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
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much
by
Donna Andrews
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Minotaur Books on August 7, 2007 and has 350 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, No Nest for the Wicket, Cockatiels at Seven, Six Geese A-Slaying, Stork Raving Mad, Owl Be Home for Christmas, Murder Most Fowl, Round Up the Usual Peacocks, Dashing Through the Snowbirds, Birder, She Wrote, Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow!, Rockin' Around the Chickadee
Eighth in the Meg Langslow amateur sleuth cozy mystery series and revolving around a female blacksmith. The focus is on rescuing the town zoo in Caerphilly, Virginia. It’s Memorial Day weekend and it’s been a few months since No Nest for the Wicket, 7.
My Take
It’s all coming through from first person protagonist point-of-view from Meg’s perspective, so naturally all “our” fun is what Meg sees, feels, thinks, and experiences. There is no shortage of fun and snark in The Penguin Who Knew Too Much. It’s one family “invasion” after another, from Meg’s side with their help with the move, the party, and coping with the unexpected animal guests; the Sprockets who are determined to dig up Uncle Sprocket; more of the unexpected in the appearance of unknown family; and those idiot animal rescuers. What were they thinking? And, what is with that killer that he thinks his victims will help him out??
It’s great fun learning about the various animals. Those llamas sound like a lot of fun. Can’t say much for the hyenas, although the yoga poses of the lemurs cracked me up.
I do love Meg’s family, then again they do get some wonky ideas. Look at Dad. He’s trying to help out with those penguins, but I don’t really think his plans were well thought out. Sure, Dad uncovers a mystery that answers a huge question . . . but a pond? In the basement? Then there’s Dad’s open invitation to all the people in the county who agreed to foster a zoo animal. Well, Meg does find out. Eventually.
Ya gotta love Michael too. Meg is not the svelte beauty an actor might be expected to marry, and yet he does love Meg just as she is and her family.
Meg and her whole family are generous people. Always willing to perjure themselves and feeding or helping the masses — Michael and Meg’s dad adore them, for neither of them have much family of their own. Mother is a crack-up and she does get things done. All without really lifting a finger.
Meg, Michael, and the Langslows are newcomers to the county and thereby suspect, and yet they involve themselves in the town, building all sorts of relationships. There are, however, some bumps in the road, such as those hunting rights on the elder Langslows recently acquired farm.
Dad is fascinated by murder investigations — partly because of his love of mysteries — and would do anything to be the town’s medical examiner. Annoys the chief no end. That back history — of Meg’s childhood — reveals a lot more about Dad. Then a lot more family history is revealed. A LOT more, and it opens up a whole new storyline.
Life in the old Sprocket House is gonna get lively, especially when Rob starts offering squames de chat as hors d’oeuvres.
I do have a niggle about that wedding. There were so few mentions that it really didn’t make an impression on me.
In spite of that, I’d re-read it in a heart beat . . . in fact . . .
The Story
The zoo’s fate is in jeopardy and while its future is being sorted out, the people in Caerphilly County are fostering the animals. Only, the zoo owner is avoiding everyone, and most people can’t keep up with this temporary fostering.
In true Langslow generosity, Dad invites one-and-all to the farm to Meg and Michael’s surprise. Another surprise is that body in the basement. Yet another is the question of what happened to those animals who disappeared from the zoo?
And how ever are Meg and Michael going to get away with that elopement?
The Characters
Meg Langslow and Professor Michael Waterston are deep into clearing out the three-story Victorian, the Sprocket House — Edwina Sprocket and her late husband who was a botany professor, Plantagenet, are the former owners. (Rutherford and Barchester Sprocket are obnoxious brothers.) Meg stays organized with her notebook-that-tells-her-when-to-breathe. Spike is their eight-and-a-half pound Small Evil One, er, dog. Rob is Meg’s footloose brother who studied to be a lawyer but founded a computer gaming company, Mutant Wizards. Her parents still live in Yorktown but recently bought Fred Shiffley’s farm. Dad, Dr Langslow, is a foundling who’s supposed to be retired. He’s also a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Mother always does things properly — do NOT get her mad! Boomer is Mother’s cat in Yorktown.
Family is . . .
. . . from Mother’s side of the family and “is large, noisy, eccentric, and extended”. Rosemary Keenan, a.k.a. Rose Noire, a cousin, finds herself with several young men in town very interested in her. Twelve-year-old Eric McReady is Meg’s nephew; Pam is Meg and Rob’s sister and Eric’s mother. Mrs Fenniman is Mother’s best friend and a good cook. Mrs Waterston is Michael’s widowed mother. I think Daphne is one of Michael’s two aunts. Seth Early is a sheep farmer and the Langslow-Waterston’s new neighbor.
Caerphilly, Virginia, is . . .
. . . a small town where Meg and Michael plan to live. Caerphilly College is a huge reason. Ellie Draper is the librarian. The Caerphilly Clarion is the weekly paper. The Caerphilly Inn is a five-star hotel that includes three fancy cottages.
Randall Shiffley is the foreman of the construction crew, those two-legged predators of the genus Contractor. Charlie Shiffley, Vern’s middle boy, has been offered a scholarship by Virginia Tech. Duane is a cousin. Flugleman’s Feed Store, er, Flugleman’s Farm and Garden Emporium, is a popular gathering spot — especially for the local farmers when the city folks are there. Sheila D Flugleman is the current manager with fertile ideas. Jason Savage is with Caerphilly Animal Welfare. Dr Waldron practices at the hospital. Dr Clarence Rutledge is the town and the zoo veterinarian. Mort runs the funeral home. Jason Bromley’s land is adjacent to the zoo. Cordelia had been a librarian in Charlottesville.
Caerphilly PD
Chief Henry Burke, a former homicide detective in Baltimore, is married to Minerva. His deputies include Sammy Wendell and Vern Shiffley. Debbie Anne is the dispatcher. The claustrophobic Dr Smoot is the new “acting” medical examiner, taking Dr Hartman’s place — Smoot has some childhood traumas. Cousin Horace Hollingsworth is a crime-scene tech with the Yorktown PD which frequently loans him out to the Caerphilly PD.
Dr Patrick Lanahan, a trust fund baby, started up a zoo and is going through a bad patch. George and his wife had the llamas, The Eldens had camels. The hyenas are Winken, Blinken, and Allan. Lola is the bobcat. Dr Gruber is enjoying the company of the muntjacs. Seth is hosting the Norwegian feral sheep. The emerald tree boa is . . . somewhere.
Dr Montgomery Blake is a world-famous zoologist and conservationist with frequent specials for National Geographic appearing on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet as well as a friend of Patrick’s. He’s lost his son to cancer and grandson to an accident that also involved Henry C Carfield and James P Lanahan.
Shea Bailey is the annoying president of the Save Our Beasts organization (SOBs).
Clay County, Virginia, are . . .
. . . bitter rivals of Caerphilly County. Clay Hill is the county seat. Ray Hamlin is the proprietor of the Clay County Zoo and owns a few other businesses. Sid is his brother.
The Cover and Title
The background of the cover is a gradient of a blue that shades into green and mostly cream in the bottom half. At the very top is an info blurb in cream with the author’s name in yellow below that. A testimonial in navy is underneath it to the right. The graphic is three penguins in a rolling wooden cart on a patch of grass with a fourth penguin squawking on the left. He’s tucked in a bit into the title, which is also blue. At the very bottom is the series info in navy.
I suspect the title is more about those initial “guests” with The Penguin Who Knew Too Much.
