Rest You Merry

Peter Shandy #1

by Charlotte MacLeod

Professor Peter Shandy finally succumbs to Jemima Ames, Chairperson for Balaclava Agricultural College's major fundraiser, the Grand Illumination. He buries his small brick house under an avalanche of tawdry plastic and escapes on a sea cruise. But he returns to find Jemima dead on his living room floor and a murder to solve.

Genres: Mystery, Christmas, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Humor, Holiday

182 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Naturalized US Citizen

Also wrote as Alisa Craig

Charlotte MacLeod, born in New Brunswick, Canada, and a naturalized U.S. citizen, was the multi-award-winning author of over thirty acclaimed novels. Her series featuring detective Professor Peter Shandy, America's homegrown Hercule Poirot, delivers "generous dollops of...warmth, wit, and whimsy" (San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle). But fully a dozen novels star her popular husband-and-wife team of Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn. And her native Canada provides a backdrop for the amusing Grub-and-Stakers cozies written under the pseudonym Alisa Craig and the almost-police procedurals starring Madoc Rhys, RCMP. A cofounder and past president of the American Crime Writers League, she also edited the bestselling anthologies Mistletoe Mysteries and Christmas Stalkings.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rest You Merry by Charlotte Macleod is a 2012 Mysterious Press/Open Road publication. (Originally published in 1978)

I’ve been curious about this series for ages, and I love reading through old cozy mystery series. The downside to that is trying to locate all the installments, since many of these older books are out of print or are priced outside my budget. Thankfully, I found a healthy number of Macleod’s Peter Shandy series in digital format on Hoopla while looking for holiday mysteries. As it turns out, this is both a Christmas themed book and the first book in the series, so it seemed the perfect time to dive in and test the waters.

For a book originally published in 1978 it held up well. There are a few remarks made that we might frown on, and some phrases popped up that were pretty funny. “When can we split for lunch?” Split? LOL! But the best one was referencing law enforcement as the ‘Fuzz’. That one made me laugh out loud. But, overall, the book is not all that dated. The mystery is solid, and I rather liked Peter Shandy. There were a few characters to keep up with, which was a little trying at times, and for a cozy mystery I was a little surprised at some of the language- no F-bombs or anything, but occasionally some words went beyond ‘mild language’, which is not typical for books in this category.

Other than that, this book got the series off to a good start. I have no idea if reading in order is required- I rather doubt it, to be honest- I’ll have to go with what books are available, though, either way. But I will most definitely read more books in the series whenever possible.

4 stars

[Delee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christmas great escape group read..with my Great Escape gals!! :D

3.5

[Susan in NC · Rating 5 out of 5]

December 2023 reread with Detectives group challenge: Never fails to lift my spirits and make me laugh out loud! One of my favorite Christmas rereads, this is the first in the author's witty, charming, clever Professor Peter Shandy series set at a small agricultural college in rural Massachusetts. Quirky characters, literate and funny dialogue and a delightfully twisted murder mystery - what's not to love?

2022 - okay, realistically, it’s a 4-4.5 star mystery, but I love slipping into it comfortably like a warm sweater! This year, I read and listened during a late autumn holiday at a Charleston, SC resort, just as the Christmas season was getting into full swing; a treat to see family, take our first vacation in years (health issues) in a place we used to visit annually - truly grateful, this holiday favorite added to my pleasure!
Poor Professor Shandy, goaded after years of badgering by the campus wives (yes, it’s a bit dated, no cell phones or computers either, yay!) to “please decorate” his campus residence during the college’s “Grand Illumination”, a holiday tourism extravaganza/fundraiser for scholarships, decides to ladle on the campy decorations - but it all backfires horribly, and he has to abandon his sprouting seedlings (it’s an agricultural college in rural Massachusetts, he’s a soil scientist) to do some detecting.

2020 - listened to the audiobook this time, not thrilled with this narrator, some odd accent and pronunciation choices. But I still enjoy the mystery, humor, and the look at the academic gossip, politics and shenanigans.

2018 - always makes me happy!

2017 - still five stars for me.

2015 - Always a favorite reread, still holds up and makes me smile and laugh out loud in a few spots, fun! I try and fit in a reread every year, light, snarky, quirky and charming - I've read and recently reread the entire series, but this is definitely my favorite book of the lot.

2014 - 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!

[Kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the next few days I will be trying to catch up on my unwritten reviews!

