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The Bilbao Looking Glass (1983)

par Charlotte MacLeod

Autres auteurs: Voir la section autres auteur(e)s.

Séries: Sarah Kelling (4)

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357771,610 (3.69)13
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 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.… (plus d'informations)
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Sarah Kelling has retreated from her boarding house business to her husband's summer home. There have been a series of high-end art robberies that Max has tio investigate. We are introduced to several more wacky members of the Keller clan.
Fun little mystery and good for light reading.
re-read 12/29/2023 ( )
  catseyegreen | Dec 29, 2023 |
Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn are spending time at the Kellings country home, Ireson’s Landing, when they discover a new addition to the house: a very old, very valuable looking glass that most certainly has been stolen from elsewhere and placed, for some reason, in the old house. As it happens, there have been a lot of burglaries in the area in recent weeks, so Sarah and Max call upon the local police for advice. In the meantime, members of the local yacht club are clamoring to bring Sarah back into the fold, although only if she drops that disreputable Jew, Max. When first one and then another of the club are murdered, the club members are only too keen to pin the murders, and the robberies, on Max himself….The fourth of the 12-book Sarah Kelling series, “The Bilbao Looking Glass” sees our heroes moving away from Boston and the boarding house that Sarah had established in her family home on Beacon Hill, and into the countryside, a place with its own rich cast of eccentric characters (many, of course, related to Sarah in one way or another). I found this entry a little less pleasing than the previous books, I think because there is just a bit too much of the Keystone-Kops type of looniness for my taste; however, I continue to enjoy the series and look forward to Sarah and Max’s next adventures - hopefully, a little less madcap next time! Recommended. ( )
  thefirstalicat | Feb 25, 2023 |
situational-humor, verbal-humor, family-dynamics, cozy-mystery, murder

Another fun and improbable cozy mystery with Sarah Kelling first published in 1984. The impoverished and rather recently widowed landlady of Boston Brahman heritage is now engaged to the upstanding art theft investigator of respectable Jewish heritage. They've gone out to the Kelling family summer home to check the repairs and have a little alone time when they are caught up in the whirlwind of Kellings, art theft, intrigue, and murder.
If you are offended by the blatant antisemitism of that day, perhaps you prefer the more subtle form prevalent in this century. ( )
  jetangen4571 | Jan 30, 2019 |
Sarah Kelling has left Boston for the uncomfortable and ugly house at Ireson's Landing for the summer where she and her caretaker, Mr. Jed Lomax, will be growing a mess o' vegetables to use at her boardinghouse. Her favorite boarder, handsome art detective Max Bittersohn, will be staying in the apartment in the old carriage house. The two hope for a few days of quiet togetherness before any of Sarah's relatives descend upon her.
Of course they don't get them. First they find a valuable Bilbao looking glass hanging in the disused front entryway where no such glass has hung before. That nice Sergeant Jofferty who broke the news of Sarah's husband's death in The Family Vault is the copy they call in to deal with the problem.

Then elderly Miffy Tergoyne of the local yacht club takes it upon herself to get newly-widowed sweet and dim Aunt Appie Kelling to visit Sarah a few days early. Heaven knows it's bad enough that Aunt Appie's son, Lionel, has the gall to assume that he and his four sons get to come, too. Sarah once refers to them as her cousin's beastly begats and they more than live down to that description. I love the way Sarah keeps telling the presumptuous Lionel off. His wife has just ditched him and it's hard to blame her.

Miffy has a long-term 'Boston marriage' with a woman called Alice B. Alice loses no time in using her poisonous tongue in an attempt to break up Sarah and Max., but that tongue is soon silenced forever. Of all who had a motive to do her in, which took an axe to the malicious old gossip? At least incompetent Aunt Appie's eternal desire to be helpful can be foisted on Miffy.

Sarah has her hands full dealing with the mostly obnoxious members of the old yacht club, her equally-obnoxious cousins, and another murder. Will she be able to find the time to decide if she's ready to remarry?

