The Gladstone Bag: A Sarah Kelling Mystery (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries (Paperback)) [Paperback]

Charlotte MacLeod (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1991 | Series: Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries (Paperback)

Sarah Kelling's Aunt Emma leaps at the chance to stay at her old friend Adelaide's summer place, enjoying a quiet time repairing some stage jewelry while keeping an eye on the artists and writers who'll be occupying Adelaide's six guest cottages. On the ferry, Emma's Gladstone bag is temporarily stolen. Could someone have mistaken those junk jewels for real diamonds? She meets her guests-to-be who inform her they plan to dig for Pocapuk's legendary pirate treasure without having bothered to get Adelaide's permission. On the island, her bag is heisted again, a trespassing scuba diver is found dead, and a mysterious stranger is off on a rampage of attempted murders. Emma enlists niece Sarah and her husband, Max Bittersohn, for a spot of long-distance detecting.

"It's lively and fun all the way..." (Amazon.com)

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As always, MacLeod serves up unalloyed pleasure in recounting the exploits of an eccentric Boston Brahmin family, this time starring Emma Kelling (aunt to amateur detective Sarah). The glamorous, aging but vigorous widow leaps into nets at a firemen's benefit, performs in operettas and now takes on a new role--housekeeper for a group of aspiring artists and writers living on an island retreat belonging to one of her friends. Taking a bag of stage jewelry to repair, Emma arrives on isolated Picapuk Island off Maine to meet rude Everard Wont, writer; suave Count Alexei Radunov, poet; Alding Fath, psychic; Joris Groot and Lisbet Quainley, illustrators. They plan to find and write about pirate treasure supposedly buried on Picapuk, and Emma's baubles cause some confusion. But the genuine, incredibly valuable diamond necklace she finds in the bag incites murder. Somebody on the island kills a stranger who has swum ashore; dopes the psychic and hits Emma and several guests on their heads. Recovering her senses, the heroine phones for advice to her niece Sarah and husband Max Bittersohn, who send the help she needs to nab the villains.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Six feisty and contentious characters with inventive names surround aging-but-active Emma Kelling during her stay at a friend's Maine retreat. Strange events, attempted theft, and a sodden body propel her to consult niece and nephew-in-law/detectives Sarah and Max Bittersohn (of series fame), as well as cousin-in-law Theonie. Tongue-in-cheek eccentricities, the usual casual but astute deductions, and a certain luxuriousness of language make this a most welcome addition to the MacLeod canon.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Mysterious Pr (February 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446400025
• ISBN-13: 978-0446400022
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,370,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charlotte McLeod is in fine form, September 2, 2000

By 

Mary Carol Scherb (Irvine, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gladstone Bag: A Sarah Kelling Mystery (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries (Paperback)) (Paperback)

Sarah Kelling's Aunt Emma is a woman who throws herself into good works, such as leaping from a burning building into a net to raise money for a fireman's widow. Now old friend Adelaide Sabine needs a hostess for her isolated summer place on Pocapuk Island, and Emma leaps again. She'll enjoy a quiet summer of rest, relaxation, and repairing the stage jewelry belonging to her pet Gilbert and Sullivan troupe while she keeps a benevolent eye on the artists and writers who'll be occupying Adelaide's six guest cottages. She packs up the baubles in her old Gladstone bag and heads for the coast of Maine. On the ferry, Emma is drugged and her bag temporarily stolen - could someone have mistaken the paste jewels for real diamonds? On the island, she's barely settled in when her Gladstone bag is heisted again, a trespassing scuba diver is found dead, and a mysterious stranger is off on a rampage of attempted murders. Emma won't stand for such a shocking breach of island etiquette. She enlists niece Sarah and nephew-in-law Max Bittersohn for a spot of long-distance detecting - and sets about digging a trap for a ruthless villain. A fine and witty read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming artifact; cf. to Miss Marple, September 27, 2005

By 

Barbara L. Pinzka "Book Friend" (Cincinnati, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gladstone Bag: A Sarah Kelling Mystery (Hardcover)

It's hard to believe this book is supposed to be contemporaneous to 1989. The heroine, a wealthy widow, still dresses for dinner and expects her guests at a private island vacation home in Maine to do so, too. Long-time family retainers drift in and out of scenes, always knowing their places. I went to a private Catholic girls' HS in the 1960s and never ran into characters so refined.

Nevertheless, just as I'll never meet Miss Marple and her antiquated neighbors in St. Marys Mead (but love them just the same), or find their modern equivalent, I find this sort of tale an occasional pleasure - so many of the crime fiction published today, 2005, seem to be in a contest to be more violent and graphic than the next. Neither extreme is really an honest representation, so why does so much of the genre tilt towards brute force, rather than cleverness?

The slender plot of The Gladstone Bag isn't very important; if you haven't read MacLeod's cozy series about the Kelling clan, you won't be lost but some familiarity does help. The uber-heroine Sarah's Aunt Emma is babysitting a posh summer "cottage" that has six guest cabins. Meals are fully catered in the main house by a professional chef and a full staff attends to guests' other needs.

As she traveled to the island, said to be haunted by the ghost of a pirate guarding his missing treaure, Aunt Emma is mugged and the Gilbert & Sullivan Club's trove of costume jewelry, which she planned to repair, is stolen. Then most of the guests stage a mutiny and announce that they intend to dig up the entire island in search of the pirate's treasure, if necessary.

The jewelry is recovered but dead bodies are, too; tales get taqngled but eventually Aunt Emma solves it all, with long-distance help from Sarah and her professional-detective husband.

Author Charlotte MacLeod is, as usual, an expert in this form, never hitting a false note and as dependable as ever for the reader seeking a classic cozy: not too sweet, but just right.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Her Best!, March 27, 2000

By 

Lacey Hood (Escondido, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gladstone Bag: A Sarah Kelling Mystery (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries (Paperback)) (Paperback)

If you like Charlotte Macleod's books at all - don't miss this one, if you can get hold of a copy. It's lively and fun all the way, without the dry stretches that can strike any prolific author.