On This Page
Description
Sarah finds a strange mirror that, though unbroken, proves to be very bad luck 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 mysterya mint-condition, antique Spanish mirror that is tremendously rare and show more 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 glassa 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. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
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 show more 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. show less
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Fun little mystery and good for light reading.
re-read 12/29/2023
Sara and Max head to the Kelling summer home and arrival they discover an antique mirror hanging in the entryway. They report it to the police and later learn it was stolen along with some other thefts of valuables in the area and murders. Relatives start arriving and causing havoc, lots of 1950s anti-semitism and snobbery, pointing fingers at Max, before the thefts are solved and Sara and Max announce their wedding plans.
The fourth Sarah Kelling mystery. This one takes place outside of Boston at the Kellings summer estate, where Max and Sarah meet the families. As with Macleod's others, this book is not so much a mystery as book to read for the characters and setting and humor.
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 show more 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. show less
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 show more 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. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
One Book, Many Authors
441 works; 40 members
Books Read in 2020
4,379 works; 124 members
Comfort Reads
221 works; 41 members
Author Information
60+ Works 12,180 Members
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 supermarkets from 1945 to 1952. She also worked at show more 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
Some Editions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
DuMont's Kriminal-Bibliothek (1037)
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Bilbao Looking Glass
- Original title
- The Bilbao Looking Glass
- Original publication date
- 1983
- People/Characters
- Sarah Kelling Kelling (widow, boardinghouse owner); Max Bittersohn (art detective); Appie Kelling (Appolonia, Sara's widowed aunt, ); Miffy Tergoyne (Margaret, Ireson Yacht Club set); Bradley Rovedock (Ireson Yacht Club set); Sergeant Jofferty (Ireson Town police officer) (show all 28); Jed Lomax (Sarah's Ireson's Landing house caretaker); Pete Lomax (Jed's nephew and assistant); Alice B. (Miffy's housemate -- a 'Boston marriage'); Fren Larrington (Ireson Yacht Club set); Don Larrington (Fren's twin, investment counselor); Lionel Kelling (Appie and Samuel's son); Vare Kelling (Lionel's wife); Jesse Kelling (Lionel & Vare's oldest son); Woodson 'Woody' Kelling (Lionel & Vare's 9 year-old); James Kelling (Lionel & Vare's third son); Frank Kelling (Lionel & Vare's fourth son); Tigger (1 of Sarah's cousins' former college roommate); Pussy Beaxitt (Pauline, Ireson Yacht Club set); Biff Beaxitt (Pussy's husband, Ireson Yacht Club set); Miriam Bittersohn Rivkin (Max's older sister); Ira Rivkin (Miriam's husband, owns gas station/garage); Jake Bittersohn (Miriam & Max's uncle, a lawyer); Mike Rivkin (Miriam & Ira's son); Lassie Larrington (Laura, Don's wife); Mrs. Ganor (a latter-day Transcendentalist); Josephus Ganor (her husband, of like mind); Chief Wilson (Ireson Town police)
- Important places
- Ireson's Landing, North Shore (probably fictional); Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Ireson Town, North Shore (probably fictional)
- Dedication
- For Peggy Barrett
- First words
- 'Where on earth,' said Sarah Kelling of the Boston Kellings, 'did that looking glass come from?'
- Quotations
- 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. ... (show all) (chapter 2)
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)'That's what you think, baby. The final battle is yet to come. I'm taking you to meet my mother.'
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 377
- Popularity
- 82,939
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (3.70)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 14
- ASINs
- 5
