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On Christmas Day, a University scrooge finds a murdered librarianEach December, the faculty of Balaclava Agricultural College goes wild with Christmas lights. The entire campus glitters with holiday decorations, save for one dark spot: the home of professor Peter Shandy. But after years of resisting... More

A mislaid corpse strikes terror in the hearts of Boston's strangest familyLike many old New England families, the Kellings live to die. Although their family vault is spacious and comfortable, for Sarah Kelling's Great-Uncle Frederick it will not do. In his will, he demands to be buried inside the a... More

Long-lost relatives and priceless jewels turn a wedding upside downFor all the Kellings' quirks, no other family in Boston is more adept at throwing a wedding. So when Max Bittersohn's wife, Sarah Kelling, offers to organize his nephew's nuptials, Max is smart enough to stay out of her way. But when... More

While vacationing in Maine, Professor Peter Shandy confronts a poisonous potpieMassachusetts horticulturalist Peter Shandy is famous for his rutabagas, but he comes to Maine with a loftier plant in mind. Specifically, he wants to size up the world-renowned lupines of Frances Rondel, a nonagenarian w... More

When a nocturnal hike turns deadly, Professor Peter Shandy takes an interest in owl spottingEmory Emmerick comes to Balaclava Agricultural University as a scout for a television station. Although the faculty and students are hardly ready for prime time, Emmerick's interest is in environmental progra... More

Edgar Award Finalist: On Groundhog Day, secrets surface alongside a waterlogged corpse. The rural town of Balaclava greets Groundhog Day as an excuse for one last cold-weather fling. The students and faculty of the local agricultural college drink cocoa, throw snowballs, and, when the temperature al... More

A thief targets an amateur theatrical group, and murder follows in his wakeProducing a Gilbert & Sullivan opera requires a special kind of madness, and the Kelling family is large enough and peculiar enough to undertake an entire company by themselves. For years now, Sarah Kelling's Aunt Emma has su... More

While tracking down rare weather vanes, Helen Shandy stumbles on a case of arsonThe weather vanes of the famous craftsman Praxiteles Lumpkin are one of the great cultural treasures of rural Massachusetts. Helen Shandy, librarian at Balaclava Agricultural College, is roaming the countryside, camera i... More

After witnessing a strange explosion, Janet becomes a murderer's next targetJanet Rhys is driving through the backwoods of Canada when she sees the truck ahead of her lose control, smash into a snow bank, and flip sideways, completely blocking the road. Springing to action, she darts into a nearby b... More

While searching for a stolen Rolls Royce, Sarah and Max find a dead gardener at a Renaissance fairSarah Kelling and her husband, Max Bittersohn, have made names for themselves tracking down stolen paintings, sculptures, and, when necessary, the occasional murderer. But this is the first time they ha... More

A widow meets a ghost with an appetite for treasure, liquor, and revenge Zilla Trott is pouring her cat some chamomile tea when the drifter appears in her kitchen. He is grubby and crude--not at all the kind of person you'd usually find in the pleasant town of Lobelia Falls--but something about him ... More

On an island of misfit artists, it's Aunt Emma's turn to play detectiveThough a few years past sixty, Sarah Kelling's Aunt Emma is as vigorous as a girl of twenty-two. She sings, she dances, and when the local fire department needs a fundraising boost, she's happy to jump out a window for charity. T... More

One of Boston's landmark museums is shaken by a savage murderWhen the doddering patrons of the Wilkins Museum learned that dozens of their priceless masterworks had been stolen and replaced by forgeries, there was no one to turn to but Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn--the savviest art detectives of... More

Chasing a vile English plant, Professor Peter Shandy and his friends go on a most peculiar tripThe giant hogweed, a creeping menace known for crushing the life out of any plant foolish enough to get in its way, has put the hedgerows and pastures of the English countryside in jeopardy. Fishermen find... More

A historical mystery set in early twentieth-century New England from the acclaimed author of the Peter Shandy series. Upon graduating from an academy for respectable young ladies, Lavinia Tabard heads to the New England countryside and her rich cousin Zilpha’s summer cottage with the low expectation... More

While stranded in the wilderness, an orchestra confronts a killer in its ranksAlthough he is a decorated officer of the Mounted Police, Madoc Rhys's tin ear has long been an embarrassment to his musically fixated family. But when his father's orchestra needs a policeman, the Mountie gets a chance to... More

A homeless man’s murder threatens to destroy the Kelling familyBoston and its suburbs are stuffed with Kellings, and the city is about to get one more. Sarah Kelling and her husband Max Bittersohn—a pair of amateur sleuths equally at home in back alleys as they are at black-tie balls—are about to ha... More

A master forger has come to Boston, and his clients are not long for this worldIf she weren't so fabulous, the Countess Lydia Ouspenska might be considered a gangster's moll. The last time she met Max Bittersohn, Boston's famed art-fraud investigator, she was forging minute Byzantine masterpieces to... More

A killer wielding poisonous green beans terrorizes a small Canadian townAgatha Treadway has done her own preserving ever since the day her husband was done in by a can of supermarket tomatoes. And after four vigilant decades canning everything from peaches to spinach, it is her own green beans that ... More

When the dullest man in town goes missing, and Professor Peter Shandy must figure out where to lookAlthough he towers over his neighbors, Jim Feldster is otherwise unremarkable, except for his mastery of cow milking and his membership in every lodge, rotary club, and brotherhood that Balaclava Count... More

The first three cozy mysteries in a series featuring a Royal Canadian Mountie and his resourceful wife from an international-bestselling author. The beloved sleuthing couple solves a trio of murder cases in the austere beauty of Canada’s New Brunswick. Originally published under the pseudonym Alisa ... More

A young woman must escape family conflict—and find her own identity—in order to track down a thief in this novel by an acclaimed mystery writer. Persis Green’s existence has been overshadowed by the looming prospect of her older sister’s wedding. Her family was once normal—boring, but normal. Then t... More

Seventeen priceless stories from the author often referred to as "America's Agatha Christie"Charlotte MacLeod's heroes were men and women like Peter Shandy and Sarah Kelling--genteel sleuths who fight crime with brains, not brawn--and her settings were the drawing rooms and servants' quarters of New... More

Before Lobelia Falls can have a museum, the curator's killer must be caughtThe Grub-and-Stakers gardening club has traditionally limited its activities to serving tea and gossiping about wildflowers, but when water department supervisor John Architrave is found murdered in the woods, club member Dit... More

In the frigid Canadian north, Madoc and Janet try to keep warm and stay aliveThough he may not look the part, Madoc Rhys is a Mountie--and his keen sense of detection tells him it's time to ask Janet Wadman to marry him. They have just gotten engaged when Christmas rolls around, and Janet's boss inv... More