The Withdrawing Room [Hardcover]

Charlotte MacLeod (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1980

Continuing the definitive series of classic mysteries by American Mystery and Nero Wolfe Award-winning author Charlotte MacLeod. What's the proper way for a Boston landlady to react when her most obnoxious boarder - curmudgeonly Barnwell Augustus Quiffen, gets squashed by a subway train? Sarah Kelling already has a far nicer applicant for the drawing room suite he lived in, but then an odd eye witness shows up on her doorstep, insisting somebody pushed Mr Quiffen under the train, and Sarah finds herself knee-deep in yet another mystery, aided by Max Bittersohn, an art expert with a very special sort of expertise...

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charlotte MacLeod is the American Mystery and ero Wolfe Award-winning author of two mystery series. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 186 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (October 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385171811
• ISBN-13: 978-0385171816
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #650,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely Mysteries, even Lovelier Characters, February 4, 2005

By 

Alicia Murphy "aliciasunne" (Bozeman, MT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Withdrawing Room : A Sarah Kelling & Max Bittersohn Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

The Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn mysteries are wonderful. They've quickly become my favorite mystery series, after the Peter Whimsy books.

Who could not fall in love with Sarah and Max as they move closer to admitting their feelings towards each other in this second book of the series. I like that the series introduces Max as a "friend" in the first book, as Sarah deals with the murder of her beloved husband. Throughout all the series, you see her dealing with the death, falling in love with Max, and moving to make her life her own again. Great characters.

The mysteries are fun and lighthearted. Usually, as in Withdrawing Room, there's some twist that is not expected. But what makes the mysteries above average are the supporting characters, and the customs of Old-money Boston that are skillfully woven into each book.

I definitely recommend these wonderful books.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming Cozy Mystery Set in Boston, February 5, 2002

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Withdrawing Room (Hardcover)

Charlotte MacLeod has a talent for taking all of the ingredients of a standard cozy and cooking up a very tasty little dish.

This book, which is in her Sarah Kelling series, takes a look at a Boston blue blood family on its way down. Sarah Kelling (of the Beacon Hill Kellings, has been forced to turn her historic, brownstone home into a boarding house. As a result she has a ready made bunch of entertainly eccentric suspects when one of her tenants winds up unexpectly deceased.

Highly recommended for cozy fans who enjoy a spoonful of absurdity with their mystery.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit of light fluff, October 6, 2006

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Withdrawing Room : A Sarah Kelling & Max Bittersohn Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Sarah Kelling is a recently widowed young woman who is desperately trying to make ends meet when she is left almost penniless. Until the bank sorts out her finances, she decides to convert the gracious old family home she has inherited into a genteel boarding house for ladies and gentlemen who would appreciate the ambience in living in one of the former great houses of Boston. The largest of her rooms, the former drawing room which used to be called the withdrawing room, was were the ladies were sent to drink tea and gossip after dinner, while the gentlemen drank their port and brandy and smoked cigars. This is let out to a bumptious little man who comes with references from a family member, but who turns out to be such a pain in the neck that it's almost a relief when he falls under a subway train. The room is then snapped up by a man who claims to be an antiques expert with international connections. When his body is found in the local park, apparently the victim of a mugger, after only a few days of residence, Sarah begins to seriously question all of these happenings as being just TOO coincidental and asks a friend to help with an investigation. There are a few red herrings introduced by way of the other guests but, by and large, it's a tiny, read in a day, bit of gentle fun which would be ideal for a plane trip.