Charlotte MacLeod Books in Order

Sandy Kellick comes to Massachusetts to run her aunt's antique shop during a buying trip. A valuable Currier and Ives print attracts unsettling visitors, forcing her to rely on courage and ingenuity when a collector refuses to take no for an answer.

Scarred by the circumstances of her father's death, Adelaide Cutter begins a quieter life studying art in Boston. Helping her elderly landlady introduces her to Nathaniel West, whose interest in the old tragedy exposes dangers Adelaide had not recognized.

A girl expects a peaceful summer visiting her aunt on Martha's Vineyard, but an unpleasant houseguest disrupts her plans. Entertaining the newcomer proves far more demanding than anticipated, turning a hoped-for holiday of quiet freedom into an unwelcome social obligation.

Art student Corin Johansen moves into a Boston boardinghouse run by a former circus performer. Rumors of a haunted kitchen seem implausible until hidden jewelry and a dead woman's history make Corin question the young men competing for her attention.

Drawing on her father's youthful experiences, MacLeod follows Phil MacLeod's work as a telegraph operator in Maine and Maritime Canada. His adventures among frontier towns, local disturbances, and wartime responsibilities capture a changing world linked by the telegraph key.

Lavinia Tabard reluctantly spends a summer with her wealthy cousin in early twentieth-century New England. Curious dates on a gravestone lead her toward a missing businessman and a young architect, making her search for independence unexpectedly dangerous.

Professor Peter Shandy retaliates against his college's Christmas festivities with an outrageous display, then leaves town. Returning home to a dead librarian draws him into a discreet investigation that threatens the institution's cherished and profitable holiday tradition.

Opening the Kelling family vault for a funeral reveals the skeleton of a burlesque performer missing for decades. Sarah Kelling and investigator Max Bittersohn pursue the old crime, discovering that its consequences may still threaten members of the family.

A prized sow disappears from Balaclava Agricultural College, and its farrier is found murdered. Peter and Helen Shandy investigate a confusion of clues and suspects, searching for connections between the missing animal and a crime that unsettles the college.

Financial pressures force widow Sarah Kelling to open her Boston home to boarders. When an unpleasant lodger dies beneath a subway train, an eyewitness suggests murder, leaving Sarah to question the eccentric residents she has welcomed into her household.

In Depression-era New England, Molly Bassett welcomes a babysitting job on Netaquid Island. Stories of a previous kidnapping complicate the work, and her concern for her young charge draws her into another disappearance among the island's wealthy summer families.

Sarah Kelling and art investigator Max Bittersohn witness a museum guard's fatal fall after a concert. Discovering that valuable paintings have been replaced by forgeries sends them into a case that unsettles the respectable surface of Boston society.

Jenny Cirak inherits a Rhode Island house from the movie producer who abandoned her as a baby. Moving in brings questions about his life and death, and her attempt to understand the unexpected legacy leads into a dangerous investigation.

A reporter pursuing claims of an ancient Norse stone witnesses the aftermath of a farmhand's death by quicklime. Peter Shandy investigates the brutal killing, sorting local secrets from stories of Vikings and a possible curse in the Massachusetts countryside.

A cat returns carrying Professor Herbert Ungley's toupee, leading to the discovery of his battered body. Peter Shandy challenges the police's assumption of an accident and investigates the unpleasant man's wealth, inheritance, and connections to another suspicious death.

Sarah and Max arrive at her summerhouse to find a valuable Spanish mirror neither can explain. As relatives gather, a neighbor's violent death adds murder to the puzzle, turning their seaside visit into another investigation of art and family secrets.

After an accident ends her modeling career, Holly Howe retreats to New Brunswick and accepts work caring for an elderly widow. Strange events at the isolated Cliff House force her to question apparent hauntings and the family's unsettling past.

Persis resents her family's absorption in her sister's wedding and keeps her own music scholarship secret. When a valuable wedding gift disappears, the resulting crisis exposes tensions beneath the celebrations and changes her understanding of the people closest to her.

