1988 cozy American detective fiction; seventh of MacLeod's novels of
Boston Brahmin Sarah Kelling and art investigator Max Bittersohn.
Sarah is pregnant, but doesn't let that slow her down much; one of the
rubbish-collectors working for the Senior Citizens' Recycling Center,
a family charitable project, has been fatally mugged, and it seems
that there's more going on.
It's rather more cozy than detective, as recent MacLeod has
tended to be: there are plenty of comical family Characters, many of
them from earlier books, but they mostly go along in their established
tracks rather than revealing anything new about themselves (something
Nora Roberts has managed to pull off rather better in the …In Death
series). At least both Sarah and Max have significant time on the
page, and a fair bit of it even together, which is always where
they've been most fun.
There's very little mystery since the good and bad people are clearly
labelled (and with all the recurring family members there's not much
room for new expendable characters anyway), but the process of working
out what is going on rather than merely who must be responsible
comes together well; some side tracks go on for rather longer than
perhaps they should.
I think that if I were more kindly disposed towards the series I'd
have enjoyed it more; it sometimes felt like MacLeod laughing at her
own jokes. Definitely don't start here, since while there are basic
introductions you won't have a feel for who people are or why they
behave the way they do unless you've read the previous books. Followed
by The Silver Ghost.
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