-
The Family Vault
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Series: A Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mystery, Book 1
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus
$14.95 a month
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Palace Guard
- Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 boarding house lately - nobody's been murdered in months. Lodger Max Bittersohn has free passes to today's concert, and he's one man she finds hard to turn down. But then something falls past them from the floor above, and the oldest guard sprawls dead among the hyacinths.
-
-
Great vintage read!
- By Jan on 09-03-18
-
Rest You Merry
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, Professor Peter Shandy has been badgered by Jemima Ames, Assistant Librarian and Annual Chairperson, to decorate his campus home for the Grand Illumination which is Balaclava Agricultural College's main fund-raising event. Now he can hold out no longer. Goaded to madness, he buries his small brick house under an avalanche of plastic reindeer, flashing lights, and fake Santa Clauses. Hooks up an amplifier blaring "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth," locks the switches at "on," and escapes to sea on a tramp steamer....
-
-
A classic story - and great for this time of year!
- By Amazon Customer on 12-08-12
-
The Plain Old Man
- Kelling & Bittersohn Mysteries
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah's Aunt Emma's theatre troupe is doing The Sorcerer, as Emma has always hankered to play Lady Sangazure. Perhaps she made a bad choice, though, by casting a well-connected con man in the title role. It's no mere evil spell that leaves Charlie Daventer dead on his bathroom floor. But the show must go on. Cousin Frederick is hurled into the breach. Old Fred really can't tolerate the general assumption that his friend Charlie died by accident. He convinces Sarah that murder has been committed.
-
-
Fabulous, funny, nostalgic mysteries
- By Robert on 04-22-13
-
The Luck Runs Out
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Newlyweds Peter and Helen Shandy are picking out flatware when a pair of gun-toting hooligans burst into the silversmith’s shop, empty the safe, and leave with Helen as their hostage. Although the police recover Helen quickly, her professor husband is badly shaken by the ordeal. Early the next morning, the college’s head of animal husbandry frantically reports another hostage situation in progress. Belinda, the school’s beloved sow, has been kidnapped, and only Peter can bring home the bacon.
-
-
Great story, narrator stumbles
- By Amazon Customer on 11-08-12
-
The Recycled Citizen
- A Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mystery
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah and Max have joined with the rest of the Kelling clan to plan a black-tie charity auction. But just before the big event, one of the Centre's members is murdered, and an examination of the will points the finger of suspicion at the Kellings. To make matters even worse, another corpse pops up in the garden shed on the night of the ball. So who wants to sabotage the Centre and pull down the Kelling name?
-
-
Fun in the old days
- By Jan on 02-08-19
-
The Gladstone Bag
- A Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mystery, Book 9
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Kelling's Aunt Emma leaps at the chance to stay at her old friend Adelaide's summer place, enjoying a quiet time repairing some stage jewelry while keeping an eye on the artists and writers who'll be occupying Adelaide's six guest cottages. On the ferry, Emma's Gladstone bag is temporarily stolen. Could someone have mistaken those junk jewels for real diamonds? She meets her guests-to-be who inform her they plan to dig for Pocapuk's legendary pirate treasure without having bothered to get Adelaide's permission. On the island, her bag is heisted again.
-
-
Not a usual Sarah/Max mystery
- By Kate on 03-14-15
-
The Palace Guard
- Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mysteries
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 boarding house lately - nobody's been murdered in months. Lodger Max Bittersohn has free passes to today's concert, and he's one man she finds hard to turn down. But then something falls past them from the floor above, and the oldest guard sprawls dead among the hyacinths.
-
-
Great vintage read!
- By Jan on 09-03-18
-
Rest You Merry
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, Professor Peter Shandy has been badgered by Jemima Ames, Assistant Librarian and Annual Chairperson, to decorate his campus home for the Grand Illumination which is Balaclava Agricultural College's main fund-raising event. Now he can hold out no longer. Goaded to madness, he buries his small brick house under an avalanche of plastic reindeer, flashing lights, and fake Santa Clauses. Hooks up an amplifier blaring "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth," locks the switches at "on," and escapes to sea on a tramp steamer....
-
-
A classic story - and great for this time of year!
- By Amazon Customer on 12-08-12
-
The Plain Old Man
- Kelling & Bittersohn Mysteries
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah's Aunt Emma's theatre troupe is doing The Sorcerer, as Emma has always hankered to play Lady Sangazure. Perhaps she made a bad choice, though, by casting a well-connected con man in the title role. It's no mere evil spell that leaves Charlie Daventer dead on his bathroom floor. But the show must go on. Cousin Frederick is hurled into the breach. Old Fred really can't tolerate the general assumption that his friend Charlie died by accident. He convinces Sarah that murder has been committed.
