The Recycled Citizen
The Recycled Citizen by Charlotte Macleod 1988 Mysterious Press
[image error]This is the seventh book in the Sarah Kelling Mystery and one written before cozy mystery was a genre. Sarah and her husband Max are visiting with the Kelling clan in a house on Beacon Hill in Boston.
Macleod throws all the family members at us in the first chapter and fans who have read the previous books were probably familiar with them, but I had to make a list. The family is planning an auction of great-uncle Frederick’s collection of furnishings and collectibles to raise money to convert a building into a boardinghouse for the poor. They already support the Senior Citizens’ Recycling Center where plenty of characters hang out, including Uncle Fred’s former lawyer.
One of those characters, Chet Arthur, is found dead from a mugging but those who know him suspect some other reason for his death. Max, a detective, begins snooping around and finds $41,000 in Chet’s apartment. They also find a trace of heroin in a bag Chet was carrying.
The crime isn’t as important as the characters, who are either very rich or very poor. The rich take on solving the crime as if it is a game, dressing up in disguises, taking photographs using hidden cameras, and hiding people they put in danger.
I can see the fun and charm of this book for 1980 housewives who would enjoy the descriptions of fancy homes, furnishings, and clothing. It was escapism. The bad guy was obvious early on, and the long explanation of how the amateur sleuths solved the crime given to the police at the end was repetitive to anyone who read the previous 200 pages.
For current writers, take what readers enjoy and keep vivid descriptions and interesting characters in your writing. If you have an obvious bad guy, create another not so obvious villain hinted at early on but revealed late in the story.
List what you like in a book and what you don’t and use that information to improve your writing.
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