Charlotte MacLeod (1922–2005)
Author of The Family Vault
About the Author
Charlotte MacLeod was born in Bath, New Brunswick, Canada on November 12, 1922. She immigrated to the United States in 1923 and became a naturalized citizen in 1951. She attended the School of Practical Art, now the Art Institute of Boston. She was a staff artist and copywriter at Stop and Shop show more supermarkets from 1945 to 1952. She also worked at N.H. Miller & Co. advertising firm from 1952 to 1982 starting as a copy chief and ending up as a Vice President. She wrote two series under her own name, a Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mystery series and the Peter Shandy Mystery series. She also wrote two series under the pseudonym Alisa Craig, the Madoc and Janet Rhys Mystery series and the Grub-and-Stakers series. She also wrote Had She But Known: A Biography of Mary Roberts Rinehart and a dozen juvenile books. She won five American Mystery awards and a Nero Wolfe award. She edited the anthologies Mistletoe Mysteries and Christmas Stalkings. She is the co-founder and past president of the American Crime Writers League. She died on January 14, 2005 at the age of 82. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Charlotte MacLeod
Associated Works
Malice Domestic 01: An Anthology of Original Traditional Mystery Stories (1992) — Contributor — 191 copies
A Modern Treasury of Great Detective and Murder Mysteries (1994) — Contributor — 63 copies, 1 review
The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories: First Annual Edition (1992) — Contributor — 16 copies
The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories: Second Annual Edition (1993) — Contributor — 12 copies
Murder's Out of Tune | The Curse of the Giant Hogweed | A Sense of Loyalty (1985) — Author — 4 copies
The Luck Runs Out | The Lord Mayor of Death | Murder Begets Murder — Contributor — 2 copies
Death in a Cold Climate | The Grub-and-Stakers Move a Mountain | Passing Strange (1981) — Contributor — 2 copies
The Long Journey Home | Someone At The Door | The Grub-And-Stakers Quilt A Bee (1985) — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- MacLeod, Charlotte
- Other names
- Craig, Alisa
- Birthdate
- 1922-11-12
- Date of death
- 2005-01-14
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Art Institute of Boston
- Occupations
- mystery novelist
copywriter
advertising executive - Organizations
- Crime Writers' League
- Awards and honors
- Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement(1998)
Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement Award (1992) - Short biography
- Charlotte MacLeod, born in New Brunswick, Canada, and a naturalized U.S. citizen, is the multi-award-winning author of over thirty acclaimed novels. Her series featuring detective Professor Peter Shandy, America's homegrown Hercule Poirot, delivers "generous dollops of...warmth, wit, and whimsy" (San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle). But fully a dozen novels star her popular husband-and-wife team of Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn. And her native Canada provides a backdrop for the amusing Grub-and-Stakers cozies written under the pseudonym Alisa Craig. A cofounder and past president of the American Crime Writers League, she has also edited the bestselling anthologies Mistletoe Mysteries and Christmas Stalkings.
- Nationality
- Canada (birth)
USA (naturalized) - Birthplace
- Bath, New Brunswick, Canada
- Places of residence
- Bath, New Brunswick, Canada
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Maine, USA - Place of death
- Lewiston, Maine, USA
- Map Location
- USA
Members
Reviews
Rating: 4* of five
The Book Report: I don't suppose knowing who Mary Roberts Rinehart is is as common as it used to be. She was the American doyenne of mystery writers for about 40 years, her books were serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, she lived a glamourous Republican life and never ever stopped writing until age forced her to. She was seventy-seven when her last book was published!
This book, by fellow mystery writer Charlotte MacLeod, was published in 1994. Even then, close to show more twenty years ago, MacLeod was amazed and impressed that Rinehart's mysteries were still being read. (Me too!) And they're even still being republished every so often. My local library system has most of the titles in it, and all but two of them were checked out last time I looked. (I then checked out the two that weren't already gone.) The plots and characters are simply timeless, which also means that they're not overly fresh; but hey! Neither are Dame Agatha's.
