The Family Vault

A mislaid corpse strikes terror in the hearts of Boston's strangest Family.

Like many old New England families, the Kellings live to die. Although their family vault is spacious and comfortable, for Sarah Kelling's Great-Uncle Frederick it will not do. In his will, he demands to be buried inside the ancient family tomb at Boston Common, which hasn't admitted a new member in over a century. But when the Kellings crack the old vault's door, they find a recently built brick wall. And behind it lays a surprisingly fresh corpse - a skeleton with rubies in its teeth.

Her name was Ruby Redd, and many years ago she was the toast of Boston's burlesque scene. Her murder case is ice cold, but when Sarah begins investigating it, she finds that the burning passions behind this beauty's death still burn white hot. With the help of art-fraud investigator Max Bittersohn, she will solve the stripper's murder, or take her own place in the family vault.

Review quotes.

"A first-rate suspense whodunit. . . . Well-written." - Cincinnati Post.

"The screwball mystery is Charlotte MacLeod's cup of tea." - Chicago Tribune.

"The epitome of the 'cozy' mystery." - Mostly Murder.

Biographical note.

Charlotte MacLeod (1922-2005) was an internationally bestselling author of cozy mysteries. Born in Canada, she moved to Boston as a child, and lived in New England most of her life. After graduating from college, she made a career in advertising, writing copy for the Stop & Shop Supermarket Company before moving on to Boston firm N. H. Miller & Co., where she rose to the rank of vice president. In her spare time, MacLeod wrote short stories, and in 1964 published her first novel, a children's book called "Mystery of the White Knight."

In "Rest You Merry" (1978), MacLeod introduced Professor Peter Shandy, a horticulturist and amateur sleuth whose adventures she would chronicle for two decades. "The Family Vault" (1979) marked the first appearance of her other best-known characters: the husband and wife sleuthing team Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn, whom she followed until her last novel, "The Balloon Man," in 1998.