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
Murder Most Fowl
by
Donna Andrews
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Minotaur Books on August 3, 2021 and has 312 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, The Penguin Who Knew Too Much, Cockatiels at Seven, Six Geese A-Slaying, Stork Raving Mad, Owl Be Home for Christmas, 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
Twenty-ninth in the Meg Langslow amateur sleuth cozy mystery series and revolving around a woman blacksmith who just has to know, as “the play’s the thing”.
My Take
This one is a pip! It is an advantage when one has such an extended family with such a range of knowledge.
”I know when you’re doing . . . we’re not supposed to interrupt you unless there’s actual bleeding involved.”
The twins are a crack-up, and quite intelligent — they’re quoting Shakespeare and their father’s recitation from A Christmas Carol.
Oh, lord, Andrews has such a mix of characters. I mean, Meg’s family is outlandish enough, but then Andrews adds in that filmmaker and “Camp Birnam”, lololol. To be fair, I do love her family, and their fascination with knowledge. The boys absorb the Latin names for things, quote literature, and understand the historical differences between Birnam Wood and Grandmother’s faire.. The lawyers in the family come in handy EVERY single story, and wonderfully so when Meg has to make things clear to that irritating filmmaker! I also envy their farm and collection of animals, enough to have fun with but not have to make a living from.
Luckily?, the boys discover a hand rising up from the ground, which provides Meg with the inspiration she needs for that theatrical dagger needed for King Duncan. Michael wants a seriously creepy vibe for his production.
It’s extortion when Philpotts uses his clout to insist on Michael replacing his script with his “authoritative” version of Macbeth. It’s forced an alliance with the History Department. Poor Michael. All these politics! I had to laugh at the ringers Mother has been rounding up for those lectures, lol. Oh, oh, oh . . . it gets better with Philpotts directing his own play and all the whining he does, roflmao. I needed popcorn for those scenes. And it just gets better!!
I do love the animals in and around the farm — Seth’s sheep do make me laugh.
Mother makes me laugh even more — I can just hear her lecturing the inhabitants of Birnam Wood, lol. It’s what they deserve . . . and more. It does help that they have Mother and Dad’s permission to camp on their farm. Wait’ll you read of the tricks the re-enactors get up to! No one sane would do these things!
Whoa, while Goodwin’s preview of his documentary is a nasty bit of work, it does come in handy when it comes to those re-enactors. I did have to laugh at how Goodwin enhanced the video with the audio tracks.
That behind-the-scenes gossip eventually betrays more nastiness.
The Meg Langslow series’ arcs include Meg’s evolvement into her Mother, something Meg both deplores and welcomes. Of course, the primary arc is of their evolving family with Andrews using first person protagonist point-of-view from Meg’s perspectives, so we know-all – see-all through her eyes.
I always enjoy the behind-the-scenes facts Meg provides about blacksmithing. It makes me think.
The support and compassion of the people in Caerphilly County always cheers me up. Andrews has such great characters and the action is non-stop with the English and History departments’ interference and requirements, the re-enactors deeds, Goodwin’s nastiness, the evil trio, and the fun of Meg’s family.
And Dad is trying to decide which breed of goose to get. Oh, those puppies! They spur Tinkerbell into confronting Spike! Yay, Tink!
You’ll be laughing, moaning, and fuming all the way.
The Story
It’s a questionable state of affairs, what with the History and English departments’ requirements for their (non) support of Michael attempting to rehearse Macbeth at home instead of in Washington D.C.
That intrusive documentary filmmaker with his surprising preview, the lead actress’ health and character issues, those whacked-out re-enactors(!), the mysterious spellers endangering the countryside, and the puppy invasion.
It’s murder . . .
The Characters
Meg Langslow — they call Meg the “Enforcer — has one commission this time — a seriously creepy dagger. Dr Michael Waterston, her husband, teaches drama at the local college. Josh and Jamie are their twins, who are already as tall as Meg! Spike is their eight-and-a-half pound fur ball. They have a nice assortment of animal life that includes the llamas, which include Zeppo and Harpo, the lightest sleeper, and the Welsummer and Sumatran chickens — Napoleon is one of the roosters.