Most of the book's effort is spent on Mary's early years, as a daughter, wife, and mother. The reason is that another biographer took care of the widow and doyenne years in detail. This focus on the time that Mary spent as a student nurse, the Covenanter (a species of Presbyterian without the joie de vivre for which these folk are known) wife of an up-and-coming surgeon and tuberculosis expert, and then the primary breadwinner of the household after her husband developed crippling rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. With contracts for her serials running $50,000 and up in the 1920s, she was doin' them all proud.
Mary's life with her husband, Stanley Rinehart, was apparently a lot of fun. They traveled, they entertained, they made the lives of their three sons very happy...they were each strong personalities, so no doubt there were problems, but they were able to solve them and stay more or less happily married for thirty-six years. Impressive in any day and age, given their natures. Mary's travel articles show the fun side of the relationship clearly, They were collected into books, of course, as was Mary's WWI reportage, and all are really worth reading.
My Review: Charlotte MacLeod's chops were honed in the mystery tradition that Rinehart helped pioneer. She writes pleasingly and engagingly about her subject. And best of all, she makes one care about the life of this long-dead entertainer of a bygone era. It somehow matters to the reader that Mary's plays, with one notable exception in The Bat, were complete flops; that Mary suffered agonies of self-doubt about life's goodness to her; that her mother and father were so disappointingly inept.
All writers should have as biographers the writers they themselves inspire. It makes for a top-notch reading experience. show less
The Book Report: I don't suppose knowing who Mary Roberts Rinehart is is as common as it used to be. She was the American doyenne of mystery writers for about 40 years, her books were serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, she lived a glamourous Republican life and never ever stopped writing until age forced her to. She was seventy-seven when her last book was published!
This book, by fellow mystery writer Charlotte MacLeod, was published in 1994. Even then, close to show more twenty years ago, MacLeod was amazed and impressed that Rinehart's mysteries were still being read. (Me too!) And they're even still being republished every so often. My local library system has most of the titles in it, and all but two of them were checked out last time I looked. (I then checked out the two that weren't already gone.) The plots and characters are simply timeless, which also means that they're not overly fresh; but hey! Neither are Dame Agatha's.
Most of the book's effort is spent on Mary's early years, as a daughter, wife, and mother. The reason is that another biographer took care of the widow and doyenne years in detail. This focus on the time that Mary spent as a student nurse, the Covenanter (a species of Presbyterian without the joie de vivre for which these folk are known) wife of an up-and-coming surgeon and tuberculosis expert, and then the primary breadwinner of the household after her husband developed crippling rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. With contracts for her serials running $50,000 and up in the 1920s, she was doin' them all proud.
Mary's life with her husband, Stanley Rinehart, was apparently a lot of fun. They traveled, they entertained, they made the lives of their three sons very happy...they were each strong personalities, so no doubt there were problems, but they were able to solve them and stay more or less happily married for thirty-six years. Impressive in any day and age, given their natures. Mary's travel articles show the fun side of the relationship clearly, They were collected into books, of course, as was Mary's WWI reportage, and all are really worth reading.
My Review: Charlotte MacLeod's chops were honed in the mystery tradition that Rinehart helped pioneer. She writes pleasingly and engagingly about her subject. And best of all, she makes one care about the life of this long-dead entertainer of a bygone era. It somehow matters to the reader that Mary's plays, with one notable exception in The Bat, were complete flops; that Mary suffered agonies of self-doubt about life's goodness to her; that her mother and father were so disappointingly inept.
All writers should have as biographers the writers they themselves inspire. It makes for a top-notch reading experience. show less
I liked A Pint of Murder, the debut novel in this series featuring Detective Inspector Madoc Rhys of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and his lady love, Janet Wadman. But the winsome second entry in the series, Murder Goes Mumming, proves even better.
