Six Geese A-Slaying by Donna Andrews

“Six Geese A-Slaying” is Donna Andrews’ tenth book in the Meg Langslow series. This time Meg has been talked into being Caerphilly County’s ‘Mistress of the Revels’ or in other words the person responsible for organizing the Christmas, excuse me, Holiday Parade. Ordinarily Meg would never have accepted the job but since the person who asked her to do it is the chairman of the committee that will decide whether or not her professor husband gets tenure, saying yes seemed like a good idea. As she stands in her front yard, clip board in hand, directing the arriving floats, bands, animals and handlers and other assorted participants to their staging areas her two biggest worries are the approaching snow storm and getting the Twelve Days of Christmas tableaus lined up in the right order. That is until her nephew, Eric, hands her an even bigger problem. It seems that someone has killed Santa.

As with all the books in this series, “Six Geese A-Slaying” will keep you snickering, giggling and laughing out loud from beginning to end. You may or may not figure out early on who the killer is, but that doesn’t matter. The fun of these books has always been watching Meg deal with the chaos around her while trying to catch the killer. On a scale of 1 to 10 this book is definitely a 8.

The series so far contains the following books. They are listed in the order written:

Murder with Peacocks
Murder with Puffins
Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
We'll Always Have Parrots
Owls Well That Ends Well
No Nest for the Wicket
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much
Cockatiels at Seven
Six Geese A-Slaying

The Vicky Bliss Series by Elizabeth Peters

The Vicky Bliss Series by Elizabeth Peters

Borrower of the Night
Street of the Five Moons
Silhouette in Scarlet
Trojan Gold
Night Train to Memphis
The Laughter of Dead Kings


Vicky Bliss is a modern day heroine in every way. She is smart, a PHD in Art History, self sufficient, brave and usually practical. She also finds her looks a handicap. Blond hair, blue eyes, just under six foot tall, thin is some places and broad in others. As she puts it, no one ever looks at her and believes that she could possibly have a brain.

We first meet Vicky in “Borrower of the Night”. She is teaching History in a small Midwestern college and dating Tony who doesn’t believe that she really doesn’t want to get married. He decides that he has to prove his intellectual superiority in order to win her and proposes a contest to find a missing piece of medieval art. So off they go to an old German castle, he to impress her with his superior brain and she to bring him down a peg. But they aren’t the only ones looking for treasure and the game quickly turns dangerous .
In the next book “Street of Five Moons” our heroine is now working for the German National Museum in Munich. When a the body of a vagrant is found in an alley with an almost perfect copy of one of the museum’s valuable pieces of antique jewelry in his pocket Vicky is off in search of the maker. Her boss, Anton Schmidt, believes that it is a mystery that only Vicky can solve so once again she is off and running. Her quest takes her to Rome where once again she finds herself in danger. The question is, will she lose her life, her heart or both.

“Silhouette in Scarlet” opens with Vicky receiving a rose, a one-way to Stockholm and a cryptic message. It can only be from the very charming and very crooked John Smythe. From Stockholm to a remote island Vicky finds danger, excitement, and trouble with a capital T.

“Trojan Gold” also starts with a mysterious message. This one is a picture of a woman dressed in the gold of Troy, which disappeared at the end of WWII. The picture is contemporary and arrives in a blood stained envelope. This time Vicky isn’t the only one to get a message. Several of her colleague have also received a similar message. As they all join Vicky, John Smythe and Schmidt in the hunt it soon becomes apparent that someone is willing to go to extreme lengths to win the gold.

“Night Train To Memphis” takes Vicky out of her of art history and into the world of Egyptology. This time she has been asked by the police to work as their operative on a luxury Nile cruise because they have ‘certain’ information that a major heist of Egyptian antiquities is being planed. Vicky suspects that the person they want her to find is her occasional lover and thief extraordinaire, John Smythe. What she doesn’t expect is to find him traveling with a beautiful young girl. As she tries to concentrate on “crime” she finds herself distracted by the other passengers but mostly by her own feelings for John. When one of the crew members is murdered her dream cruise really turns into a nightmare that threatens all that she loves.

“The Laughter of Dead Kings” is the latest of Vicky Bliss’ adventures. When a priceless treasure is stolen in Egypt the authorities believe that they know who did it, John Smythe. John on the other hand swears that he has retired from his life of crime. The only way to prove his innocence is to find the real culprit. With Schmidt in tow Vicky and John head to Egypt. With each clue they find John looks more and more guilty and when murder is added to the list of crimes they know that time is running out.

Elizabeth Peters also writes the Amelia Peabody series, the Jacqueline Kirby series and several stand alone mysteries. All of them are written tongue in cheek and are amusing as well as excellent mysteries.

Elizabeth Peters is a pseudonym for Dr. Barbara Mertz, one of the leading authorities on ancient Egypt and author of “Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt” and “Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt.” She has also written several suspense novels under the pseudonym Barbara Michaels.