I read this book near the end of December, and it was both an excellent Christmas themed book and an engaging start to series that I look forward to continuing. I was impressed with the way Charlotte MacLeod managed to write a genuinely funny book (I had not expected to laugh so much) without feeling disrespectful toward the fictional victims. I welcomed a refreshing murder mystery with a wonderfully likeable amateur sleuth -- and the cast around him were intriguing too. To go from the humour of the Christmas lights debacle, to the observation that the death may not be as simple as it first appeared, I enjoyed every moment of this story. It wasn't quite a five-star read, but it was close, and I'm pleased that there are nine more books in the Peter Shandy series for me to look forward to.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Shandy returns home from his cruise to find a woman dead on his living room floor and so begins his investigation. If you are looking for a tight piece of detective fiction that will keep you puzzled and on the edge of your seat, this is certainly not that one. Shandy is definitely not the American Agatha Christie that the book cover claims him to be. Having said that, it is a warm offering with lots of gentle humor that had me smiling throughout. It is definitely an enjoyable cozy Christmas read.

[C. (Comment, never msg). · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps it is with the knowledge that Charlotte MacLeod first drafted this as a short story, that I find the introduction weaker, detached from the astonishingly well-developed setting that unfolds. There is a smorgasbord of characters to digest, which is fine if one is on board with the protagonist. I relate less well to the male perspective, if nowhere near my lifestyle. At first, ‘Peter Shandy’ came across as a doddering, unmarried professor who appeared out of synch with his peers. He overdid his Christmas decorations, in revolt against a university campus community obligation to adorn his private home. We learn that their campus town earns income from tourism of “Illumination” festivities. The interference of neighbours seems inappropriate in the novel’s early stages.

We find along the way that Peter is important and very well-liked. With information and the arrival of the delightful ‘Helen Marsh’, who changed Peter’s personality at once; I metamorphosed into a fan. Charlotte’s mastery of narrative is second to none. I was gripped by hilariously wry dialogue, via-à-vis swift, educated sarcasm.

Here is one of the world’s true writers, irreplaceable and greatly missed, of whom we can be proud is a New Brunswick Canadian by birth. Her tone might be light but the brilliance of her sentences compels you to stop and marvel at their construction.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adored the late Charlotte MacLeod’s Kelling series so, so much that I devoured all 12 books and only wish she’d lived to write a dozen more. So when my book club, the Great Escape, suggested Rest You Merry, the first novel in MacLeod’s Peter Shandy series, as our December read, no one was more enthusiastic than I.

Curmudgeonly bachelor Peter Shandy’s a tenured professor of agrology at Balaclava Agricultural College in Balaclava Junction, Massachusetts. While he’s gone, the wife of his best friend, an interfering, overbearing woman named Jemima Ames, turns up dead in Shandy’s living room. Police declare Mrs. Ames’ death an unfortunate accident that occurred when she was trying to take down Shandy’s vulgar Christmas display; however, neither Shandy nor Ames’ husband Tim buy that explanation. Rest You Merrydoesn’t rank with the Kelling books, but the mystery cozy was pretty good, and I immediately downloaded the next book in the series, The Luck Runs Out, from the library.

Special thanks to my Great Escape sisters for a chance to launch into yet another Charlotte MacLeod series. And with 10 books in the Peter Shandy series, I will be enjoying myself for years to come.

[Gary Sundell · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up. Wonderful first entry in the Peter Shandy series.

[Charles van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rutabagas, Christmas and murder

By Charles van Buren on April 18, 2018

Format: Kindle Edition

Charlotte MacLeod writes humor. She has almost as much in common with P.G. Wodehouse as she does with Agatha Christie. There is a mystery here, a quite interesting mystery but the real appeal to me is the quirky characters who inhabit Balaclava Agricultural College and the small communities of Balaclava Junction, Lumpkin Corners and environs. A case in point: Peter Shandy, professor of agrology, in partnership with his friend professor Timothy Ames, is propagator of a world renowned and highly profitable rutabaga, the Balaclava Buster. This has made both professors moderately wealthy and provides a steady source of funds to the college. Rutabagas, turnips, pigs, a profitable Christmas Illumination, agricultural college, small towns and murder. What's not to like?

[Abigail Bok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just had a disillusioning rereading experience with Elizabeth and Her German Garden, it was with trepidation that I turned to the first book in Charlotte MacLeod’s Peter Shandy comic mystery series, Rest You Merry. I need not have worried. This book pleased me almost as much as it did upon first reading it in the 1980s.

