Great-uncle Frederick has passed away, and the Kelling clan of Boston has made plans to put the old gentleman's remains in the family vault on Beacon Hill. When the vault is opened, however, there's someone already there that no one could have ever expected—the skeleton of a burlesque queen who disappeared thirty years ago! With the help of private detective Max Bittersohn, it's up to Sarah Kelling to hold the shocked family together, and try to find out what happened. What they unravel is a complex murder plot that not only stretches into the past, but also has Sarah marked as a victim!

Death pays a visit to Sarah Kelling’s Boston boardinghouse in this cozy mystery from the bestselling author of the Peter Shandy series. Though the inheritance from her dearly departed Alexander was meant to set Sarah Kelling up for life, it vanishes quickly in the face of hounding from charitable organizations and the IRS. Facing the loss of her stately Back Bay brownstone, Sarah opens her home to lodgers—deciding she prefers a boardinghouse to the poorhouse. Soon she’s cooking meals and serving tea for a cast of quirky residents, a cozy little family that would be quite happy were it not for the unpleasant presence of a certain Barnwell Augustus Quiffen—a man so rude that no one really minds when he’s squashed beneath a subway car. Sarah replaces her lost boarder quickly, and the family dynamic is restored. But when another lodger dies suddenly, the boardinghouse appears to be cursed. Now it’ll take more than a glass of sherry to soothe Sarah’s panicked residents, and she must turn to detective Max Bittersohn for help before her boarders bolt. “The epitome of the ‘cozy’ mystery” ( Mostly Murder ), award-winning author Charlotte MacLeod’s Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries have charmed readers the world over.

Sarah knows her Kellings family have never returned since an unfortunate incident when Madam Wilkins first opened her palatial Boston museum. But her Beacon Hill lodger Max Bittersohn has free passes to today's concert, and she cannot refuse him. Suddenly, something falls past them from the floor above, and the oldest guard sprawls dead among the hyacinths.

Sarah Kelling and her art detective friend, Max Bittersohn, arrive at her Cape Cod summer home, to find a strange addition, a lovely old Bilbao looking glass. Appie Kelling brings her son, Lionel, and her four grandsons - chaos creators, but not killers. Sarah and Max battle through social prejudice and conflicting clues to again solve murder.

Sarah Kelling and new husband Max Bittersohn are called in by Jeremy Kelling when his Great Chain of the Convivial Cod vanishes. The emblem represents his great achievement, the office of Exalted Chowderhead over the Annual Scrooge Day revels of the Comrades of the Convivial Codfish. When Jeremy falls victim to a seemingly vicious prank, the couple suspect murder.

Sarah investigates the death of con artist Charlie Daventer on his bathroom floor, when his title role acting replacement, old cousin Fred, insists murder was the cause. Her Aunt Emma's theater troupe is doing The Sorcerer, with Emma as Lady Sangazure. Husband Max away in Finland, Sarah sorts clues herself.

Sarah Kelling and her husband, Max Bittersohn, have joined the rest of the Kelling clan to plan a black-tie charity auction with the proceeds going to the Senior Citizens' Recycling Center. But soon one of the Center's members is killed, and the Kelling clan enlists Sarah and Max to solve the mystery and save the Kelling name.

The annual Renaissance Revel takes a mysterious and deadly turn when Rolls-Royces begin disappearing and the gatekeeper is found dead, and it is up to Max and Sarah Kelling to solve the mystery

Sarah Kelling's Aunt Emma leaps at the chance to stay at her old friend Adelaide's summer place, enjoying a quiet time repairing some stage jewelry while keeping an eye on the artists and writers who'll be occupying adelaide's six guest cottages. On the ferry, Emma's gladstone bag is temporarily stolen. Could someone have mistaken those junk jewels for real diamonds? She meets her guests-to-be who inform her they plan to dig for Pocapuk's legendary pirate treasure without having bothered to get Adelaide's permission. On the island, her bag is heisted again, a trespassing scuba diver is found dead, and a mysterious stranger is off on a rampage of attempted murders. Emma enlists niece Sarah and her husband, Max Bittersohn, for a spot of long-distance detecting.

Boston-based art detectives Sarah Kelling and husband Max Bittersohn were hoping for some time off after their last case, especially since Max is still recovering from a broken leg he suffered during the investigation. That hope dies quickly, though, when they run into Countess Lydia Ouspenska. The Countess, an expert forger of Byzantine icons, tells them that an old acquaintance, Bartolo Arbalest—known in their circles as "The Resurrection Man" because of his skills in restoring damaged works of art—has set up a Renaissance-style "guild" in their fair city, with a number of artisans working independently under one roof. Nothing mysterious about that, of course—except for the fact that some of Boston's wealthiest citizens have been murdered shortly after valuable objets d'arts restored by Arbalest's organization were returned to them. When Sarah's old friend George Protherie becomes the latest victim, her investigation—which, coming as no surprise, ties in with Max's search into Arbalest's background—reveals that Protherie was not the staid Boston Brahmin he appeared. In fact, he was guarding an array of secrets that stretch back to his old days as an importer of oriental antiquities....