-
-
Fabulous, funny, nostalgic mysteries
- By Robert on 04-22-13
-
The Luck Runs Out
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Newlyweds Peter and Helen Shandy are picking out flatware when a pair of gun-toting hooligans burst into the silversmith’s shop, empty the safe, and leave with Helen as their hostage. Although the police recover Helen quickly, her professor husband is badly shaken by the ordeal. Early the next morning, the college’s head of animal husbandry frantically reports another hostage situation in progress. Belinda, the school’s beloved sow, has been kidnapped, and only Peter can bring home the bacon.
-
-
Great story, narrator stumbles
- By Amazon Customer on 11-08-12
-
The Recycled Citizen
- A Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mystery
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah and Max have joined with the rest of the Kelling clan to plan a black-tie charity auction. But just before the big event, one of the Centre's members is murdered, and an examination of the will points the finger of suspicion at the Kellings. To make matters even worse, another corpse pops up in the garden shed on the night of the ball. So who wants to sabotage the Centre and pull down the Kelling name?
-
-
Fun in the old days
- By Jan on 02-08-19
-
The Gladstone Bag
- A Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mystery, Book 9
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Kelling's Aunt Emma leaps at the chance to stay at her old friend Adelaide's summer place, enjoying a quiet time repairing some stage jewelry while keeping an eye on the artists and writers who'll be occupying Adelaide's six guest cottages. On the ferry, Emma's Gladstone bag is temporarily stolen. Could someone have mistaken those junk jewels for real diamonds? She meets her guests-to-be who inform her they plan to dig for Pocapuk's legendary pirate treasure without having bothered to get Adelaide's permission. On the island, her bag is heisted again.
-
-
Not a usual Sarah/Max mystery
- By Kate on 03-14-15
-
The Resurrection Man
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Countess Ouspenska, expert forger of Byzantine icons, tells Max Bittersohn that an old acquaintance, Bartolo Arbalest - aka the "Resurrection Man" - has set up an exclusive art restoration business. Meanwhile, in a series of events, valuable objets d'arts are stolen from the homes of Boston's wealthiest citizens...shortly after their owners have them restored. Then George Protherie is gored to death with an ancient spear during a burglary in which his set of solid-gold Indian ceremonial candlesticks vanishes.
-
-
Marvelous MacLeod
- By Amazon Customer on 12-19-20
-
Wrack and Rune
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A centuries-old Norse curse, vandalism, and two irrepressible centenarians combine to confront Professor Peter Shandy with a puzzling murder case.
-
-
The Perfect Cozy
- By Hovercraft on 08-30-20
-
A Pint of Murder
- Madoc & Janet Rhys, Book 1
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Old Agatha Treadway baked her own bread, canned her own vegetables - and died of botulism in her very own kitchen. Accident, says Dr. Druffitt. Murder, says neighbor Janet Wadman. And says it again when she finds the doctor dead, too. Detective Inspector Madoc Rhys, of the royal Canadian Mounted Police, agrees. But who's the killer...? The town miser, who wants the one thing only Mrs. Treadway could have given him? The miser's son who's panting for the doctor's daughter? Widow Druffitt, who's holding secret meetings with unlikely people? The hired girl who listens at keyholes? The hired man who hides in haylofts?
-
-
cute Canadian cozy
- By connie on 10-24-12
-
The Odd Job
- A Sarah Kelling Mystery , Book 11
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Kelling's vacation at her shorefront home is cut short when the administrator of Boston's Wilkins Museum is murdered with an antique hat pin, and Sarah must handle the burial arrangements and find the murderer before he finds her.
-
Something the Cat Dragged In
- A Pete and Helen Shandy Mystery, Book 4
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The venerable Herbert Ungley wouldn't have been caught dead without his toupee. So when his landlady's cat dragged it into her kitchen, Betsy Lomax knew something was amiss. When she found old Ungley lying behind the Balaclavian Society clubhouse, she knew it was murder. And when the police chief called it an accident, she knew it was time to call Professor Peter Shandy, whose success at sleuthing had already surpassed his fame as father of the world-renowned rutabaga, the Balaclava Buster.
-
-
Poor reading nearly ruins great book
- By Susan on 04-07-17
-
The Balloon Man
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a serenely beautiful, picture-perfect day as a backdrop, what could possibly go wrong at the glorious seaside wedding on the Kelling estate? Plenty. First, Max is knocked unconscious by someone trying to steal the bride's gold and ruby necklace. Then a hot air balloon suddenly crashes into the tent leaving a mangled corpse beneath its wicker basket. Later, Uncle Jem's vintage Rolls Royce is stolen. It will now take all of Max's formidable skills as the world's greatest expert on art theft to pop this mystery wide open.
-
-
Hot air can be dangerous!