Pressured into a house party in an isolated part of New Brunswick, Madoc and Janet find themselves trapped at the mansion called Graylings by a heavy storm. The Condrycke family use cutting humor and nasty practical jokes to cover up some show more pretty dysfunctional relationships, but Madoc and Janet weren’t expecting murder. But that’s just what they get. I don’t want to reveal too much, but I do want to say that I really enjoyed the low-key Madoc, the clever plotting and even Janet Wadman, whose 1960s sensibility seems a bit too prim for today. Still, I was really surprised by the revelation of the murder and the motive, and I highly recommend Murder Goes Mumming to fans of old-fashioned cozies with a clever bent. show less
Pressured into a house party in an isolated part of New Brunswick, Madoc and Janet find themselves trapped at the mansion called Graylings by a heavy storm. The Condrycke family use cutting humor and nasty practical jokes to cover up some show more pretty dysfunctional relationships, but Madoc and Janet weren’t expecting murder. But that’s just what they get. I don’t want to reveal too much, but I do want to say that I really enjoyed the low-key Madoc, the clever plotting and even Janet Wadman, whose 1960s sensibility seems a bit too prim for today. Still, I was really surprised by the revelation of the murder and the motive, and I highly recommend Murder Goes Mumming to fans of old-fashioned cozies with a clever bent. show less
'Christmas Stalkings'' a collection of thirteen Christmas-themed short stories by well-known crime writers was a fun way to read myself into the spirit of Christmas. Even though some of the stories are about murders, they're pleasantly free of violence and gore. A number of them are 'Christmas Special' appearances by the detectives who made their writers famous. Some are amusing. Most are clever. All of them are well-written. If you're looking for a collection of short stories that you can show more did into as you sip your eggnog and open yourself up to Christmas, I recommend 'Christmas Stalkings'.
Charlotte MacLeod, who was a co-founder and then President of the American Crime Writers League, seems to have known everyone in the crime-writing business. She's garnered stories from an impressive and diverse set of authors. Published in 1991, 'Christmas Stalkings' features stories from writers who made their reputations in the 70s and 80s. I was reading Science Fiction and not Crime back then, so many of the writers were new to me. I came away from this collection keen to read novels by Reginald Hill, Medora Sale, Patricia Moyes and Evelyn E Smith.
I given each story a rating and a short review below.
COUNTERFEIT CHRISTMAS by Charlotte MacLeod ★★★
I almost skipped this story when I saw it featured Peter Shandy. A few years ago, I tried to read Charlotte MacLeod Christmas crib novel ‘Rest You Merry’, featuring Peter Shandy. I abandoned it on Christmas Eve unfinished. The only thing I enjoyed about it was writing a piece of doggrel as a review. If you’re curious, you can find it HERE.
Despite my earlier experience, I decided to give ‘Counterfeit Christmas’ a try. I’m glad I did. It was slight but charming story, full of Christmas spirit but free from maudlin sentimentality. I enjoyed watching Shandy come up with a clever and pleasant way of dealing with a counterfeiter.
Now I’m wondering if I judged ‘Rest You Merry’ too harshly.
THE RUNNING OF THE DEER by Reginald Hill ★★★★
I haven’t read any of Reginald Hill’s books, although I enjoyed the TV adaptation of his Dalziel and Pascoe stories. I had no idea that he had a series featuring Joe Sixsmith, a black Brit from Luton who used his redundancy money to set himself up as a Private Detective.
‘The Running of the Deer’ was a good introduction to Joe. He’s not your usual PI. He has no idea what he’s doing really. But he has knack for finding things out, even if it’s sometimes by accident. This story took him from Luton to the wilds of Cumbria where he floundered about on the hills, fell into a bog and drank with the locals until he finally figured out what was really going on. It was clever, down to earth and delivered with wry humour.
I’ll be reading more Reginald Hill, starting with ‘Blood Sympathy’
LIZ PETERS, PI by Elizabeth Peters ★★★
This was a smile. It was Elizabeth Peters having fun with a Christmas story in which she casts herself as a mystery writer who is a PI on the side. The style was a playful tilt at noir. The story was 'Gumshoe' meets 'A Christmas Carol', (right down to having a candidate for Tiny Tim) plus some satire at the dumb behaviour of men. This managed to be cozy, ironic and slightly snarky all at the same time.
