“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
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Monday, November 3, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much by Donna Andrews
Donna Andrews has done it again. The Penguin Who Knew Too Much is the eighth and latest in the Meg Langslow Mystery Series. Like the previous books in the series this one is witty and well written.
The book starts off with Meg's father joyfully asking her to guess what he's found in the basement. She jokingly answers "A body?" and he replies "Oh, rats---you already knew? Well, how soon will the police get here? I need to move the penguins---we don't want them any more upset then they already are."
Meg is off and running from there. With the dubious help of family and friends Meg and Michael are moving into their renovated house, throwing an over the top house warming party and planning to elope in the middle of it all. Now Meg has to add solving the murder to her list of things to do.
Oh, yes then there is the problem of the zoo animals. The local zoo is bankrupt and the missing owner has fostered out all of the animals. Unfortunately what was supposed to be a few days of fostering has turned into weeks. Meg’s dad’s solution to the problem is simple, just bring the unwanted animals to Meg’s house. She’ll take care of everything. Of course he forgets to tell her about this plan until people start dropping them off.
Actually the murder and animals are only a few of Meg’s problems. There’s the claustrophobic medical examiner who is so traumatized by having to go into the basement to pronounce the body that he can’t get into his car to go home. A world famous zoologist who has taken an interest in saving the zoo. And then there’s the nephews of the previous owner who are looking for the body an uncle who went missing twelve years ago.
This is a well written mystery that is also highly amusing. Anyone who has read the rest of the series will be glad to attend another Hollingsworth (Meg’s mother’s side of the family) get-together with a little murder on-the-side. For those who are new to Meg's world, get ready to enjoy the ride.
The book starts off with Meg's father joyfully asking her to guess what he's found in the basement. She jokingly answers "A body?" and he replies "Oh, rats---you already knew? Well, how soon will the police get here? I need to move the penguins---we don't want them any more upset then they already are."
Meg is off and running from there. With the dubious help of family and friends Meg and Michael are moving into their renovated house, throwing an over the top house warming party and planning to elope in the middle of it all. Now Meg has to add solving the murder to her list of things to do.
Oh, yes then there is the problem of the zoo animals. The local zoo is bankrupt and the missing owner has fostered out all of the animals. Unfortunately what was supposed to be a few days of fostering has turned into weeks. Meg’s dad’s solution to the problem is simple, just bring the unwanted animals to Meg’s house. She’ll take care of everything. Of course he forgets to tell her about this plan until people start dropping them off.
Actually the murder and animals are only a few of Meg’s problems. There’s the claustrophobic medical examiner who is so traumatized by having to go into the basement to pronounce the body that he can’t get into his car to go home. A world famous zoologist who has taken an interest in saving the zoo. And then there’s the nephews of the previous owner who are looking for the body an uncle who went missing twelve years ago.
This is a well written mystery that is also highly amusing. Anyone who has read the rest of the series will be glad to attend another Hollingsworth (Meg’s mother’s side of the family) get-together with a little murder on-the-side. For those who are new to Meg's world, get ready to enjoy the ride.
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