Rest You Merry

By Charlotte MacLeod

On Christmas Day, a University scrooge finds a murdered librarian.

Each December, the faculty of Balaclava Agricultural College goes wild with Christmas lights. The entire campus glitters with holiday decorations, save for one dark spot: the home of professor Peter Shandy. But after years of resisting the Illumination festival, Shandy snaps, installing a million-watt display of flashing lights and blaring music perfectly calculated to drive his neighbors mad. The horticulturalist flees town, planning to spend Christmas on a tramp steamer, but soon feels guilty about his prank and returns home to find his Christmas lights extinguished, and a dead librarian in his living room.

Wishing to avoid a scandal, the school's head asks Shandy to investigate the matter quietly. After all, Christmas is big business, and the town needs the cash infusion provided by the Illumination. As Peter Shandy will soon find, though, there is a dark side to even the whitest of white Christmases.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784087005

Charlotte MacLeod

Charlotte MacLeod (1922–2005) was an international 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.

Reviews for Rest You Merry

[kevn57-163679 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Laugh out loud funny, bachelor Professor Peter Shandy, must deal with Christmas, murder and an the unprecedented attention of the females in his sphere of colleagues at Balaclava Agricultural College in this biblo-mystery, when he first must inform his best friend that his wife was found dead by Peter after performing a prank on his neighbors.

[stephanie_m-868484 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A straightforward murder mystery that doesn't make its reader think, but just enjoy it. An easy read that doesn't take much concentration to keep the characters straight, and it's cozy setting and late 70's time period makes for a nice, pleasant get away from the regular world for a few hours.
3.5 stars, and recommended to anyone to likes/loves "cozy mysteries".

[2wondery_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

A variety of LTers I generally agree with have recently been speaking with fondness about this book. I thought it would be an excellent fit, as I graduated from an Agricultural College. Sadly, I found this story painfully lame and poorly written. I found no connection with these comic book characters. The mystery is sluggish, and nobody cares; everyone in the story is relieved that Jemima Ames is gone. The next victim is passed over lightly as well. The crime motivation is juvenile and too twisty. Ugh.

[kathy89_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Middle-aged professor living in a small town college community hates the ugly displays of outside Christmas decorations and decides this year he will out do everyone and hires decorators to come and put up the most excessive display with blaring Christmas music. He then takes off for a Caribbean cruise. However, his ships has to dock one day out because of mechanical problems and he heads home to find a dead body in his living room. The wife of his best friend was murdered and left in his house. The friend leaves to be with his daughter and this introduces Peter to Helen who will house-sit during the holidays and help solve the murder with the professor.

[bwhitner-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a pretty good book. Peter Shandy is a professor at a college where two murders occur and it's up to him to solve them.

[mrsbaty · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't have enough good words to say about this mystery! It's funny, it's witty, it's warm, it's cozy and the mystery is excellent! One of my all-time favorite cozies.The setting is at Balaclava College, a small agricultural college with a cast of kooky characters that keep you amused from the start. Professor Peter Shandy, the fifty-some year old hero, and Helen, the 40 something year old heroine, are two of the most pleasant characters in the mystery world. You'll wish you lived next door to them by the end of the book.The mystery itself takes a plenty of time to unfold and that is good because I enjoy the story so much I don't want it to end too quickly. I'm so glad that Charlotte MacLeod wrote a series about Peter and Helen so you can spend a lot more time with them.There's nothing slick or modern or hard-bitten about this book. It's pure comfort food for the cozy reader.

[librisissimo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Substance: Mayhem at a minor college during Christmas. The mystery was fair, but MacLeod leaves out essential clues and produces motives late in the day. The characters are a hoot and the improbably-idyllic romance a treat.Style: Some of the situations and dialogue reminded me of Connie Willis's Twisted Tupperware Tales (my own name for her warped-reality short stories), crossed with a cast reminiscent of John Putnam Thatcher's colleagues.Not a bad combination. NOTE: Large-print edition; took only 3 hours to read.

[noneofthis_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I picked this up purely for the rather cracktastic premise -- mild-mannered professor goes slightly mad, outdoes himself on the uberannoying Christmas decorations, and then flees on a cruise, leaving his neighbors to deal with the aftereffects -- which, frankly, made my grinchy little heart shrink even further with pure joy. But utter disappointment set in when I discovered that this premise is established in the first two ages and resolved by the third (he felt guilty and came back).It's possible there was good mystery in here, but I'm not suffering through 200 pages of 8pt font to find out.