Jem Kelling's ceremonial necklace vanishes during his club's Christmas celebration. Max Bittersohn initially suspects a practical joke, but an injury to Jem raises the possibility of a more dangerous scheme among the aging members of the Convivial Codfish.

Peter Shandy travels to England to investigate an invasive plant threatening the countryside. His search for giant hogweed takes an extraordinary turn when a portal strands him among castles, giants, and wizards, where botanical knowledge may be his best escape.

Sarah's Aunt Emma stages an amateur theatrical production, but the leading man's death disrupts the rehearsals. With Max away in Finland, Sarah follows her cousin's suspicion of murder and tackles a case entangled with the troupe's eccentric personalities.

This collection brings together short mysteries featuring Peter Shandy, Sarah Kelling, Max Bittersohn, and other sleuths. Crimes in New England homes, businesses, and academic circles mingle with stranger settings, pairing eccentric characters and comic situations with theft and murder.

A corpse dressed in nineteenth-century clothes surfaces in Oozak's Pond during winter festivities. Its resemblance to the college's founder draws Peter Shandy into an investigation complicated by a lawsuit from the founder's descendants and mysteries in the family archives.

A murder threatens a senior citizens' recycling center supported by the Kelling family. Sarah and Max investigate drugs found in the victim's collection bag and suspicious events around a charity auction, trying to protect the center from scandal and sabotage.

Sarah and Max search for a missing antique Rolls-Royce at a coastal estate's Renaissance celebration. Finding a corpse turns the assignment into a murder investigation, complicated by further thefts, an ineffectual police response, and the estate's elaborate festivities.

Helen Shandy's project photographing antique weather vanes reveals a pattern of theft and arson. Her trip to protect another valuable vane in Maine becomes dangerous, forcing her and Peter to unravel a gang's operations before more historic pieces disappear.

Emma Kelling becomes housekeeper at an island retreat for writers and artists, bringing stage jewelry to repair. A genuine diamond necklace among the props attracts deadly attention, and she turns to Sarah and Max as violence disrupts the isolated gathering.

A television producer joins Peter Shandy and his colleagues on an owl-counting expedition, seeking material for environmental programming. His discovery in a trap, stabbed to death, turns birdwatching into a complicated investigation amid Balaclava's eccentric academic community.

Charlotte MacLeod edits a Christmas mystery anthology featuring writers including Elizabeth Peters and Margaret Maron. Counterfeiting, a fallen chorister, and a politician's alarming gift interrupt the season's celebrations in stories that place criminal schemes alongside familiar holiday traditions.

Max encounters a former forger associated with a purported art-restoration guild, raising doubts about its work. He and Sarah investigate when the guild's clients begin dying, finding that forged masterpieces may be only part of the danger.

MacLeod traces Mary Roberts Rinehart's life from a Pennsylvania childhood through nursing, marriage, and a prolific writing career. The biography considers her mystery fiction alongside war reporting and family responsibilities, examining the personal life behind a once-famous literary reputation.

Peter Shandy visits coastal Maine to admire a retired teacher's exceptional lupines. When a disliked local swindler dies over a cyanide-laced chicken potpie at the inn, botanical rivalry gives way to an investigation of grievances, gossip, and another killing.

With Max abroad pursuing stolen paintings, Sarah investigates the murder of a museum administrator who unexpectedly named her executor. Changes on the trustees' board and a strange photograph complicate her search for answers in Boston's art world.

Peter Shandy investigates when dairy expert Jim Feldster fails to return from his usual evening activities. The disappearance yields few clues, but his wife's subsequent murder transforms a missing-person inquiry into a darker puzzle about the apparently unremarkable man.

Sarah plans a wedding for Max's nephew, only to find stolen family jewels among the gifts. A burglar, a crashing hot-air balloon, and the arrival of eccentric relatives turn the celebration into a dangerous investigation for the sleuthing couple.

This collection pairs comic mysteries with darker tales, including Peter Shandy's investigation of counterfeit Christmas money. Other stories follow an aristocratic affair, theatrical troubles, and the Convivial Codfish club, giving MacLeod's recurring sleuths and standalone characters varied criminal puzzles.