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
Swan for the Money
by
Donna Andrew
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Minotaur Books on April 1, 2010 and has 352 pages.
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Eleventh in the Meg Langslow amateur sleuth cozy mystery series and revolving around a nosy woman blacksmith in Virginia. The focus is on the competition in the rose show..
My Take
Lol, Michael has a lovely excuse to get out of the chaos of the rose show, and it’s Meg’s opportunity to avoid local gossip. Maybe, lol.
It’s easy to tell, right off, how involved Meg is with her family when she starts spouting off about growing roses — and Meg gets it when Michael laughs. Of course, it’s probably safer than what Dad and Grandfather are getting up to!
It’s all due to Andrews using first person protagonist point-of-view from Meg’s perspective so everything we know happens within her hearing and presence.
For new imports, Meg and Michael have the full support of the county, as you can tell when Dad has armed Shiffleys on his roof, *more laughter*. It is a great series with all that care and support from Meg’s family and their friends. You can’t help but love them.
I gotta say, I love color, and Mrs Winkleson’s passion for everything to be black and white does not excite me. I mean, black and white cows, black swans, matching fainting goats (their behavior is a crack-up) and horses . . .? Then her requirement that her party guests wear black and white? I’m surprised the food isn’t black and white. Her behavior and choices about which animals to keep are appalling. She gets even more autocratic as the story goes on. Everything and everyone must march in step. The gall of the woman!
I do appreciate the family passion about animal welfare, and Grandfather and Caroline do not disappoint, lol. Mrs Winkleson does, however. Oy.
There’s quite a bit about roses and the growing thereof. It did make me want to at least attend the show *grin*.
I gotta say the Hollingsworth family’s categorization technique for how to label aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., does make sense — and makes it a lot easier to keep track.
It’s a pip of a story with excessive pride steering everything. There’s plenty of action and mayhem — who knew a rose competition could be so deadly!
And Meg wonders why she’s in such demand for events . . . Duh.
The Story
It’s the Caerphilly Garden Club’s first rose show, and it’s being held at Mrs Winkleson’s fabulous farm. Naturally, Meg has been drafted to ensure it all goes well.
A good thing for a number of entrants when murder, mayhem, kidnapping, and a poisoning ensues.
Too bad that Meg does too well on this competition.
The Characters
The married Meg Langslow, a blacksmith, has no end of curiosity. Dr Michael Waterston teaches drama at Caerphilly College. Spike is their eight-and-a-half pound Small Evil One, who technically belongs to Michael’s mother. Ernest and Thor are their llamas
Mother, a self-confirmed human magpie, and Dad, Dr Langslow, have a farm in Caerphilly that they use as a sumner cottage. Rose Noire, a.k.a. Rosemary Keenan, is all about the environment and herbal everything. Rob Langslow is Meg’s brother and the founder and president of a Caerphilly-based gaming company, Mutant Wizards. Both Rose Noir and Rob live with Meg and Michael. The Hollingsworths are Mother’s side of the family. Cousin Horace Hollingsworth is with CSI for Yorktown PD. Great-aunt Matilda is no more — so it isn’t her. Other aunts, still living, include Patience, Beatrice, and Calliope.
Dr Montgomery Blake is Meg’s grandfather and Dad’s long lost father, an eminent zoologist and environmental activist who owns the Caerphilly Zoo. Caroline Willner owns the Willner Wildlife Sanctuary and is the only person who can call Dr Blake on his, um, stuff. Dr Clarence Rutledge is the local and zoo veterinarian. The recently found Cordelia is Dad’s mother.
Caerphilly, Virginia, is . . .
. . . where Meg and Michael’s farm is located along with Michael’s workplace. Seth Early is their neighbor and a sheep farmer. Henry Burke is the chief of police for Caerphilly. His deputies include Sergeant Epp Shiffley and Sammy Wendell. Debbie Anne is the police dispatcher. Dr Smoot is the acting medical examiner and a nutjob.
The chief’s wife, Minerva, is a gem and part of the New Life Baptist Choir. She grows miniature roses. Randall Shiffley is a friend and seems to be the head of the Shiffley clan. The Pruitts used to own most of Caerphilly County.
The unpopular (weird) and eccentric Philomena Winkleson, a.k.a. Old Wrinkles, is hosting the first annual rose show at Raven Hill, her palatial farm. Mimi is her missing pet Maltese. Her nephews by marriage — Theobald and Reginald — are banned from her farm. Adam Darby is the farm manager. “Marston”, a.k.a. Vladislav Konstantinovich Rozhdestvensky, is her butler. Her goats include the sneaky Algie, the paper-eating Elton, and Marguerite Johnson.
Other rose growers include Sandy Sechrest, Molly Weston, and Louise who turned out to be clueless about hybridizing.
Matilda and Adelaide are two black roses Dad is cultivating. Other roses that may be competing include Margaret Merril, Meidilands, Frau Karl Druschki, and Black Magic.
Millard! The Musical! is an off-off-off-Broadway show by one of Michael’s students. The Warrenton police are re-opening a case on a death.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a full-length grass green background that suddenly gradates into a white center that serves as a base for a black swan, on a flower stump with two red roses, who is being screeched at by a huge white swan. At the top is an info blurb in white with the author’s name immediately below it in a gradated white to orange with a black shadow. Immediately below the graphic is an epigraph in red. Immediately below that is the title with the first word a gradation of white to red, the next two words in white, and the last in a gradation of white to yellow. All of them are outlined in black. At the bottom is a testimonial in white.
The title is all about Swan for the Money, two for the show, three to get ready . . . now go, Meg, go!.