Peter Shandy is a professor at a New England agricultural university, best known for his creation of a superior rutabaga. He is a forty-something bachelor, set in his ways, enduring with apparent patience the quiddities and annoying behaviors of his academic community. Then something snaps in him, and he engages in an idle prank that leads to a thorough upheaval in his life. Neighbors die, other neighbors become suspects, and Shandy plods along detecting despite a major and very pleasant distraction.

Why is this a five-star mystery for me? It has impeccable tone and is extraordinarily well constructed. The author expertly misleads readers by getting them to focus on shiny objects while the real clues are lying in plain sight. The main character has an arc of growth and garners sympathy for coping with a series of challenges that leave him doubting himself. The other characters are funny and vividly drawn, and the campus politics are entirely believable for someone who has spent time working on a campus. The setting is freakish while the psychology is normal. The motive makes sense. In keeping with the comic tone, the author wastes no words in scenes or in the wrap-up. Death is not treated as a joke but is not dwelt on in grisly detail.

My standard for star ratings is not to ask myself, Is this an enduring classic? but To what extent does this book achieve what the author is trying to achieve? “Classic” and “greatness” are concepts too heavily mired in cultural assumptions—conscious and unexamined—for me to find them useful bases for judging a work, so I fall back on author’s intent. It seems to me that this book perfectly achieved what the author was aiming to achieve.

[Lyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first Peter Shandy book I've read. WHAT A HOOT! I loved this book and so did my dh. I bought it because it said that it was a combination of Agatha Christie and P G Wodehouse--two of my favorite authors. And it was. A great mystery ala Christie tradition. And both erudite and slapstick humor ala Wodehouse (remember Bertie Wooster and Jeeves?--Well if you don't, get to the library and check one out.)

The setting is New England, a small agricultural college. Since my dh pointed out that no one mentioned cell phones and the phones all had dials, that this was a pre-1990's era book. I'd say around the 1960-70's but it fits the characters. AND WHAT CHARACTERS THEY ARE! Somehow realistic and over the top at the same time. And I loved the dawning romance between Peter and the librarian Helen Marsh. If you want a mystery that is hard to solve and a fun holiday read, this book is for you! (Note: there is a very little profanity in the dialogue-I chose to overlook it.)

[☕Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I downloaded this book a few days ago because I was looking for a quick read to fit in before Christmas, and this one had good ratings. For me it was pretty mediocre. The characters felt pretty interchangeable and the mystery wasn't especially clever. Overall it was just okay and I don't plan to read more in the series. And I didn't even finish it by Christmas!

[Julie Durnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun Christmas murder mystery-very much a 60's or 70's vibe going on, but I liked Peter Shandy and the academia setting.

[Mike Finn · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's the night before Christmas as I write this review.The season is merry and I should be too.

Yet despite best intentions and goodwill to all men, I couldn't bring myself to listen to this book again.

The story is slow and the characters are bland. I don't care whodunnit or how they are found.

Two hours of listening to lengthy discourse on marbles and murder and wrongly locked doors, with no tension and no action are more than enough. I'm setting it aside to read other stuff.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professor Peter Shandy doesn't buy that the death of the wife of his best friend was accidental.

A good, witty story. Protagonist was well conceived and likable. The quirky secondary characters are intriguing. There are suspects galore in this clever cozy mystery.

A charming holiday read.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun "who-dunnit" with a Christmas theme.

Peter Shandy is a professor at the esteemed Balaclava College. During the Illumination, the yearly Christmas celebration on campus, Shandy stumbles onto not just one, but two dead bodies. When the authorities don't seem to share his sense of urgency, Shandy - along with help from the ever resourceful Helen Marsh - does some detective work of his own.

While I felt this dragged a tad in some parts, I enjoyed the story as a whole and would like to read the next in the series.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

First in the Peter Shandy series. Very funny. Set at the fictional Balaclava Agricultural College. Out of print, something different. Worth looking for.

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Chautona Havig · Rating 5 out of 5]

How have I never heard of these mysteries before.?

Combining humor, an interesting mystery, and excellent characterization, I feel like I'm going to enjoy these as long as the foul language usage doesn't increase much. While most instances are "mild," there were a couple of irreverent uses of God's name which I never appreciate.
Mixing a Scandinavian county in Massachusetts... hilarious. Totally unexpected.