Plus, I learned that the USA, where the right to bear arms is written into the constitution, banned women from having hatpins of ten inches in length in case women used them as a lethal weapon. Could there be a more phallic symbol of male fragility? If you're interested, checck out this article in the Smithsonian Magazine
ANGELS by Medora Sale ★★★★
'Angels' is about a cold blooded assasination at a children's Christmas Pageant. The solution at the end is so rapid, if you blink you'll miss it. So I ought to be going - not cosy and a bit of s meh mystery. Instead I'm going - this really caught the atmosphere of a Christmas pageant at a posh girls' school, I liked the people, enjoyed the humour, found the idea original and thought the ending worked. I think that's all down to how Medora Sale writes.
The detective in this was borrowed from her six-book John Sanders/Harriet Jeffries Mystsery series. I'm going to give the first one. 'Murder On The Run' (1986) a try.
THE ONLY TRUE UNRAVELLER by John Malcolm ★★★★
On an unusually snowy Christmas Eve, two old friends walk through a cemetery, searching for a specific grave that one man wants to show the other. As the day darkens and the weather worsens, the civilised conversation between the two men develops an edge that builds into a sense of menace and then of doom. What was erudite becomes primal and deadly.
It’s beautifully done. The pace is perfectly controlled. The structure reminds me of Poe: inexorable, unhurried and chilling.
The story was published in 1991 but the language is that of an educated Englishman of the 1950s. It is rich, precise, complex but clear, giving the story a civilised tone deliberately at odds with th violent and visceral content.
THE JANUARY SALE STOWAWAY by Dorothy Cannell
The humour in this didn't work for me. It felt too much like a children's story so, I set it aside.
THE SANTA CLAUS CAPER by Bill Crider ★★
This was competently done but not my sort of thing. Neither of the two men in the story, both of whom were trying to date the same woman, interested me. They felt real enough, I just wouldn't want to spend time with either of them. The woman fell more like a concept than a person. The story didn't capture my interest because it was more about the two men than about solving the slight but clever mystery of who was stealing from the department store at Christmas.
FAMILY CHRISTMAS by Patricia Moyes ★★★
A sad, slightly dark tale, told in a gentle almost whimsical tone that made everything sound harmless and cosy when it was actually lethal and tragic.
I admired the storytelling. It's reminded me that I have Patricia Moyes' debut novel 'Dead Men Don't Ski' in my TBR. I must dig it out soon.
MISS MELVILLE REJOICES by Evelyn E. Smith ★★★★★
This was fun. Dark, quirky fun but fun all the same and with a Festive feel. Yes it's a story about an assassin but she's a civilised, interesting assassin who intends to kill someone who does not deserve to be allowed to live. True, killing on Christmas Eve is a little tacky but you have to play the hand you're dealt.
This was my first encounter with Miss Melville, Evelyn Smith's wonderful creation, but it won't be my last. I'm adding 'Miss Melville Regrets' (1986) to my shelves.
TWO IN THE BUSH by Eric Wright ★★★
A story about East End criminals sorting out their grievances at Christmas time was unlikely to win my heart. Even so, my curiosity pulled me into the story. I needed to know how the criminals were going to use the Salvation Army to take down their opponent.
THE FABULOUS NICK by Mickey Friedman ★★★★
A fun tale of Santa, posing as Chimney repair man, solving a crime that has resulted in a young boy hating Santa. This was simple but engaging. I enjoyed meeting Santa. The puzzle was interesting. And I found out just how much of a cookie addict Santa is.
A POLICTICAL NECESSITY ★★★★
I'll happily confess to bias here. A big part of my enjoyment of the story was my growing hope that a slime-ball Tory politician was going to get what he deserved rather than what he was certain he was entitled to. The rest of my enjoyment came from trying to figure out how that would happen. I didn't see the twist coming but I enjoyed it when it arrived and I enjoyed the satirical tone throughout.
