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The Withdrawing Room (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mystery #2)
What's the proper way for a Boston landlady to react when her most obnoxious boarder gets squashed by a subway train? Sarah Kelling doesn't mind losing Barnwell Augustus Quiffen. She already has a far nicer applicant for the drawing room suite, now that money problems have forced her to turn her historic brownstone into a boarding house. And curmudgeonly old Mr. Quiffen ha...more
Hardcover, Book Club Edition, 186 pages
Published
1980
by Doubleday & Company, Inc.
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After Sarah Kelling's husband and mother-in-law die and she finds that the family homes are heavily mortgaged, Sarah takes the necessary steps to set up the Tulip St. house to take in "paying guests." True to form the boarders that Sarah gets are quite the collection of interesting characters and when one of the dies in a questionable subway accident Sarah is once again in the middle of murder and mayhem.
The characters in this series just continue to grow and delight me. Ms. MacLeod had a firm...more
The characters in this series just continue to grow and delight me. Ms. MacLeod had a firm...more
I am so looking forward to what happens between Sarah and Max, if anything, that I am racing through the first two books in the series, of which this is the second. Ms. MacLeod has a way of making her mysteries fun as well as interesting. Although it's not important to me that the mystery be one I can't solve, I have to admit I didn't see this one coming. To me, characters and dialogue are more important, and this book has both in plenty. I also admit to a fondness for reading a book that has a...more
I was very fond of Charlotte MacLeod way back when, so I thought I'd give Sarah Kelling/Max Bittersohn a try on audio. The reader was so irritating and the ancient cassettes so echoey I had to remind myself that I always found these a bit sexist despite the entertaining weirdies and gave up. I shall have to retry in print. As I recall, the clothes (use it up, wear it out, make it do) were always my favorite parts.
the wonderful second outing for Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn; i just reread it after several years.
This book and The Family Vault, its predecessor, are SO good that it just makes me cringe that MAcLeod now confines herself to the silliness of the likes of "the convivial codfish" etc.
but this one holds up wonderfully! Great sense of a certain segment of Boston society and very funny throughout!
This book and The Family Vault, its predecessor, are SO good that it just makes me cringe that MAcLeod now confines herself to the silliness of the likes of "the convivial codfish" etc.
but this one holds up wonderfully! Great sense of a certain segment of Boston society and very funny throughout!
I am enjoying my re-reading of this cozy mystery series. In this second book, Sarah opens her home as a boarding house to make ends meet. This is one of my favorite aspects of these books--the quirky characters who are her boarders. Max Bittersohn also moves in and their courtship slowly begins. The mystery was clever and I didn't see the end coming. That's always nice when re-reading a mystery!
A lot of my fondness for this book is nostalgic (this series was a favorite when I was a kid) and occasionally the language comes off as a bit dated, but I will continue to re-read The Withdrawing Room and other early Sarah Kelling mysteries because they are funny, sweet, and the descriptions of various characters still bring joy after all these years.
Sarah's story takes up as she is fighting to keep her deceased husband's family home together. Against her families general advise but with their erratic support she opens a boarding house for those who wish an address with social cache. She offers the amenities of cook, maid and butler without all the difficulties of ownership.
After listening to an old favorite THE FAMILY VAULT, #1 in this series, and loving it, I was aware that #3 is also available in audio. I had to reread #2 THE WITHDRAWING ROOM to get to it. Am I glad I did!
Sarah Kelling, new widow, turns her old family mansion into a boarding house. The boarders are recommended by friends and family, but despite that, she gets a couple of nasty surprises including two murders.
Sarah is a darling, totally believable, and her vast family with its support and its feu...more
Sarah Kelling, new widow, turns her old family mansion into a boarding house. The boarders are recommended by friends and family, but despite that, she gets a couple of nasty surprises including two murders.
Sarah is a darling, totally believable, and her vast family with its support and its feu...more
This is an older novel and written in an older style. Its a Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn mystery. Sarah is newly widowed and broke. She opens a boarding house in her Beacon Hill brownstone. Her colorful family and Max help solve the mystery into the deaths of two of her boarders. This is a fun, easy read.
Another of the Sarah and Max mysteries, set in Boston. In cozies, a heroine's whacky relatives are usually endearing. Mostly I find Sarah's kin to be crazy and often homicidal. The books are well-plotted, excellently written and give some honest shivers. Be sure and read them order.
Jan 18, 2013
Michele bookloverforever
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-series
sarah runs a rooming house in the decaying mansion she inherited from her deceases spouse (see book 1, "the family vault". things start to get interesting when max moves in and begins to woo sarah. there is a murder to solve.
This was a pretty good read and I think I am beginning to get the rhythum of Charlotte Macleod. I liked the setting and the characters in this book. It was a follow-up to another book which I will have to try and track down.
More charming eccentricities of newly impoverished old money. I like the setting--the way people talk reminds me of my childhood--but the plot and some of the characters are a bit too wacky for my taste.
One of the many Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn mysteries. They are all good and worth reading. Especially interesting for those who live in and around Boston.
Actual Rating: ***1/2
Loving this cleverly written mystery series that takes place in pre-urban renewal Boston.
Loving this cleverly written mystery series that takes place in pre-urban renewal Boston.
A clever story with interesting characters. You should "The Family Vault" first to get a head start on half the characters.
Funny, charming, interesting and a decent mystery. I'll be looking up more Charlotte MacLeod books.
The withdrawing room by Charlotte MacLeod (1980)
Fun short book. Quick read and engrossing
One of her best.
This was your typical cozy mystery. MacLeod pens a wonderful story, and her cast of characters was marvelous. Apphererently, this was the second book in her Sara Kelly/Max Bittersohn series, and altho you can pick it up without needing to read the first, I enjoyed this one alot, so I think I'll track down "The Family Vault" to see how the story begins
I enjoyed the mystery and the background of the old families of Boston
p.1 "Cousin Dolph's jowls quivered with empurpled outrage. Dolph went in rather heavily for outrage."
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Naturalized US Citizen
Also wrote as Alisa Craig
Charlotte MacLeod, born in New Brunswick, Canada, and a naturalized U.S. citizen, is the multi-award-winning author of over thirty acclaimed novels. Her series featuring detective Professor Peter Shandy, America's homegrown Hercule Poirot, delivers "generous dollops of...warmth, wit, and whimsy" (San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle). But fully...more
More about Charlotte MacLeod...
Also wrote as Alisa Craig
Charlotte MacLeod, born in New Brunswick, Canada, and a naturalized U.S. citizen, is the multi-award-winning author of over thirty acclaimed novels. Her series featuring detective Professor Peter Shandy, America's homegrown Hercule Poirot, delivers "generous dollops of...warmth, wit, and whimsy" (San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle). But fully...more
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Mar 31, 2013 07:58am