The Recycled Citizen (1987)

Booklist Review: In her seventh Sara Kelling mystery, MacLeod once again employs the eccentricities of the entire Kelling clan to produce a solution to an outlandish murder, although it is actually Sarah's sensible detective-husband who orchestrates the investigation. Adolphus and Mary Kelling, Sarah's elderly, beneficent, and, like all of the Kellings, quite wealthy uncle and aunt, have developed a recycling business that serves as much as a community center as it does a place where impoverished seniors can turn in collected bottles and cans for cash. Their plans for a housing development for these seniors look doomed when charges of murders and heroin smuggling (via recycled pop cans) lead to Adolphus' arrest. Fortunately, the family's combined wiles enable the Kellings to outsmart the greedy villain. MacLeod's delightful characters and expert plotting (she is a master of the artfully placed clue) make for a top-notch mystery. DPD. -- ( )