Dr Langslow is Meg’s dad and a mystery/murder enthusiast who is the local medical examiner. He also helps out at the zoo and the local vet’s. Mother is always correct with excellent taste. Rose Noire is a cousin who lives on the farm and has a organic herb farm of her own. Rob Langslow is Meg’s brother; Tinkerbell is Rob’s Irish Wolfhound. Delaney is Rob’s fiancée. The Hollingsworths are from Mother’s side of the family and include cousin Horace Hollingsworth, a deputy in Caerphilly these days and their only CSI tech. Grandfather is Dr Montgomery Blake, a world-famous environmentalist and animal-rights activist who owns the Caerphilly Zoo. Grandmother Cordelia (The Good, the Bad, and the Emus, 17) operates the Riverton Renaissance Faire. Both are Dad’s parents. Kevin is Meg’s nephew and manages a major department at Mutant Wizards, Rob’s computer company. Data Wizards is a spin-off division that provides forensic technology and cyber security. It must be so much fun to work for a company that prizes its employees! The housing market is so tight that Kevin is living in the Langslow-Waterston’s basement and responsible for all their household technology — he proves to be danged useful. Aunt Penelope needs to be kept occupied. Aunt Mabel makes a cheap meatloaf. Cousin Festus is the family’s most brilliant lawyer.
Caerphilly, Virginia, is . . .
. . . home base for the Langslow-Waterstons. Seth Early is a neighbor with wandering sheep of whom the unfortunate Vivian is one. Ellie Draper is the head librarian. Dr Clarence Rutledge is the town and zoo veterinarian is a crusader rescuing cats and dogs from kill-shelters.
Henry Burke is the chief of police and sheriff of Caerphilly County with Vern Shiffley his most senior deputy. Aida Butler is another of his deputies. Charles is the civilian desk clerk.
Minerva Burke, Henry’s wife, is the choir director of the New Life Baptist Church. Adam Jones Burke, who is Josh and Jamie’s best friend, is one of the three orphaned grandsons they’re raising. Mason is another friend whom Meg has dubbed the Four Musketeers.
Arena Stage hired Michael to direct Macbeth for a D.C. performance. The cranky Celia Rivers plays Lady Macbeth and is suffering stomach ailments. She’s also good with computer programming. Tanya plays Lady Macduff. Russ Brainard is playing Banquo and a spear carrier. Gina is the Second Witch. Richard plays the Thane of Cawdor. Roger is the set designer; Maeve is the costume designer with the ambitious Fawn Gerard as her assistant.
The Caerphilly College Building and Grounds Department made a deal that included the nutty Dr Desmond Philpotts (from the English Department (ED)) who thinks he’s a Shakespeare expert. *snicker* It’s been, ahem, a decade since Stork Raving Mad, 12. Professor Kroger is also with ED and contemptuous of Michael’s standing. Professor Cohen is with the History Department (HD) — part of their deal is to provide history lectures to the actors. Dean Braxton is the chairman of the HD.
The obnoxious Damien Goodwin, is a documentary filmmaker and blogger.
Camp Birnam is a lousy recreation of what they fondly assume is a medieval Scottish military camp. Poor things, especially when Mother comes down on them, lol. Their existence is a concession to the college’s history department. Callum MacLeod, a.k.a. Christopher Miller, is the chieftain and leader of the war-band. Sally Gladstone seems to be one of the sane ones. Zoe is one of the re-enactors being harassed by “MacLeod”. They call themselves the DARK — the Dystopian Alternate Realities Krew. I don’t think they have a clue! They’ve dubbed Meg and Michael’s farmhouse “Dunsinane”.
Maisie Shiffley drives a school bus. Spells of Power and Revenge is a nasty book. Calpurnia is a Wiccan.
Clay County is . . .
. . . the enemy with Caerphilly County. The Clay Pigeon is a bar. Deputy Whicker gets into an off-duty bar fight. And MacLeod is such a clueless idiot, lololol.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a simple yet complex gradation of orange to yellow and down to a lighter orange. In the center is an even lighter yellow to showcase three geese wearing black witches’ hats around a black cauldron sitting atop a fire. There’s a crowned skull off to the right side looking on. It’s a clever melange of events in the story *grin*. At the very top is an info blurb in black. Below that is the author’s name in black with a yellow shadow — and the letters in the author’s name all a’jumble. To the right of the white goose is the series info in red. Below the cauldron is the title with the letters a’kimbo in red with a yellow shadow, a lighter patch of yellow behind them.
The title is not as clever as other titles in the series, but it is Murder Most Fowl.
