Mystery Writer Charlotte
MacLeod Dies
By Associated Press
January 16, 2005, 4:11 PM EST
LEWISTON, Maine -- Mystery writer Charlotte MacLeod, whose
specialty was the "cozy" mystery
and whose protagonists were often amateur sleuths, has died at the age of 82.
MacLeod's more than 30 novels sold in excess of 1 million copies in the United
States and also drew followings in Canada and Japan.
MacLeod died Friday in a Lewiston nursing home, said her sister,
Alexandria Baxter of Richmond.
Her books eschewed graphic violence, sex, gore and vulgar language.
"She wrote specifically for people who did not want blood and guts, at least
not a whole lot of it anyway," said Baxter. "Everybody drank tea and
ate molasses cookies. It was that kind of thing."
MacLeod's Peter Shandy series described the adventures of a college professor,
and the Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn mysteries were about a couple
from Boston's Beacon Hill area. She also wrote a couple of series under
the pen
name Alisa
Craig that were set in her native Canada.
Baxter described her sister as a true lady with white gloves, hat and impeccable
grammar.
Highly disciplined, she usually began work at 6 a.m., writing
through the morning and devoting the afternoon to rewriting.
She would only start a new book on a Sunday morning and she
would stay in her bathrobe while writing to ward off any
temptation to run out of
the house
for
an errand or otherwise get distracted, said Baxter, who typed and proofread
her sister's manuscripts and served as her business manager.
"
She has said to me many times that she would continue to write her books even
if nobody read them, because she really enjoyed doing them," Baxter said. "It
was a very exciting and satisfying thing for her to produce a novel."
MacLeod is survived by her sister and a brother.
Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press
|
