A couple finds an antique mirror that isn’t broken, but still brings bad luck—“MacLeod can be counted on for a witty, literate, and charming mystery” (Publishers Weekly). According to Max Bittersohn, he and Sarah Kelling have witnessed enough murder and unhappiness, so it’s high time they got married. And though Sarah hasn’t yet agreed to such drastic measures, she invites Max to summer with her … Max to summer with her at Ireson’s Landing. But they haven’t been in the house ten minutes when they stumble upon summer’s first mystery—a mint-condition, antique Spanish mirror that is tremendously rare and valuable. Sarah has never seen it before and she doesn’t know how it ended up in the summerhouse, but the sleuthing couple will soon find this looking glass to be more troublesome than anything Lewis Carroll ever invented. As the zany Kelling clan descends on Ireson’s Landing, Sarah and her beau try to uncover the mystery of the Bilbao looking glass—a quest that is disrupted when a vicious next-door neighbor is found hacked to death with a woodshed ax. By summer’s end, Sarah and Max will learn that some murders can be solved simply by looking in the mirror.
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Excellent mystery with interesting characters
I read this book (entire series, actually) about 25 years or more ago. I remember that I liked them and have been buying them as they become available through BookBub for my Kindle.
I’ve read this book but I love Charlotte MacLeod so much I wanted to know I’d always have it so I got it for my Nook. I love all of her series under her own name, the Sarah Kelling mysteries have a bit of romance, completely crazy but lovable characters and fun mysteries. If you enjoy quirky characters, great writing and a good mystery, you’ll love this series.
If you’ve not previously encountered this series, I envy you. Get ready to meet the Kelling clan — a classic old-money family, with all the Boston WASP virtues and quirks — circa 1970-something — in a very cozy mystery indeed.
These books are wonderfully written, and a bit reminiscent of Jane Austen — a quiet, sly, insider’s wit, deployed with fondness and acerbity. This one introduces us to the world of “the summer people” — and thanks to Sarah Kelling’s unusual choices, to the year-round residents of a beach town as well.
It’s a challenging mystery — one stays interested til the end, and I for one had no inkling of the solution until it was revealed. It’s a sly comedy of New England manners. And it’s a very charming love story, in a very old-fashioned sort of way. I got tremendous enjoyment from reading it for the fifth or sixth time.
The Sarah Kelling books are all witty, offbeat and interesting. They are fairly clean, with a minimum of violence, sex or bad language, with enough quirky characters to fill a family reunion.