50 Book Reviews Reviews Published

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Between a Flock and a Hard Place: A Meg Langslow Mystery by Donna Andrews

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Between a Flock and a Hard Place: A Meg Langlsow Mystery
Donna Andrews
Minotaur Books

 

Book 35 of the Meg Langslow series is just as good as the ones that came before. I do miss reading about Meg working as a blacksmith, she hasn’t quite she just seems a little busy. I used to want to be part of Meg’s mom’s family, now I think that the best position would be to have a parent who is a Hollingsworth and the other is a Shifley. Once you get two chapters into the story you will see what I mean. About two chapters into the story is about where the crazy begins and I am not talking about the murder. The crazy starts with the turkeys. Feral turkeys, yes you read that correctly, feral turkeys and they have been relocated under cover of night to the home where a reality remodel show is taking place. No one seems to know how the turkeys were moved but it has halted production of the show. In addition, Mayor Randall Shifley, who owns his own construction company, has halted the work on the remodel because at least one load bearing wall has been knocked down. There is absolute chaos going on but Meg does a great job keeping it together as the Mayor’s assistant thanks to her calm demeanor and her notebook that “tells her when to breathe.” The victim is not the nicest of people, Meg questions neighbors and learns that Mrs. Smetkamp is a bit snippy and should probably have bought in the Westlake community (read Birder, She Wrote) rather than remodeling a classically styled house. The former owner is not happy with the proposed changes and shows up often acting like an unofficial HOA board member to voice his disapproval. The producer disappears which is a bit concerning, is he running because he is guilty of murder or is he another victim? Meg learns from husband Michael’s coworker Gloria who also lives next to the remodel mishap that her tenant Kevin, is renting out the attic and quite possibly stealing power to run his bank of servers so who knows what else he may be capable of. It is a bit creepy how he keeps looking out between the curtains while the volunteers round up the turkeys and the police handle the murder.

As you can see there are plenty of suspects, plenty of crazy, and plenty of entertainment. It would not be a Caerphilly cozy without those aspects. I give it a five turkeys out of five.     


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