I also learned about the existence of the Norwegian Christmas Gnome. It was mentioned so I had to look it up. Now I know who really delivers the presents in much of Scandinavia. If you're interested, heres a link to NISSE
FRUITCAKE, MERCY AND BLACK-EYED PEAS by Margaret Maron ★★★
A heartwarming tale with a distinctive North Carolina flavour. Set between Christmas and New Year's day, this story made me smile because it managed to be kind and credible while looking squarely in the eye of some difficult things. Not cosy in an unrealistic way, but human and gentle and full of the best kind of Christmas spirit. show less
Charlotte MacLeod, who was a co-founder and then President of the American Crime Writers League, seems to have known everyone in the crime-writing business. She's garnered stories from an impressive and diverse set of authors. Published in 1991, 'Christmas Stalkings' features stories from writers who made their reputations in the 70s and 80s. I was reading Science Fiction and not Crime back then, so many of the writers were new to me. I came away from this collection keen to read novels by Reginald Hill, Medora Sale, Patricia Moyes and Evelyn E Smith.
I given each story a rating and a short review below.
COUNTERFEIT CHRISTMAS by Charlotte MacLeod ★★★
I almost skipped this story when I saw it featured Peter Shandy. A few years ago, I tried to read Charlotte MacLeod Christmas crib novel ‘Rest You Merry’, featuring Peter Shandy. I abandoned it on Christmas Eve unfinished. The only thing I enjoyed about it was writing a piece of doggrel as a review. If you’re curious, you can find it HERE.
Despite my earlier experience, I decided to give ‘Counterfeit Christmas’ a try. I’m glad I did. It was slight but charming story, full of Christmas spirit but free from maudlin sentimentality. I enjoyed watching Shandy come up with a clever and pleasant way of dealing with a counterfeiter.
Now I’m wondering if I judged ‘Rest You Merry’ too harshly.
THE RUNNING OF THE DEER by Reginald Hill ★★★★
I haven’t read any of Reginald Hill’s books, although I enjoyed the TV adaptation of his Dalziel and Pascoe stories. I had no idea that he had a series featuring Joe Sixsmith, a black Brit from Luton who used his redundancy money to set himself up as a Private Detective.
‘The Running of the Deer’ was a good introduction to Joe. He’s not your usual PI. He has no idea what he’s doing really. But he has knack for finding things out, even if it’s sometimes by accident. This story took him from Luton to the wilds of Cumbria where he floundered about on the hills, fell into a bog and drank with the locals until he finally figured out what was really going on. It was clever, down to earth and delivered with wry humour.
I’ll be reading more Reginald Hill, starting with ‘Blood Sympathy’
LIZ PETERS, PI by Elizabeth Peters ★★★
This was a smile. It was Elizabeth Peters having fun with a Christmas story in which she casts herself as a mystery writer who is a PI on the side. The style was a playful tilt at noir. The story was 'Gumshoe' meets 'A Christmas Carol', (right down to having a candidate for Tiny Tim) plus some satire at the dumb behaviour of men. This managed to be cozy, ironic and slightly snarky all at the same time.
Plus, I learned that the USA, where the right to bear arms is written into the constitution, banned women from having hatpins of ten inches in length in case women used them as a lethal weapon. Could there be a more phallic symbol of male fragility? If you're interested, checck out this article in the Smithsonian Magazine
ANGELS by Medora Sale ★★★★
'Angels' is about a cold blooded assasination at a children's Christmas Pageant. The solution at the end is so rapid, if you blink you'll miss it. So I ought to be going - not cosy and a bit of s meh mystery. Instead I'm going - this really caught the atmosphere of a Christmas pageant at a posh girls' school, I liked the people, enjoyed the humour, found the idea original and thought the ending worked. I think that's all down to how Medora Sale writes.
The detective in this was borrowed from her six-book John Sanders/Harriet Jeffries Mystsery series. I'm going to give the first one. 'Murder On The Run' (1986) a try.
THE ONLY TRUE UNRAVELLER by John Malcolm ★★★★
On an unusually snowy Christmas Eve, two old friends walk through a cemetery, searching for a specific grave that one man wants to show the other. As the day darkens and the weather worsens, the civilised conversation between the two men develops an edge that builds into a sense of menace and then of doom. What was erudite becomes primal and deadly.
