If Noel Coward or P.G. Wodehouse wrote mysteries, they would probably be very much like the books that Charlotte MacLeod writes, featuring the charming art detective Max Bittersohn and his socially connected wife, Sarah Kelling. There would be lots of style and witty dialogue, people with names like Tweeters Arbuthnot and Calpurnia Zickery, but not much meaty content.

MacLeod's latest mystery meringue begins at a fancy Boston wedding staged by Sarah for Max's nephew, where missing rubies, long-lost neighbors, the crash of a hot air balloon, and the discovery of a dead body are last-minute additions to the festivities. Things go downhill from there, with smoke bombs going off, more corpses piling up, and both Max and his 3-year-old son, Davy, soon among the missing. This is the kind of book that requires a dozen pages in the last chapter to explain everything, and that should be read with little finger firmly extended. Fans of Poirot, and of Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles, will be delighted. --Dick Adler


From Publishers Weekly
In this spritely addition (after Odd Job) to a spirited series, MacLeod, who also writes the Peter Shandy novels (Exit the Milkman), has Sarah Kelling attempt to orchestrate an elegant wedding on Boston's North Shore for the nephew of her husband, art detective Max Bittersohn. Anyone planning a wedding should expect problems, but Sarah gets more than her fair share. Max is perplexed when the Kellings' fabulous rubies, last spotted in Amsterdam, suddenly appear among the wedding gifts. As he searches the room to find clues regarding their unorthodox reappearance, he stumbles across a verbose, mendacious burglar who serves him a brutal whack across the legs and then escapes. Shortly thereafter, a hot-air balloon crash lands in the middle of the wedding tent, and the Zickerys, long-lost neighbors of the Kellings, stumble out. The next day, after being incapacitated by a smoke bomb, Max is stunned to learn that a dead body has been found under the remains of the tent. Amid the screwball chaos, Max and Sarah, hampered by their three-year-old son Davy ("the world's most intelligent child"), try to discover who the dead man was, how his body came to be on their property and whether he has anything to do with the rubies, the thief or the smoke bomb. When Davy goes missing and then Max is abducted, level-headed Sarah must stave off her zany Kelling relatives to get her loved ones back. In this delightful mystery, Max and Sarah make a strong claim to being the Nick and Nora Charles of the 1990s, urbane, witty and thoroughly appealing. Mystery Guild main selection. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-Max Bittersohn and his wife Sarah Kelling are hosting their nephew's nuptial ceremony and elegant reception at their Boston North Shore mansion. Complications begin when Max, a private eye, finds the missing Kelling parure of rubies among the wedding gifts. Then, a hot-air balloon lands on the wedding tent. The next day, the body of one of the workers assigned to remove the rented tent is found under it. From this point on, the plot takes off in remarkably diverse courses aided by myriad eccentrics from the Kelling family and Max's equally unusual staff and relatives. While the convoluted tale spins toward the solving of the murder and the mystery of the returned jewels, a major part of the enjoyment of the story comes from the snappy dialogue. MacLeod's gift for witty comebacks and farcical situations adds much merriment to the foul deeds. The author leads a merry chase all around the perpetrator until all of the ends come together in a secure denouement. Teens will delight in the wacky characters and events.Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
More wedding blues, this time from multiaward-winner MacLeod. Longtime protagonists Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn stage a wedding for Max's nephew that turns deadly when a hot-air balloon crashes into the wedding tent. And who's trying to steal the Rolls?Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The tone in this madcap mystery is so arch that even the corpses seem to have their tongues firmly in their lifeless cheeks. The lovely Max Bittersohn and his wife, Sarah Kelling, own a massive house on the Boston North Shore, where the book opens with a charming set piece describing the wedding staged for Max's nephew and his lovely bride. Max, stolen-art tracker extraordinaire and Sarah, related to numerous batty and redoubtable relatives with funny names, get through the wedding just fine. But then there is the unplanned landing of a hot-air balloon with two old, eccentric neighbors in it and, later, the finding of a corpse underneath the balloon, to say nothing of the Kelling ruby parure--necklace, bracelets, tiara, etc., long vanished by foul means and suddenly reappearing among the wedding gifts. Rescues happen by bizarre means, and the odd thefts and murders are solved mostly off-page by using such tools as Aunt Theonia's psychic powers, but if you check your skepticism at the door, a fine time is guaranteed. GraceAnne A. DeCandido