Cockatiels at Seven by Donna Andrews

Meg hasn’t seen her friend Karen in over two years, when she shows up at her door looking for someone to watch her son, Timmy, for a “little while”. Karen now divorced, seems nervous and is definitely in a hurry. Meg being Meg, says yes, after all what’s a couple of hours. When Karen doesn’t return and doesn’t answer her home or cell phone Meg starts to worry. When she realizes that she has left most of Timmy’s clothes, a portable crib, a very large number of diapers and a list of instructions to rival a car ownership manual she begins to wonder just what a “little while” means to Karen.

Meg sets out, with Timmy in tow, to find Karen. With every stop Karen’s situation looks worse. The women who now lives at the address Meg has for Karen is unhappy about “thugs” knocking on her door looking for Karen. The new address that she gives Meg is for an apartment building that notorious for trouble and in Caerphilly’s three block “slum” district. When she arrives there she finds not Karen but the police looking for Karen. Then Karen’s ex-husband turns up dead. Is Karen a killer or another victim?

This is the ninth book in the Meg Langslow series. It is well written but lacks the rollicking fun of the previous novels. Don’t get me wrong there are a few giggles but unlike the previous books in the series I didn’t laugh out loud. Meg trying to solve a murder while trying to keep her various family members out of trouble is funny. Meg trying to solve a murder with an abandoned toddler in tow is not.

The charm and humor of this series has always been watching Meg and Michael deal with the over the top personalities around them. This book has very little of that. Although the author hints at other things that Meg would normally be worried about, we don’t see it.

I enjoyed this book but was also disappointed in it. Even the title “Cockatiels at Seven” doesn’t fit the story as all the previous titles have. If you are already a fan you may also find this book lacking. If you haven’t already been hooked on the series this book is good but not typical.

The series so far contains the following books. They are listed in the order written:

Murder with Peacocks
Murder with Puffins
Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
We'll Always Have Parrots
Owls Well That Ends Well
No Nest for the Wicket
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much
Cockatiels at Seven

Everything But a Groom by Holly Jacobs

Vancy Bashalde planed to marry Bela Salo in the most elaborate wedding that the small town of Erdely, Hungary had ever seen. When Bela doesn’t show up for the wedding, Vancy not knowing that he has been in an accident, utters a curse that neither Bela nor any of his family will ever have a perfect wedding. When he shows up three days later she forgets her words and marries him that same night. It is only when her children’s weddings don’t quite work out as planned that she remembers her curse. And now her granddaughter and namesake is about to get married.

Vancy Salo doesn’t believe in curses, but just in case she has planned for every contingency. She has a back-up plan for everything from the weather turning bad to the presiding priest becoming ill. The only thing she hasn’t planned for it the groom running off with another woman. If being left at the alter isn’t bad enough, Grandma has told a reporter about the curse and his article has been picked up by the AP. Now Vancy has reporters clamoring for her story.

Matthew Wilde has just found out he’s an uncle the hard way. The mother of his brother’s ex-girlfriend has dumped two little boys on his doorstep.

Matthew needs someone to watch the boys until he can find his brother. Vancy needs a place to hide from the press. The solution is simple, she will hide out at his house and take care of the boys for the two weeks that was supposed to be her honeymoon. That will give him time to make other arrangements.

This is a cute story but extremely predictable. The characters are not cardboard cutouts, they’re spun sugar. The book is only 186 pages which is it’s saving grace. The book tells a nice predictable story without boring you.

Pathfinder by Scott Washburn

David Dysinger is a 23rd century scientist who dreams of traveling to the stars. After years of sending out and analyzing faster then light probes, he and his team are ready to build the first FTL starship. The problem is getting the money and backing to build such a ship. Neither the scientific community nor the government are interested in star travel. The majority of people on Earth spend most of their lives wired into their computers, living in virtual reality. The governments of Earth are only interested in keeping the wire heads happily ensconced in their virtual worlds while they run the real world. The only people interested in star travel are the spacers, free thinking individuals who live aboard the orbiting space stations and supplying the power needed by Earth.

Backed by the Spacers and the only privately owned station, David and his team pursue their dream . For them this project is a scientific adventure. What none of them realize is that Earth’s leaders see their adventure as a threat. A threat that has to be stopped. But sabotage, lies, and murder will not stop the crew of Pathfinder.

“Pathfinder” is Mr. Washburn’s second novel. His first novel “War Among the Ruins” is an excellent piece of military science fiction. “Pathfinder” is also excellent science fiction but less in the style of Weber and more in the style of Bradbury or Wells.

Both “Pathfinder” and “War Among the Ruins” are published by Stellar Phoenix and can be purchased through Amazon.com.

The Case of the Roasted Onion & The Case of the Tough Talking Turkey by Claudia Bishop

Claudia Bishop, author of the Hemlock Falls Mysteries, has started a new series
about a veterinarian who dabbles in murder on the side.