It’s beautifully done. The pace is perfectly controlled. The structure reminds me of Poe: inexorable, unhurried and chilling.
The story was published in 1991 but the language is that of an educated Englishman of the 1950s. It is rich, precise, complex but clear, giving the story a civilised tone deliberately at odds with th violent and visceral content.
THE JANUARY SALE STOWAWAY by Dorothy Cannell
The humour in this didn't work for me. It felt too much like a children's story so, I set it aside.
THE SANTA CLAUS CAPER by Bill Crider ★★
This was competently done but not my sort of thing. Neither of the two men in the story, both of whom were trying to date the same woman, interested me. They felt real enough, I just wouldn't want to spend time with either of them. The woman fell more like a concept than a person. The story didn't capture my interest because it was more about the two men than about solving the slight but clever mystery of who was stealing from the department store at Christmas.
FAMILY CHRISTMAS by Patricia Moyes ★★★
A sad, slightly dark tale, told in a gentle almost whimsical tone that made everything sound harmless and cosy when it was actually lethal and tragic.
I admired the storytelling. It's reminded me that I have Patricia Moyes' debut novel 'Dead Men Don't Ski' in my TBR. I must dig it out soon.
MISS MELVILLE REJOICES by Evelyn E. Smith ★★★★★
This was fun. Dark, quirky fun but fun all the same and with a Festive feel. Yes it's a story about an assassin but she's a civilised, interesting assassin who intends to kill someone who does not deserve to be allowed to live. True, killing on Christmas Eve is a little tacky but you have to play the hand you're dealt.
This was my first encounter with Miss Melville, Evelyn Smith's wonderful creation, but it won't be my last. I'm adding 'Miss Melville Regrets' (1986) to my shelves.
TWO IN THE BUSH by Eric Wright ★★★
A story about East End criminals sorting out their grievances at Christmas time was unlikely to win my heart. Even so, my curiosity pulled me into the story. I needed to know how the criminals were going to use the Salvation Army to take down their opponent.
THE FABULOUS NICK by Mickey Friedman ★★★★
A fun tale of Santa, posing as Chimney repair man, solving a crime that has resulted in a young boy hating Santa. This was simple but engaging. I enjoyed meeting Santa. The puzzle was interesting. And I found out just how much of a cookie addict Santa is.
A POLICTICAL NECESSITY ★★★★
I'll happily confess to bias here. A big part of my enjoyment of the story was my growing hope that a slime-ball Tory politician was going to get what he deserved rather than what he was certain he was entitled to. The rest of my enjoyment came from trying to figure out how that would happen. I didn't see the twist coming but I enjoyed it when it arrived and I enjoyed the satirical tone throughout.
I also learned about the existence of the Norwegian Christmas Gnome. It was mentioned so I had to look it up. Now I know who really delivers the presents in much of Scandinavia. If you're interested, heres a link to NISSE
FRUITCAKE, MERCY AND BLACK-EYED PEAS by Margaret Maron ★★★
A heartwarming tale with a distinctive North Carolina flavour. Set between Christmas and New Year's day, this story made me smile because it managed to be kind and credible while looking squarely in the eye of some difficult things. Not cosy in an unrealistic way, but human and gentle and full of the best kind of Christmas spirit. show less
Sarah and Max Bittersohn would like nothing more than to go back to their country home with their young son, but they’re stuck in Boston until Max’s leg has healed. When the housemaid of Anora and George Protheroe calls Sarah, distraught, she is quick to act - but it turns out that George is dead, murdered with a spear, shortly after some repair work had been done by Bartolo Arbalest, an art restorer who has a whole atelier full of talented workers. It seems to be a coincidence at first, show more but when Max and Sarah learn about numerous other sudden deaths following in Arbalest’s wake, they begin to wonder what might be going on…. This tenth novel in the Sarah Kelling series features a few more of Sarah’s numerous relatives and near-relatives, a number of stolen items, an apparently imaginary Tamil man in red jogging clothes and the welcome return of Lydia, among other delights. Breezy and fun, as ever; recommended! show less
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