Kelling, etc. tidbits for my fellow fans who share my trouble remembering in which book they appear:

Chapter 1:

The Ireson's Landing place has been called that by the Kellings since Grover Cleveland's day.

Aunt Appie has a solid wood panel panel built into her parlor wall, as used to be done for looking glasses.

Here's where we learn Cousin Mabel's opinion about what ailed the newly-deceased Uncle Samuel Kelling.

Sarah tells Max what would happen to a Kelling who would leave a valuable antique unguarded in a place like the Ireson's Landing house.

Max's nephew, Mike, is attending classes at Boston University.

Mr. Lomax explains what Max did to break his mother's heart.

Chapter 2:

Sergeant Jofferty's mother wasn't happy when he quit the fish cake factory to become a policeman.

Sarah explains that Aunt Appie is the eternal Girl Scout and what usually happens when she tries to do her good deed for the day.

Sarah thought her Uncle Samuel was the world's most dedicated hypochondriac.

That there are two kinds of Kellings, the long and the short, and their physical characteristics is described.

Aunt Appie, like Sarah, is a Kelling-Kelling. Ms MacLeod compares her to a certain painting.

No coachman has lived in the apartment over the carriage house since 1915.

Mrs. Lomax has always thought a heap of Isaac Bittersohn, Max's father.

Chapter 3:

Fren and Don, the Larrington twins, can be told apart because Don always wears his Porcellian tie.

Yes, Cousin Brooks and Theonia are married.

Alice B is an extremely good cook.

This is the chapter in which we learn what went wrong with Max's first big case.

Max was 23 when he was finishing his doctorate in fine arts.

Chapter 4:

Bradley Rovedock had kept up an agreeable acquaintance with Alexander Kelling since they were boys.

Chapter 5:

There was once a speaking tube from the main house kitchen to the carriage house.

Sarah always liked to come to the carriage house on rainy days when her parents visited the main house and she was the only child there. This is where we learn what Sarah did when she got splinters in her behind from sliding down the banister.

Sarah and Alexander had been happier at Ireson's Landing than anywhere else.

Max's Uncle Jake beat him at cribbage and how much money Max lost

Chapter 6:

What Aunt Appie thinks her late husband used to say about her eggnog versus what he really said

The side porch has a couple of Adirondack chairs that need painting.

One of Cousin Lionel's brats stuffed something down the Boathouse toilet the last time they were there.

Lionel and Vare's children call their parents by their first names.

Sarah vaguely remembers Tigger as a former college roommate of some cousin or other. Tigger glared at anyone who spoke to her and never said anything in reply.

Sarah explains to Max what the brats being reared on 'freedom of expression' really means.

Chapter 7:

Max was catcher for the Saugus High baseball team when he went there. He still has scars from the time his team played against Pete Lomax's team.

Most Lomaxes are policemen, firemen, or honest fisher folk. One's a Methodist minister, two are security guards at a college up around Ashby [Silvester and Clarence Lomax are security guards at Balaclava College in Mrs. MacLeod's Peter Shandy series.] A grandson is at Tabor Academy on a scholarship and some Lomaxes are first mates or chief engineers in the merchant marine.

Sarah baked the cake for Aunt Appie's 60th birthday 'ages ago'.

Chapter 8:

Sarah warns Max about what happens if one tries to treat one of Lionel's kids as a human being.

What's engraved on Sarah and Max's hearts is joked about.

Max calls Sarah fischele.

Mr. Lomax's Uncle Arch used to wear a striped bathing suit in 1910.

Isaac Bittersohn once put a new roof on the Ireson Town fire station. Their dog is named 'Isaac' after him.

Chapter 9:

Max once tracked down a Toulouse-Lautrec stolen from a psychiatrist.

Alexander used to explain technical boat terms to Sarah.

