I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
No Nest for the Wicket
by
Donna Andrews
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Minotaur Books on June 26, 2007 and has 338 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include The Real Macaw, Some Like It Hawk, The Hen of the Baskervilles, Duck the Halls, The Good, the Bad, and the Emus, Lord of the Wings, The Nightingale Before Christmas, Die Like an Eagle, Gone Gull, How the Finch Stole Christmas!, Toucan Keep a Secret, Lark! The Herald Angels Sing, The Falcon Always Wings Twice, The Gift of the Magpie, The Twelve Jays of Christmas, 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, Terns of Endearment, Between a Flock and a Hard Place, The Penguin Who Knew Too Much, Cockatiels at Seven, Six Geese A-Slaying, Stork Raving Mad
Seventh in the Meg Langslow amateur sleuth cozy mystery series and revolving around Meg, a blacksmith. The focus is on murder(!), naturally, as well as that threat of an outlet mall!
In 2007, No Nest for the Wicket was nominated for the Left Award.
My Take
When I realized how many of the Meg Langslow stories I hadn’t reviewed, oh mama. I had to go back and re-read, just a few, so I’d be up-to-date with what was happening in those stories before writing those reviews. Dagnabbit, I finished No Nest for the Wicket and immediately had to head into The Penguin Who Knew Too Much. And surely there was no harm in carrying on into Cockatiels at Seven. Yeah, well, now I’m reading The Hen of the Baskervilles. No self-control. Oy.
This is one of those series that you simply can’t stop with just one story. Andrews always leaves me wanting more. It’s humorous, family-oriented, compassionate, and supportive. Both Meg and Michael are more life-oriented and could care less about “moving up in society”, and yet, their compassion does that for them.
Told from a first person protagonist point-of-view from Meg’s perspective, you learn everything she knows, thinks, and feels — including that self-directed snark with a very distinct range of characters.
No Nest for the Wicket has a critical turning point regarding Fred Shiffley’s farm and his reasons for selling it to a developer. It’s a good lesson in understanding the why behind some decisions.
Sure, Meg is nosier than any three gossipy biddies, and most of her sleuthing is due to the inciting incident being related to her, someone she knows, or someone in the family. She simply can’t let it go. When you include her sense of what’s right, Meg will plow right in. Much to the chief’s dismay. This one will be a character arc for both of them. I’m sure the chief will eventually come to trust her . . .?
I reckon you’ve guessed it, this is a character-driven story with some action. Dang, I’m lying. There’s plenty of action between roqueting someone’s croquet ball, demolishing parts of the house, Dad’s inability to focus on the here and now, the constant potlucks — it amazes me how quickly Mother can pull this together for hundreds!, the inner workings of higher society and the town/county rulership with battles between the Shiffleys and the Pruitts, threats of an outlet mall, the struggle to achieve tenure, betrayals, pranks, blackmail, poison ivy, computer hacking, to name a few.
You know how it is, when you need a house in a house-strapped area and have dreams of raising a family. Yep, Meg and Michael overlooked a lot of issues that house had/has. With winter over, they’re hitting it hard and will be living in the barn.
Is it a red herring when no one recognizes someone they know? ‘Cause they’d need a strong net for all the fish they caught! Michael, however, has quite a bit to say about Lindsay, as he learned more and more about her. Whoa.
Ooh, we get some back history on Mother and Dad’s innocent betrayal of her prideful history. More history is on the decorating end when Mother learns to her horror that those tasteful Williamsburg colors she so adores were actually bright, electric, and vibrant.
”Mother knew more ways to cause someone trouble without actually being rude than anyone I’d ever met.”
On the other hand, the pranking! That seems to be part of the Caerphilly history as well, lol. Andrews adds another bit of salacious history — why croquet was banned in Boston! A sadder aspect of history is Dad’s wish to have had his own family history and Randall’s noting how long the farms have been in Shiffley families.
This is the tale in which Meg and company get friendly with Seth Early.
Andrews dips into the “toys” Meg and Michael pick up along the way, the excuses for acquiring them and their future, likely, fate. Michael is being seduced into the farm life, and it’s so cute.
Okay, yeah, the Pruitts are the series bad guys, so I’m naturally inclined to applaud anything that tips over their apple cart. That truth behind Jedidiah’s “battle” was an absolute crack-up! It does pay to be observant and, um, have some other historical bits and pieces on one’s mind. The speculation on Ms Ellie’s previous work history is another “revelation”.
That ending! Yep, the worm turns . . . and turns. One is the exposure and the other is the rescue, and such a rescue. I love it!
I do love a happy ending, especially one that involves so much renovation.