The Case of the Roasted Onion

The Case of the Roasted Onion introduces us to Dr. McKenzie and company. Dr. McKenzie has retired after a long and illustrious career at Cornell Veterinary College where he held the chair of the Bovine Science Department. He and his wife Madeline were looking forward to a quiet retirement when the good doctor made a serious financial error with his retirement fund, causing him to re-enter private practice.

When someone starts shooting equine vets he takes a personal interest in what everyone else thinks are random shooting. With the help of his wife Madeline, dog Lincoln, and two assistants, Joe Turnblad and Allegra Fulbright, he joins the ranks of amateur detectives.

What do these deaths have to do with a new portable coggins test that one of the victims were working on and several of the suspects have invested in? How does an injured puppy, the upcoming Earlsdown Three-day Event and the death of a horse at the event last year fit into the mystery? Will the obnoxious venture capitalist whom Dr. McKenzie would love to be the guilty party actually be guilty?

The Case of the Tough Talking Turkey

The Case of the Tough Talking Turkey is the second mystery from The Casebook of Dr. McKenzie. In this one Dr. McKenzie (veterinarian and burgeoning sleuth) and crew set out to solve the murder of Lewis O’Leary, owner of one of the largest turkey farms in the Northeast. O’Leary is rude, abusive and as cantankerous as they come, hated by all including his three sons and two daughters-in-law. On the surface all the evidence points to Gil Finnegan the local feed salesman whom O’Leary has accused of shorting his feed orders. Dr. McKenzie however thinks that the evidence is too pat and starts looking at O’Leary’s many enemies. The list is a long one.

First of all there is the family who stand to inherit, three sons whom he has always kept on short leashes and treated as slave labor. Then there are his two daughter-in-laws who hate him for the way he treats both themselves and their husbands. There is the animal rights activist who is determined to shut him down and the post doctorate student who needs him to sign off on the data from a study that he has been doing on the farm.

I enjoyed these stories because of the characters. The mysteries are what I call “cheats”. The killers in both books are peripheral characters who are barely mentioned. At the very end Dr. McKenzie names the killer like a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat.

The next book in the series is The Case of the Ill-Gotten Goat, due out in June, 2008

Claudia Bishop is also the author of the Hemlock Falls Mysteries.

Saddled with Trouble by Michele Scott

Saddled with Trouble is the first book in the Horse Lover’s Mysteries. On the scale of one to ten I would rate it a three.

The story revolves around Michaela Bancroft, a woman in her early thirties who trains quarter horses and is going through a nasty divorce which is souring her whole life.

When she finds her uncle run through by a pitchfork and very dead her problems begin to multiply. What did her best friend, Ethan, have a fight with her uncle about? Why is her father acting so oddly? How did the wrong semen get shipped to customers who paid a $3500 stud fee? What does the real estate magnet who is dating her good friend and roommate, Camden, have to do with the murder? Who ran her off the road? Why is her soon to be ex-husband suddenly interested in her again?

Although the mystery part of the book isn’t too bad the characters leave a lot to be desired. Michaela is bitter, bitchy, and manipulative. Camden and Ethan‘s only function in the story seem to be as whipping boys for Michaela. The police officer is about as realistic as Michaela’s belief that a seven year old horse is too old for the show ring. Two of the characters, who worked for her uncle, are Hawian. They talk like they only recently learned English. Since Hawaii is a state and has a very good school system I found this insulting.

There are at least two more books it this series. If I can get it at the library I might try the second one to see if there is any improvement, but I won’t spend money on it.

"The Black Dove" by Steve Hockensmith

“The Black Dove” by Steve Hockensmith is his third book about the adventures of the Amlingmeyer bothers. Like “Holmes on the Range” and On the Wrong Track”, it is as both funny and a good mystery.

It is the summer of 1893 and Gustav and Otto, better known as Old Red and Big Red, are job hunting in San Francisco. The two cowboys turned detective aren’t having a lot of luck finding a job but they have no problem finding trouble.
It starts when they run into Dr. Chan, an acquaintance from their short time working for the Southern Pacific Rail Road (On the Wrong Track). When he is found dead the police say suicide, but Old Red says murder.

Teaming up with Diana Curvus, another (possibly) ex-agent of the Southern Pacific and prevaricator extraordinaire, they set out to find the truth. What follows is a wild romp through China Town and that denizen of vice, the Barbary Coast. Their only clue is the missing “Black Dove”, which everyone is looking for. Their search puts them up against the tongs, a Chinese detective working for the “Six Companies”, and a crooked cop. They pursue and are pursued through back allies, cat houses, opium dens and other healthful places until everything and everyone comes together in a final shocking clash.

I have to say that I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the first two, “Homes on the Range” and “On the Wrong Track”. Although well written and fast paced it is written in the style of the hard boiled detective fiction of the pulp fiction era, which doesn’t quite fit the 1893 background. However, it is still an excellent read and well worth the price of the hardcover edition.