- By Marily on 06-29-18
-
The Silver Ghost
- A Sarah Kelling Mystery, Book 8
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Kelling and her husband, Max Bittershohn, are back in a whimsical whodunit involving a ghost - a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. When a friend's classic car disappears and a gardener is found murdered, Sarah and Max untangle a tapestry of Renaissance clues to ferret out the killer.
-
-
No Ghosts, But Plenty of Fun
- By Chalis on 09-19-13
-
An Owl Too Many
- Peter & Helen Shandy, Book 8
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emory Emmerick comes to Balaclava Agricultural University as a scout for a television station. Although the faculty and students are hardly ready for prime time, Emmerick’s interest is in environmental programming - a subject that inspires even the driest Balaclava professor to wax poetic. In his search for material, Emmerick joins Peter Shandy and a few of his colleagues on the annual owl-count.
-
-
A complete and Unabridged Wild Ride
- By Jeanie on 04-21-13
-
The Gift of the Magpie
- A Meg Langslow Mystery, Book 28
- By: Donna Andrews
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meg’s running Caerphilly’s Helping Hands for the Holidays project, in which neighbors help each other with things they can’t do and can’t afford to have done. Her hopes for a relatively peaceful (if busy) Christmas vanish when someone murders Harvey the Hoarder, whose house the Helping Hands were decluttering. Was there any truth to the rumor that he had something valuable hidden beneath all his junk? Was one of his friends, neighbors, or relatives greedy enough to murder him for the rumored treasure?
-
-
Wonderful latest in a great series
- By Kindle Customer on 12-20-20
By: Donna Andrews
-
Murder Goes Mumming
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though he may not look the part, Madoc Rhys is a Mountie - and his keen sense of detection tells him it’s time to ask Janet Wadman to marry him. They have just gotten engaged when Christmas rolls around, and Janet’s boss invites them to his family estate for a last holiday fling before Janet leaves her job. After a long helicopter ride, they are at Graylings, ancestral home of the Condryckes, a family so strange that Canada’s shortest Mountie fits right in.
-
-
a weaker MacLeod cozy, but Christmas setting
- By connie on 12-29-12
-
The Curse of the Giant Hogweed
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Professor Shandy, propagator of the world's most renowned rutabaga and Balaclava College's best amateur sleuth, takes on the case of the Giant Hogweed - a garden pest about to wipe out Britain's lovely hedgerows. With colleagues Dan Stott and Timothy Ames at his side, he leaves the groves of academe for some fancy fieldwork deep in the heart of Wales. But never in their wildest dreams did the three professors expect the bizarre events that awaited them.... Where Miss Hilda Horsefall's recipe for homemade lye soap becomes as valuable as Dan Stott's knowledge of The Chronicles of Narnia....
-
-
Mystery readers beware.
- By JMay on 08-26-13
-
The Corpse in Oozak's Pond
- By: Charlotte MacLeod
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The rural town of Balaclava greets Groundhog Day as an excuse for one last cold-weather fling. The students and faculty of the local agricultural college drink cocoa, throw snowballs, and, when the temperature allows, ice skate. Oozak’s Pond is not quite frozen this year, though, and as the Groundhog Day celebrations reach their peak, the students see someone bobbing through the ice. The drowning victim is long past help, though; he’s badly decomposed and dressed in an old-fashioned frock coat with a heavy rock in each pocket.
-
-
The narrator almost ruins it
- By Babz on 07-21-16
Publisher's Summary
A Crime Club selection, this intrguing tale has been reviewed as "...the very best whodunnit in many a day...Not to be missed." It starts with plans to bury deceased Great-uncle Frederick in the family vault on Beacon Hill. When the vault is opened, there's someone already there that no one could ever expect-the skeleton of a burlesque queen who disappeared thirty years ago! It's up to young Sarah Kelling to hold the shocked family together, and try to find out what happened. What she unravels is a complex murder plot that not only stretches into the past, but also has Sarah marked as a victim!
- The third in a series of definitive edition of mysteries by America's Agatha Christie!
- Second title in ibooks' Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn reissue program.
- Over 1,000,000 Charlotte MacLeod novels have been sold worldwide.
- Charlotte MacLeod is the American Mystery and Nero Wolfe Award-winning of the Sarah Kelling & Max Bittersohn and Professor Peter Shandy series of mysteries.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Family Vault
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joy
- 11-30-12
A delightful start to the series
Sarah's family is opening up their historical cemetary vault, where no one else was ever supposed to be buried. To the surprise of all present, much has changed since its official closing. The main change is the addition of an exotic skeleton with rubies set into her teeth. This is the start of a kaleidoscopic adjustment of Sarah's view of her compressed little world. Charlotte MacLeod's brilliant plot is sympathetically humanized. When I listened to my old favorite THE FAMILY VAULT, it started a whole reading and listening sequence of Charlotte MacLeod books.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Madge
- 06-14-13
young wife, older husband, deadly family secrets
Sarah kelling has always adored her generation older Cousin Alexander Kelling, so when her father dies when she's 19 and leaves Alex as her guardian, she happily marries him. But they are living with his tragically blind and deaf mother, using Sarah's income from her trust that expires when she's 27, whose funds go to Alexander if she dies, and though the house is one of Boston's distinguished old homes, they are living in shabby genteel poverty, recycling old clothes and doing their own DIY - or are they merely being thrifty aristocratic Boston Brahmins?.
