The Balloon Man (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Charlotte MacLeod (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries | Publication Date: December 1998

Sarah Kelling has always delighted in the fact that her husband Max Bittersohn's family embraced her with warm and welcoming arms. To repay their kindness, she throws Max's nephew a glorious wedding on her family's sprawling seaside estate. But then, what starts as the perfect day for a marriage soon deteriorates into a multi-pronged disaster. First, Max is knocked unconscious by someone looking to steal the bride's gold and ruby necklace. Then, a hot air balloon crashes into the tent, leaving a corpse in its wake. And, to add insult to injury, someone attempts to steal a vintage Rolls. It will take all of Max's formidable skills as the world's greatest expert on art theft to get to the bottom of these nuptials-turned-nasty.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If Noel Coward or P.G. Wodehouse wrote mysteries, they would probably be very much like the books that Charlotte MacLeod writes, featuring the charming art detective Max Bittersohn and his socially connected wife, Sarah Kelling. There would be lots of style and witty dialogue, people with names like Tweeters Arbuthnot and Calpurnia Zickery, but not much meaty content.

MacLeod's latest mystery meringue begins at a fancy Boston wedding staged by Sarah for Max's nephew, where missing rubies, long-lost neighbors, the crash of a hot air balloon, and the discovery of a dead body are last-minute additions to the festivities. Things go downhill from there, with smoke bombs going off, more corpses piling up, and both Max and his 3-year-old son, Davy, soon among the missing. This is the kind of book that requires a dozen pages in the last chapter to explain everything, and that should be read with little finger firmly extended. Fans of Poirot, and of Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles, will be delighted. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly

In this spritely addition (after Odd Job) to a spirited series, MacLeod, who also writes the Peter Shandy novels (Exit the Milkman), has Sarah Kelling attempt to orchestrate an elegant wedding on Boston's North Shore for the nephew of her husband, art detective Max Bittersohn. Anyone planning a wedding should expect problems, but Sarah gets more than her fair share. Max is perplexed when the Kellings' fabulous rubies, last spotted in Amsterdam, suddenly appear among the wedding gifts. As he searches the room to find clues regarding their unorthodox reappearance, he stumbles across a verbose, mendacious burglar who serves him a brutal whack across the legs and then escapes. Shortly thereafter, a hot-air balloon crash lands in the middle of the wedding tent, and the Zickerys, long-lost neighbors of the Kellings, stumble out. The next day, after being incapacitated by a smoke bomb, Max is stunned to learn that a dead body has been found under the remains of the tent. Amid the screwball chaos, Max and Sarah, hampered by their three-year-old son Davy ("the world's most intelligent child"), try to discover who the dead man was, how his body came to be on their property and whether he has anything to do with the rubies, the thief or the smoke bomb. When Davy goes missing and then Max is abducted, level-headed Sarah must stave off her zany Kelling relatives to get her loved ones back. In this delightful mystery, Max and Sarah make a strong claim to being the Nick and Nora Charles of the 1990s, urbane, witty and thoroughly appealing. Mystery Guild main selection.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Pr (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892966572
• ISBN-13: 978-8929665722
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #695,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absurdity and Desperate Emotions Nicely Intermingled..., January 30, 2000

By 

Susan Shedd (South Woodbury, VT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Balloon Man (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Maceod has such a talent for zany details and irrelevant (therefore,quite realistic!) conversation that it's easy to ignore the emotional content of her mysteries. As a devoted series reader,I've always been grateful for the way the spotlight moves from Sarah & Max to others in their circle and then back again -- it keeps the series fresh, I think.

This time, the focus is on Sarah & Max (and Davy) with a vengeance! The joyous confusion of Max's nephew's wedding is a grand setting for the return of an old,sad problem (set with rubies) from Sarah's first marriage. After confusion piled on confusion ("Damn it," sputtered Max, "can't we stop conversing in questions?") causes us and the characters to wish for something decisive to happen...it does...they do -- whatever! And then things don't STOP happening...

MacLeod keeps the drama of real and painful emotions balanced with the melodrama of the ridiculous. The people and the plot are delicious, and although I didn't want to put it down, I wasn't afraid to go to sleep,either. Silly & scary is a great combination! The wrap-up is classic MacLeod: confection, compassion and confusion.

If you're new to this series I would recommend that you read "The Family Vault" and "The Palace Guard", at least, before you tackle any of the others. My own preference would be to line 'em all up and knock 'em back one after another (Uncle Jem must be rubbing off on me), but it isn't essential...and certainly most of Sarah & Max's relatives would never be that logical!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Last One, October 26, 2001

By 

Doris Kimball "pcreader" (Panama City, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Balloon Man (Mass Market Paperback)

All of Charlotte MacLeod's books are zany and frequently require the reader to leap in joyful, but strange directions. The characters are charming if rarely life-like and that is part of the attraction. If you haven't read the books in both major series, please do. We will have no more. Ms. MacLeod is tragically "retired from writing" as a result of Alzheimer's.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully cozy, December 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Balloon Man (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries) (Hardcover)

It was fantastic that some of the loose ends from the beginning of the series were finally wrapped up. It is time to move on - forget Alexander and have a sibling for Davy. This episode was interesting and exciting and made me wish for more!!!