The Story
Finding a body by sliding down a cliff is one thing, but discovering that an outlet mall may soon be built in view of their farmhouse? No! That’s going beyond the pale.
The Characters
Meg Langslow, a blacksmith, and Michael Waterston, a drama professor and Meg’s fiancé, own a three-story Victorian with farm, a.k.a. the Sprocket House, that is in need of work. Spike is the Small Evil One, an 8-pound dog who’s fiercer than fierce, whom they’re babysitting for Michael’s mother until she determines if she’s allergic to Spike.
The Langslow-Hollingsworth family
Rob Langslow, the inventor of some amazing computer games, is her brother. Mutant Wizards is his gaming company, which is doing exceedingly well — as long as Rob stays away. Family is very involved with Mother as chairman of the board and in charge of personnel.
Rob’s Ninja Accounting Ducks and Lawyers From Hell are quite popular.
New Ager “Rose Noire” (known to the IRS as Rosemary Keenan), a cousin, is deep into herbal lore. The stately Mother commands hordes. Dad, Dr Langslow, adores mysteries and murders. Eric McReady is Meg’s young nephew who is enthralled with Duck, his pet duck. Cousin Ralph has a history of developer problems. Kevin McReady, Eric’s older brother, is a computer whiz. Jocelyn “Joss” is their older sister with a passion for history.
Seth Early is a farmer who raises sheep. The same ones who are always escaping into Meg and Michael’s yard. Pam had been a neighbor in Meg’s childhood years.
Caerphilly, a.k.a. Toad Bottom . . .
. . . is a small college town surrounded by farms. Ms Ellie Drayer is the town librarian. Jessica is her teenage library aide. Some of Ms Ellie’s older friends include Grant Boyd who immersed himself in Civil War history and went on to become an historian in medieval studies; Blair, Ellie’s brother (somehow Paul Drayer is also Ellie’s brother), who dove into photography of the period; and, Edwina Ballantine née Sprocket was into costumes and handwriting. Edwina’s husband had been a botany professor. Reverend Riggs is at Trinity Episcopal.
Fred, a Shiffley cousin, is a dairy farmer with the perfect pasture for eXtreme croquet; Bess is Fred’s wife. Shiffley nephews are part of Randall Shiffley’s construction team. Judge “Aunt” Jane Shiffley is a source for warrants.
Caerphilly PD
Chief Henry Burke has a broken right arm. Sammy is one of the chief’s deputies, who likes Rose Noire. Debbie-Anne is the dispatcher. Cousin Horace Hollingsworth does CSI for the Yorktown PD which occasionally loans him out to Caerphilly — and he likes Rose Noire. Minerva Burke is the chief’s wife who is also in the church choir.
The eXtreme Croquet Teams
Mrs Fenniman is Mother’s best friend who proposed the eXtreme tournament and is team captain for Meg’s group. May Briggs (her husband, Evan Briggs, wants to build an outlet mall) and the two Suzies. Another team is the Mountain Morris Mallet Men who entice the other young men to try out the bells. Tony (he keeps trying to pick Meg up), Graham, and Bill, a computer science major with an interest in computer animation, are students who wanted to play. I did like Bill’s animated résumé! Then there are the Pruitts, who include Henrietta Pruitt, the captain of the Dames of Caerphilly, who belong to the Historical Society, and is married to Lucius. Claire Wentworth is the wife of the history department chairman at the college, the susceptible Dr Marcus Wentworth. Lacie Butler seems to be the Pruitts’ lapdog. Dr Hayes is president of Caerphilly College.
The Pruitts are very proud of “Colonel” Jedidiah Pruitt who won a medal for the 1862 Battle of Pruitt’s Ridge. Victoria Virginia Pruitt is one of his children. The colonel’s brother, Virgil Pruitt, was the then-mayor. The Shiffley Brothers Distillery of the time was looted and burned. It’s up to you to figure out which side burned it — the Pruitts or the Yankees. The Pruitts owned the Clarion from just before the Civil War into the 1960s. Tiberius Pruitt had owned it back in the fifties.
Dr Helen Carmichael is a history professor at the University of Virginia. The combative Lindsay Tyler, who had once dated Michael, specialized in Virginia history. She’s now working at Pineville College in West Virginia.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a pale blue that gradates down to an almost white. An info blurb is at the very top in black with the author’s name in red beneath it. Below this is a montage of four croquet balls with a wicket on either end of a patch of grass with four ducklings looking off to the right. Below this is the title in blue. The series information, in black, is at the very bottom.
I do enjoy Andrews’ punny title, and No Nest for the Wicket is true enough, there is no rest for the wicked.
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