But when a cantankerous older family member insists on being buried in the original historic family vault (instead of the modern cemetery on the outskirts of Boston next to his pre-deceased and despised wife), they find an unexpected resident - a notorious stripper Ruby Red -- and the Kelling secrets are about to come out.
Sarah is a bright, well-mannered young woman, happy to serve, but growing tired of the social demands of her heritage, the autocratic demands of her mother-in-law, and the financial demands of poverty when she's supposed to be part of a rich family. And when this shock starts to crack the family solidarity, she begins to search for the truth of how Ruby intersects with the family, but also the pattern of premature death. And trying to make her marriage a more equal one.
Well - written, with multiple humorous eccentric characters in the in-bred Kelling clan, and a complicated plot with a totally unexpected solution.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- GrandmaG
- 06-18-17
Give me Peter Shandy!!
I enjoyed the Peter Shandy series by this author, so I thought I'd try this series. I listened to one hour. I found the story line to be trite. The characters uninteresting - even to the point of being "corny". I am not sure which turned me off more...the story or the narrator. I agree with the reviewer that commented about being unsure at some points as to what character was speaking. Personally, I felt that at some points she was reading too fast, and at other points she droned on & on. I lost interest and found myself zoning out on the book totally. I encourage anyone who is considering this book to listen to the audio sample first, and ask yourself, "do I want to listen to 7.5 hours of this voice"?
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- shmck28
- 05-10-13
I just discovered this series!
Which character – as performed by Andi Arndt – was your favorite?
Sarah Kelling's character was my favorite. The narrator did a good job, however sometimes I was unsure as to which character was speaking in a dialogue of two or more characters because her voice didn't change as much as it should have to distinguish between characters.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robert
- 04-22-13
Witty Mysteries, Light Listening
Any additional comments?
Sarah Kelling Kelling is introduced to us as a girl learning to be a woman. Finding her independence in a world of stolid traditions and old relatives, young Sarah comes into her own in this first of the series. Usually light, funny mysteries, this first book is still witty but slightly more somber in nature. The mysteries are just convoluted enough to keep you guessing until the final chapters. The true magic of these stories are the characters themselves. Colourful, outrageous, silly, farcical -- these are entertainment on the order of Miss Marple crossed with a bit of Arsenic and Old Lace.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elizabeth von Kessler
- 05-24-19
Poorly written predictable story
Not only was this book poorly written with cliche after cliche - a predictable unfolding of the story, but the performance was lacking as well. The only reason I finished it is to see if there were any redeeming factors. Sadly - none.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jan
- 04-06-14
Excellently crafted!
historical-fiction, art-fraud, murder, cozy-mystery, situational-humor, verbal-humor
Written in 1982, the details rank as historical. The publisher's blurb is somewhat off, but don't let that stop you from enjoying this delightful cozy! The long suffering Sarah and her beloved older husband Alexander have been victimized and swindled for years and didn't even know it. Then things get even worse, but there is plenty of humor to lighten it up. If you've never read this book or others in the series, do yourself a favor and read now!
My current copy is audio performed by Andi Arndt who is excellent in character (they all are!) differentiation and conveying attitudes.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ACT1
- 11-06-13
It was OK
It was an alright read but not an author I think I will follow. I realize it was setting the scene for a series but, and I'm sad to say this, I don't much like female narrators (with one or two exceptions, which this was not) and the story definitely required a female narrator. It just didn't grab me unfortunately.
-
Overall

- Bastet Pybus
- 12-23-12
Great fun
Fun, witty sleuthing. An entertaining listen - I enjoyed puzzling out the family relationships and the bizarre world of Charlotte McLeod. Read with gusto by Andi Arndt.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Lamorna
- 07-18-20
A joy of entertainment
I every a book series hit the ground running it is this one. There is none of that development period, these people have lived the lives they share with you and more that you can only guess at. You will sit on the edge of your seat with each twist of the plot and laugh over the details afterwards.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- AMG, London
- 01-13-20
Engaging story, well read
Delighted to have stumbled across Charlotte MacLeod in a short story collection. This is the first full length novel of hers that I've read, and I can see myself working my way through the whole series. Great characters who really pull you in, and a gripping plot. A thumping good story.