The Palace Guard

Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1981. CI3 - A first edition (stated) hardcover book SIGNED by Charlotte MacLeod on the title page in very good condition in very good dust jacket. Dust jacket has some wrinkling and chipping on the edges and corners, light tanning and shelf wear. Book has some bumped corners, wrinnkling and some chipping on the spine edges, light tanning and shelf wear. A Crime Club Selection. Although not marked in any way, this copy comes from the personal collection of Otto Penzler, legendary editor and founder of the Mysterious Press, an award-winning icon in the genre. 8.5"x5.75", 183 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Sarah knows she shouldn't be here. The Kellings never did get invited back after that unfortunate incident when Madam Wilkins first opened her palatial museum to Boston's most critically outspoken Brahmins. But things have been quiet at Sarah's elegant Beacon Hill boardinghouse lately. Nobody's been murdered in five months. Lodger Max Bittersohn has free passes to today's concert and he's one man she finds hard to turn down. So here stand Sarah and Max on the palace's second floor balcony, admiring the flower-filled courtyard below and trying not to show their relief that impresario Nick Fieringer's latest musical fiasco is over. A peacock screams. A dark something falls past them from the floor above. Serenity turns to pandemonium as the oldest guard sprawls dead among the hyacinths. Here's a case ready-made for Bittersohn, a professional tracker of art thieves and forgers. Here's Nick Fieringer desperately trying to convince Max that no case exists. Here's another guard found poisoned in the locker room, and here's Sarah's cousin Brooks offering himself as a substitute guard because of his own personal friendship with curator Dolores Twane. Here's Dolores's neighbor Countess Lydia Ouspenska, who paints genuine antique icons and forms warm personal friendships. Here's head trustee C. Eugene Palmerston hiring Bittersohn to investigate the dire happenings at the palace while he himself investigates Sarah's resident femme fatale Theonia Sorpende. And here's Max's friend Bill Jones, who enjoys knowing art thieves and lovely young landladies but catches up on his sleep at Lydia Ouspenska's.. Signed by Author. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.