1977, #1 Professor Peter Shandy, Balaclava Agricultural College, New England; murder of an obnoxious woman at Christmastime involves a quiet academic in sleuthing and affection; her first adult novel, it's filled with all the right stuff for a lovely cosy village-type comedy/mystery, plus a bit more. Three-and-one-half stars. Peter Shandy has had enough. QUITE enough, thank you, of being badgered and harrassed by the university's faculty wives, about participating in the college's annual “Illumination Festival”, an enormous display of holiday lights wherein all the faculty housing gets “beautified” for the holidays and the entire town and college staff and student population sell stuff and do peculiar things to raise money. Since the lavish displays and free actitivies draw lots of tourists and folks from nearby towns, it's one of the major income sources for the little agricultural college and everybody is expected to want to pitch in and help. It's not that Peter doesn't enjoy Christmas – he does, very much so, but in his low-key fashion, and he resents very much being told to “decorate” according to someone else's tastes. Namely those of Jemmima Ames and her cohorts on The Committee. Which tend to the overblown and somewhat tacky, although when compared to styles and attitudes of today now seem rather quaint. After being badgered again and again by Jemima and her minons, he finally snaps, and sets out to make this a Christmas The Committee will never forget. It is, but not only for Peter's, um, Production...He arranges for the most garish, loud and tacky decorations he can possibly obtain, and pays a bunch of men to come in on one day and put all of it up for him, including extremely loud, completely hideous renderings of “Cute!!” holiday songs played at full blast and locks up both his house and the fuseboxes for all the equipment. He then skeedaddles out of town for a nice cruise. But things go seriously awry, starting with the boat, which develops engine trouble, and Peter decides to go home and, er, face the music... He fully expects to be in big trouble over his stunt, but not as much as he actually gets into. When he gets home he finds Jemmima's dead body behind his sofa, the lights and music shut off, and the entire town talking about his display. This is a tidy, funny, look at peer pressure among academics, along with one-upsmanship ditto, and is filled with verbal sniping, lasciviousness amongst the faculty (and others), greed and hubris. We are introduced to a raft of wonderful characters. Peter, who is a grey sort of man at first but eventually grows into a much more colorful and interesting person. The President of the college and his wonderful wife, 'way over the top and lots of fun to “experience” but I wouldn't want to actually be in his path any time soon (I worked for a man very much like him and, believe me, it wasn't easy...). Miss Helen Marsh, librarian, who comes in to help out a friend of Peter's and winds up finding far more than she expected. Various nice friends and collegues; awful ditto. There are a lot of characters to keep straight but I've never had any trouble following Ms. MacLeod's stories. She and I seem to have always resonated on the same humor wavelength – I've always “gotten” her jokes, and this is full of them: practical jokes, double entendres, other sorts of word play, historical, literary (and lots of other disciplines) references all gently slipped into the plot. And it's a good plot too, although a mite creaky now-a-days. This is a bit of a time capsule of a story, written in 1977, but isn't exactly “dated”, the reader simply has to remember that some things were different then, and leave it at that. Works for me, but then I was around New England in the late seventies, and I remember it well! (grin) This was Ms. MacLeod's first novel for adults and she does it very nicely IMO. She gets a lot better, though, over the years. She published books for about twenty years and during that time wrote four series, each with many books, each distinctive in its tone and approach to mysteries. In this first mystery you can clearly see the debt she owes to past writers, especially Phoebe Atwood Taylor, another New Englander who in the 1930s and 1940s wrote humorous mysteries starring a laid-back, quiet-but-brilliant man (Asey Mayo series, set on Cape Cod). And her protagonist Peter Shandy is somewhat similar in occupation, attitude, and attributes to Jane Langton's Homer Kelly, a slyly funny New England mystery series that began in 1964. Ms. MacLeod obviously read those books and enjoyed them, but her creation of Balaclava College and Peter Shandy and friends is entirely her own. The ensuing books become more farcical but remain entertaining. If you enjoy a good cosy “village mystery” filled with peculiar characters, tidy plots, word play and a satisfying conclusion, you can't go wrong with any of Ms. MacLeod's four series; besides the Shandy stories she wrote (as MacLeod) the Sarah Kelling and Max series, Boston (#1 The Family Vault). As “Alisa Craig” she also wrote two series set in Canada, the Madoc Rhys, RCMP stories set in Canadian Maritimes; these are affectionately humorous but less broadly so than the Shandy stories. And the Grub'n'Stakers series, about an extremely peculiar gardening club in the middle of western Canada (Alberta I think, but don't hold me to it, it's been decades since I read the series) – it's the most farcical of her series although some of the later Shandy books come close. Obviously I'm infatuated with her writing, and justifiably so, IMO. It's smooth, intelligent, entertaining, and set in what is “local” for me. She is one of my all-time favorite mystery writers, and I was saddened when I heard she had to stop writing in the mid-1990s due to Alzheimers; she died a few years later, early 2000s I think. I miss her charming gentility, her way with words, her beautifully honed sense of the absurd. But she left us a big pile of wonderful stories to read, bless her!
