Wilkin’s Palazzo is the beginning of a mystery with a couple of murders and a mishmash collection of art with questionable provenance.

Sarah Kelling, of the Boston Kellings and landlady of an elegant Beacon Hill

boarding house, acts as assistant to Max Bittersohn, art expert and boarder, in investigating the various aspects of the case. This is not their first case and won’t be their last.

Among the suspects is a Countess who makes her money forging antique icons, some of the most inept security guards and staff, and one of the Kelling cousins. Screaming peacocks lend an unusual touch, along with the impresario who provides the musical talent for the museum concerts, knows quite a bit about the museum and staff. The murder takes place during one of the concerts so there are plenty of witnesses/suspects…maybe.

It is a cozy read with humour, a touch of romance and some good twists and turns.

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LibraryThing member Kathy89

Sara has now turned her home into a Boarding House to pay off the mortgage debts that she has inherited and Max is one of her tenants in a basement apartment. He takes her to a museum as a treat (date?) where they happen to see an elderly guard falling over a railing to the courtyard below. This is

the beginning of an investigation for fake art. Lots of interesting, beatnikie characters come into play plus the relatives and tenants of Sara’s.

I liked this book better than Family Vault. Max is obviously sweet on Sara and there’s plenty of funny situations and hijinks to make it a quick and amusing read. It is dated however.

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