[Beckiezra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5? The characters were kind of caricatures and the setting was kind of hard to identify (they kept talking about doing or eating things I identify as British but they seemed to be based outside of Boston). The local police didn't even qualify as a joke and I don't know if that's a product of the 1970s, small towns, or just bad research. I mean if someone is dead in someone else's house wouldn't an autopsy be kind of mandatory? The mystery wasn't an easy solve, I had suspicions about certain people but couldn't tie them together with any kind of motive. The ending was rushed, with an entire mystery solving trip totally untold. Also the depiction of housewives was insulting.

I was reading a first edition from the 70s (I don't know if there were any changes in the new edition, I just know the page numbers don't match up) and it's really made me want to read some more old books. The vocabulary was particularly appealing, it was nice to not know some words and not feel like the author was throwing them in to sound smart or because they like some strange word, but because people just had better vocabularies in the past.

[Jamie Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. A cozy murder mystery set at a fictional agricultural college in New England in the 1970’s, during the Christmas season. It’s not a bad read, just a little bland. It’s a contemporary novel, and there are only a few bits which let you recognize the time period, such as people literally dialing telephones, the mention of the library’s card catalog, and the assumption of which gender does the cooking and housework.

There’s a nice collection of quirky characters living in a quirky college town. The mystery is okay. It felt a little odd that nobody is particularly shocked or upset at the murder of someone everybody has known for years, but then this wouldn’t be so cozy if the characters were seriously distressed.

The romance is sweet, but as it’s a case of love at first sight with absolutely no conflict or impediment, it’s not terribly gripping.

Not sure I liked this well enough to read the next in the series.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Peter Shandy is a professor at a small college. Many of the faculty live close to each other, and at Christmas they go all out in their neighbourhood to decorate. It’s called the Illumination Festival and it attracts people out to see the lights. While Peter is away, there is a Christmas party. When Peter returns, he finds the assistant librarian dead in his house. It appears she was trying to fix some decorations and she fell. But, on looking closer, Peter doesn’t think it was an accident. The last time the librarian was seen, she was leaving the party.

I quite liked this. It’s a quick read and, unfortunately, the first in a series. I will continue on (if I can find the next book(s), as this one was originally published in 1978). I don’t read a lot of Christmas-themed books, so the Christmas-y stuff was kind of fun, too.

[Lori Henrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this story. This series looks like it will be a fun one to read.

Peter Shandy is a professor at an agricultural college. They area he lives in on the college grounds really goes all out for Christmas. Peter doesn't care to put up decorations. The ladies of the decorating committee are pressuring him so he comes up with a plan to put up hideous decorations and then leave town for the holidays. His trip doesn't go off as planned and he is forced to return home. Upon his arrival back home he discovers the body of one of the other residents dead in his living room. Peter doesn't believe it is an accident and decides to figure out what really happened.

Great characters and a good story line. Looking forward to reading the next in the series.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This zany 1978 murder mystery is the first of the Professor Peter Shandy series. Set at Balaclava Agricultural College during the Christmas season, Peter tries to play a joke on his neighbors with his over-the-top holiday decorations. The murder of a neighbor lady leads to a silly series of events with many eccentric characters to keep us amused but ends happily with Peter meeting his soulmate Helen who likes counting things as much as he does.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first in Charlotte MacLeod's Professor Shandy mysteries. In it we are introduced to Professor Shandy and several of the recurring characters in this series. Although each mystery stands on its own, it does help to read this one first if you can so that you can get to know these characters. If you enjoy humor based on character portrayals, you will enjoy these mysteries.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, lighthearted read! I really like how the author created this quaint, quirky college town and filled it with oddball characters and a snarky main character. Some of the writing was a touch repetitive, but it didn't require a lot of effort on my part which was a perfect companion for some of my other reading. Worth reading! 4 stars

[Jan C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. Christmas themed. I will be interested to see where this series leads.

Professor at college appears to have Penchant for finding dead bodies. Unfortunately, the first one was in his own house. Some comedic elements

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Peter Shandy can’t help getting involved when he finds a neighbor dead in his house from an apparent accident. Collegiate setting, lots of humor, and an old fashioned murder with many suspects, alibis, and motives made for an entertaining mystery read.

[Sheila Beaumont · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one's an old favorite, the funniest Christmas mystery I've ever read.

[Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This endearing "cozy" mystery was my final book read in 2019... and I enjoyed it! I look forward to reading more of this author's books in the years to come.

Happy New Year!