One of my favorite Christmas rereads, I try and get to it every year - so much fun! This is the first case for Professor Peter Shandy of Balaclava College, a small agricultural school in rural Massachusetts. The back-stabbing, gossipy faculty, Christmas setting and sparkling, snappy dialogue are a real treat, and I wish I had Professor Shandy for a science class, he's adorably old-fashioned, funny and sharp as a tack - a great amateur sleuth! He gets a wonderful sidekick in this outing, as he wooes visiting librarian Helen Marsh in a charming romantic subplot that in no way takes away from the mystery. This book got me hooked on the whole Shandy series and Charlotte MacLeod's other series (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn mysteries and her books written as Alisa Craig). I find most of her mysteries quirky, whimsical and charming, and while a few teeter into silliness or get a little carried away with the whimsy I think she's much better than most "cozy" mystery writers today. Her books are always fun to reread for comic relief and a good puzzle - no small feat!
What do You think about Rest You Merry (2001)?
A nice little cozy mystery set on a agricultural campus with wacky characters and goings on. Professor Peter Shandy has been pressured year after year to decorate his house on Presidential Circle to add to the Christmas festivities. Finally in a fit of pique he has it professionally done with garish decorations, obnoxious lights, and repetitive, blaring music. He locks it in place and takes off for a cruise. When remorse sets in-- and the ship returns due to mechanical difficulties --Peter comes home to discover his chief nagger dead in his house. The police believe it is an accidental death but the clues don't add up for Peter, so he sets out to figure out what happened. This is a fun who-dun-it with zany humor mixed with academic allusions. Light reading when you have nothing better to do.
—Dlora
A wonderful cozy mystery. Not very long by today's standards, but well written and well paced. The quirky characters felt very comfortable and relatable, which made keeping track of individuals within the story much easier. It seemed a little odd that Balaclava was considered so forward thinking in that they had the students run the faculty cafeteria to give them real world job experience. This seemed the norm when I started college in '90.There were a few things that struck me while reading it. 1) Expectations in culture have changed somewhat. Frugality was in, now it's extravagance and over-indulgence. Having one car was understandable necessity; having two was ostentatious. Sugar was a luxury. Packing a single small suitcase for a week long trip. 2) I'd forgotten how varied the vocabulary was. Perspicacious and alacrity are rarely used in today's novels. 3) Everyone drinks and pretty much all the time. Seems they are always having a sherry, or a highball or something. Someone would walk into a room and they'd be offered an adult beverage.The Open Road eBook was well formatted, though there were a handful of misspellings.
—Kamas Kirian
I laughed out loud at the reaction of the professor (Peter Shandy, PHD) who bought the best, loudest and brightest Christmas decorations in a childish reaction to a neighbor's determination that he needed to decorate. It was a little clumsily written, but overall it is still my favorite among all the Shandy stories, and quite possibly among all of this author's books, both as Macleod and as Alisa Craig (where she did another series about a western writer and his wife).I learned from this book not to give up or give in!
—Doris
