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pinoncoffee's review
4.0
This particular installment felt strongly like a cultural artifact. The way she dealt with then-edgy topics and risqué matter is just... really different than in a contemporary book.
ssejig's review
4.0
Sarah and Max are still trying to finalize their relationship. Sarah's cousin and his new wife have taken over running her boarding house so she's at the summer home and Max has come with her (but he is staying circumspectly in the carriage house.) Too bad the "summer folks" have decied to stick their noses in Sarah's business even to the point of convincing her rather flighty and flittering aunt to show up early so the pair don't get the alone time they were hoping for.
Max and Sarah go to a party where Alice B., the companion of one of the wealthiest women, drops a remark designed to put a wedge between Max and Sarah. And it works, temporarily, but then Alice B. is found dead, killed by an ax, and a Kelling & Bittersohn mystery starts in earnest.
There is a LOT of anti-Semitism from the "summer folks" in this book; it was in line with the characters that MacLeod created and starts off slow but builds to some truly reprehensible remarks. If you are a regular reader of classic mysteries, the "bad guy" isn't hard to guess but MacLeod does drop in some really good red herrings. And for such a short book, the characters, including those we may never see again (flight Aunt Appie, her grasping son Lionel and his four wild sons, Lionel's wife Vaney who is experimenting with lesbianism (a slur about this is also used by one of the sons), the groundskeeper Lomax and his shiftless nephew Peter.)
Max and Sarah go to a party where Alice B., the companion of one of the wealthiest women, drops a remark designed to put a wedge between Max and Sarah. And it works, temporarily, but then Alice B. is found dead, killed by an ax, and a Kelling & Bittersohn mystery starts in earnest.
There is a LOT of anti-Semitism from the "summer folks" in this book; it was in line with the characters that MacLeod created and starts off slow but builds to some truly reprehensible remarks. If you are a regular reader of classic mysteries, the "bad guy" isn't hard to guess but MacLeod does drop in some really good red herrings. And for such a short book, the characters, including those we may never see again (flight Aunt Appie, her grasping son Lionel and his four wild sons, Lionel's wife Vaney who is experimenting with lesbianism (a slur about this is also used by one of the sons), the groundskeeper Lomax and his shiftless nephew Peter.)
julieputty's review
4.0
Sarah is more patient than I would be (or anyone should be) with her maddening, bigoted relatives and family friends. This is a quick and easy read.
lieslindi's review
I do love a travel guide for the 20-page history when what you want is a 20-page history instead of a book-length history. I did this for Myanmar too, when Glass Palace reminded me of another field of my ignorance.
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