Lionel crews for Bradley at Newport.

The Ireson Landing's boathouse was built in 1887. Sarah thinks about the contrast to what the reality would have been like for those Kellings compared to the visions one might have.

Chapter 10:

Max's Uncle Jake reminds Sarah of her Uncle Jem, with some differences.

No Kelling would have faulted Miriam's logic for why she was wearing the sweater she was wearing.

To sail to Little Nibble and visit the Ganlors there has been one of Sarah's particular summer treats. She doesn't have the best opinion of Bronson Alcott, though.

Chapter 11:

Bradley drives the only Rolls Royce in Ireson Town.

All Kellings are known to be avid bird watchers (heh).

Sarah's mother hadn't believed in coddling. There's more said about the way Sarah's father had treated her.

The first time Sarah had been aboard Bradley's yacht, Alexander had made sure little Sadiebelle got to hold the wheel for a bit.

Sarah knows her [Booth] Tarkington very well. There's a comment about the scene she adored in Cousin Julia.

Miffy's hideous diamond necklace with the ruby in the middle was inherited from her Great-aunt Maud.

Chapter 12:

The Ireson's Landing pine grove has white starflowers and lady's slippers blooming there.

Lionel and Vare spent their honeymoon on a survival program in the wilderness. (Only one of the Kelling family members who expressed regret that they'd been more or less unscathed is named.)

Vare exposed her two oldest boys to art while she was carrying Jesse in a canvas sack on her back and Woody in her womb.

Vare's cousin Biff's wife, Pussy, brought Vare and Lionel together.

Chapter 13:

Sarah goes to her wishing rock for the first time since Alexander died.

Chapter 14:

Aunt Appie's brown crepe is not the tackiest outfit at Alice B's funeral.

Chapter 15:

Vare makes a remark about herself and motherhood that leads to the first words Sarah ever got to Tigger say. time.

Chapter 16:

Appie explains how Biff and Alice B. were related.

Chapter 17:

Max always charges upstairs like Sarah's Great-uncle Nathan at San Juan Hill.

Alexander's full name was Alexander Archibald Douglas Kelling.

Chapter 18:

There's only one shop in Ireson Town where one might buy both a copy of The Wall Street Journal and a halfway respectable cigar.

Cousin Mary adores Max, according to Sarah.

Chapter 19:

Max's mother's name is Bayla.

Chapter 20:

Lionel is fussing because he hasn't been given notice in time to construct a ballista or cataplulta.

Chapter 21:

Max mentions Lizzie Borden.

Chapter 22:

Max calls Sarah katzele.

Here is were Sarah has to bring up Abigail Adams to stop Aunt Appie's dithering.

Michael Pilla did the blue cover with the left hand lying next to a partially filled wine glass with a sailboat floating in it. The largest sail has a skull and crossbones on it. ( )
  JalenV | Feb 28, 2012 |
Substance: Murder doesn't out until well along in the story, but there are a few minor mysteries along the way. Dearth of meaningful clues, and very little suspense, however, the characters are fun and the setting well defined.
Style: Although MacLeod is called the "American Agatha Christie" they have very few points in common, other than writing popular series. Christie's plots are much tighter and the sleuthing more intense, but MacLeod's characters are more entertaining and her narration more humorous. ( )
  librisissimo | Dec 2, 2011 |
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Nom de l'auteurRôleType d'auteurŒuvre ?Statut
Charlotte MacLeodauteur principaltoutes les éditionscalculé
Felten, BeateÜbersetzerauteur secondairequelques éditionsconfirmé

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For Peggy Barrett
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'Where on earth,' said Sarah Kelling of the Boston Kellings, 'did that looking glass come from?'
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Somebody had once observed that the true Boston Brahmin has customs but no manners. Like most generalizations, that remark was probably based on a few unfortunate particulars. One particular could have been Miffy Tergoyne. (chapter 2)
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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 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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