From Kirkus Reviews
Another excursion into fantasyland with Sarah Kelling, of the old-line Boston Kellings, and her Jewish husband Max Bittersohn, head of a detective agency specializing in art recovery (The Odd Job, 1995, etc.). This time, the two have volunteered their spacious house in Iverson's Landing for the wedding of Max's nephew Mike to Tracy, daughter of pickle king Warty Pilcher. A tent has been erected, and the wedding gifts are on display in the library. It's there that Max spots the ruby-and-gold necklace (minus gift card)that was meant to be Sarah's but that went missing in the wake of the deaths of Sarah's first husband Alexander and his tyrannical mother Caroline. A second visit to the library surprises Louis Maltravers, master locksmith, who makes a deft getaway. There's no getaway the next day, though, for the murdered corpse found under the tent soon after a hot-air balloon lands on top of itthe balloons occupants two very peculiar neighbors, the twins Alistir and Calpurnia Zichery. There's more, a lot more, including another killing and Max's disappearance and improbable rescue, before all the answers are forthcoming. Until then the reader must endure lengthy descriptions of the oh-so-cute doings of Max and Sarah's three-year-old son Davy; much dialogue (rarely clever) with Sarah's gin- swilling Uncle Jem Kelling and his valet Egber; and endless details of meals eaten in the Kelling-Bittersohn household. Faithful fans may be enchanted; others may find a rambling wreck. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
A family wedding gone awry sets the pace in this deliciously deadly Sarah Kelling/Max Bittersohn's family embraced her with warm and welcoming arms. To repay their kindness, she throws Max's nephew a glorious wedding on her family's sprawling seaside estate. But then, what starts as a perfect day for a marriage soon deteriorates into a multi-pronged disaster. First, Max is knocked unconscious by someone looking to steal the bride's gold and ruby necklace. Then, a hot air balloon crashes into the tent, leaving a corpse in its wake. And, to add insult to injury, someone attempts to steal a vintage Rolls. It will take all of Max's formidable skills as the world's greatest expert on art theft to get to the bottom of these nuptials-turned-nasty.


About the Author
Charlotte MacLeod has won numerous awards, including three American Mystery Awards for Best Traditional Mystery, the Nero Wolfe Award, and lifetime achievement awards from both the Anthony Bouchercon and Malice Domestic conventions. She has also been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. She lives in rural Maine.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Art detective Max Bittersohn knows when to lie low. He wisely keeps out of the way when his wife, Sarah Kelling, plans a huge wedding for his nephew at their Boston North Shore mansion. By the time the Kelling and Bittersohn clans arrive on the big day, everything, including the weather, seems perfect. But even Sarah can't foresee a hot air balloon landing on the wedding tent - or the squashed corpse beneath it. And no one anticipates one of the biggest surprises in the Kelling family history: the mysterious reappearance among the wedding gifts of the long-lost Kelling rubies. No believer in coincidence, Max soon rises to the challenge of tying the events together. Meanwhile Sarah's psychic cousin Theonia is seeing visions in her tea leaves, which may prove uncannily accurate ... or a red herring among the orange Pekoe. Then Max vanishes into thin air. Soon Sarah is rallying kith and kin to search for him, while danger descends on their three-year-old son, Davy - in one of the best Charlotte MacLeod mysteries ever.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

More wedding blues, this time from multiaward-winner MacLeod. Longtime protagonists Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn stage a wedding for Max's nephew that turns deadly when a hot-air balloon crashes into the wedding tent. And who's trying to steal the Rolls?

School Library Journal

YA-Max Bittersohn and his wife Sarah Kelling are hosting their nephew's nuptial ceremony and elegant reception at their Boston North Shore mansion. Complications begin when Max, a private eye, finds the missing Kelling parure of rubies among the wedding gifts. Then, a hot-air balloon lands on the wedding tent. The next day, the body of one of the workers assigned to remove the rented tent is found under it. From this point on, the plot takes off in remarkably diverse courses aided by myriad eccentrics from the Kelling family and Max's equally unusual staff and relatives. While the convoluted tale spins toward the solving of the murder and the mystery of the returned jewels, a major part of the enjoyment of the story comes from the snappy dialogue. MacLeod's gift for witty comebacks and farcical situations adds much merriment to the foul deeds. The author leads a merry chase all around the perpetrator until all of the ends come together in a secure denouement. Teens will delight in the wacky characters and events.-Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Kirkus Reviews

Another excursion into fantasyland with Sarah Kelling, of the old-line Boston Kellings, and her Jewish husband Max Bittersohn, head of a detective agency specializing in art recovery (The Odd Job, 1995, etc.). This time, the two have volunteered their spacious house in Iverson's Landing for the wedding of Max's nephew Mike to Tracy, daughter of pickle king Warty Pilcher. A tent has been erected, and the wedding gifts are on display in the library. It's there that Max spots the ruby-and-gold necklace (minus gift card)that was meant to be Sarah's but that went missing in the wake of the deaths of Sarah's first husband Alexander and his tyrannical mother Caroline. A second visit to the library surprises Louis Maltravers, master locksmith, who makes a deft getaway. There's no getaway the next day, though, for the murdered corpse found under the tent soon after a hot-air balloon lands on top of itnthe balloonns occupants two very peculiar neighbors, the twins Alistir and Calpurnia Zichery. There's more, a lot more, including another killing and Max's disappearance and improbable rescue, before all the answers are forthcoming. Until then the reader must endure lengthy descriptions of the oh-so-cute doings of Max and Sarah's three-year-old son Davy; much dialogue (rarely clever) with Sarah's gin- swilling Uncle Jem Kelling and his valet Egber; and endless details of meals eaten in the Kelling-Bittersohn household. Faithful fans may be enchanted; others may find a rambling wreck.