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
Round Up the Usual Peacocks
by
Donna Andrews
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Minotaur Books on August 2, 2022 and has 304 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, Murder Most Fowl, Dashing Through the Snowbirds, Birder, She Wrote, Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow!, Rockin' Around the Chickadee
Thirty-first in the Meg Langslow amateur sleuth cozy mystery series and revolving around Meg, a blacksmith obsessed with clearing up murder. The focus is on past crimes.
My Take
It’s really a brilliant idea that Kevin and his friend Casey have. Kevin does know pretty much everything tech. Combine that with Casey’s fascination for true crime and the incredible Langslow resources . . . well, how can this combination go wrong!?
Of course there are going to be more crazy things going on. These are the Langslows and Hollingsworths after all. But it’s not enough for Andrews! Nooo, not only is Meg doing the running for Rob and Delaney’s wedding, but Kevin and Casey have stirred something up with their podcast. Accident? Hit-and-run? – Meg does wonder when Kevin says Casey doesn’t get out much. How bad can that be when the pot calls the kettle black!
All this wedding prep . . . wow . . . I do appreciate Mother’s ingenuity in getting the farmyard policed! As for the decorating going on . . . more wow. Mother’s Christmas decorating seems rather tame comparatively.
It always amazes me how much “entertaining” Meg and Michael do. I don’t know how they manage all that food and the serving of it. And I want some of Rose Noire’s rose-and-lavender-scented bath oil. As for Alice’s Norwegian food, if Meg describes one more dish, I’ll jump into the book!
Those llamas. I’d like to spend a few weeks around them. I love Andrews describing their curiosity about humans, their humming, and the way they protect their “people”.
As the facts come out about the cheating scandal, I am boiling with anger. How dare they! I know it goes on all the time, the overweening self-entitlement, the bigotry of idiots, the grade massaging . . . arghhh . . . Not very Christian behavior.
Kevin has a good point about reliability. Oho, its danged lucky that Dr Langslow is so knowledgable about death and amazingly ethical about truth.
I love the sound of Forstner’s house and garden. I do enjoy Ragnar and his vision for his house, his hospitality, and his kindnesses. Lol, Lad is teaching some of the Pomeranians how to herd. The same Poms have discovered how to get a better view of the process, lololol.
There are frame-ups a’plenty in Round Up the Usual Peacocks, and not just the one back in the day. Meg is getting rousted by fake Clay County cops. Purposeful hit-and-runs on the good guys. Burglary with the help of Spike.
Andrews uses first person protagonist point-of-view from Meg’s perspective, so it’s her sense of humor through which we see, hear, and experience all the action. And trust me, Round Up the Usual Peacocks is brimming over with humor and fun.
It is a lovely happily-ever-after ending what with that bridal party, roflmao again and again.
The Story
There’s a lot going on getting the farmhouse and yard ready for Rob and Delaney’s wedding. Shhh . . . don’t tell what Rob, Delaney, Meg, and Michael did in The Twelve Jays of Christmas, 30.
Meanwhile, Kevin is making life more interesting with the vicious reactions he and Casey are getting from their latest podcast.
The Characters
The lockpicking Meg Langslow is blacksmith, mom, and Delaney’s matron of honor. Dr Michael Waterston, Meg’s husband, is a drama professor at the college. He’s also Rob’s best man. Josh and Jamie are their twin sons. Spike is their eight-and-a-half pound Small Evil One. The five llamas, which include Groucho, Chico, Zeppo, Harpo, and Gummo, come to Rose Noire’s rescue. Ahem, they love wearing costumes. Even the Welsummers and Sumatrans join the bridal party. The Twinmobile is how they refer to the van they use to transport the kids.
Rob Langslow, Meg’s brother, is engaged to Delaney. She works as a computer tech at Rob’s company, Mutant Wizards. The company has a vp in Charge of Useless But Interesting Stuff. Tinkerbell is Rob’s Irish Wolfhound. Rose Noire is a cousin with an organic herb farm who also lives with Meg and Michael. Mother is always correct and can get anyone to do anything. Dad, Dr James Langslow, was supposed to have retired but is now the local medical examiner; he is much too fascinated by mysteries, dead bodies, and anything animal. Grandfather, a.k.a. Great, is Dad’s father, hence Meg’s grandfather. To the rest of the world, he’s Dr Montgomery Blake, a world-renowned animal rights activist and environmentalist who owns the Caerphilly Zoo.
Kevin McReady is one of Meg’s nephews and brilliant with computers (Widget is his Pomeranian); he lives in their basement and works for Mutant Wizards. He (the tech guy) and Casey Murakami (the subject matter expert who is a graduate history student) have branched out into exploring true crime cold cases that have taken place in Virginia on their podcast show, Virginia Crime Time. Some of the cold cases include the Three Sisters in Black; the Colonial Parkway murders; the Martinsville Seven; the Richmond’s Southside Strangler; and, the disappearance of Madeleine “Maddy” duPlaine, a Charlottesville singer with promise.
The Hollingsworths are Mother’s side of the family and includes a number of attorneys — it’s danged handy. Festus Hollingsworth is the best of them. Cousin Frank has poison ivy. Uncle Ronald is bloviating. Aunts Jane and June, twins, still dress alike.
Caerphilly, Virginia, is . . .
. . . the town where Meg and Michael live on their farm and where Caerphilly College is located. Dr Clarence Rutledge, the veterinarian, works locally as well as for the zoo. Maudie Morton’s beagle escaped. Seth Early is the Langslow-Waterston’s neighbor who raises Lincoln sheep. Lad is his very efficient border collie. Rancid Dread is the local heavy metal band who are getting better. Judge Jane Shiffley may need a house- and dog-sitter.
Henry Burke is the chief of police — I think he considers Meg his behind-the-scenes “detective”. Minerva is his wife — she’s the director for the famous gospel choir of the New Life Baptist Church — and together they are raising their three orphaned grandchildren who include Adam, who is best friends with Josh and Jamie. His deputies include Vern Shiffley, the most senior deputy; Aida Butler (her daughter, Kayla, is an amazing singer); Cousin Horace Hollingsworth who’s their only CSI tech; and, George is the civilian desk clerk. Meredith Flugleman is a parole officer (Lark! The Herald Angels Sing, 24). Dr C.F. Pruitt had been the medical examiner back in the day and a Pruitt was the chief of police.
Faulk is an old friend and Meg’s blacksmith mentor. Tad is another computer whiz and Faulk’s partner. Both of them will be groomsmen at Rob’s wedding. He and Meg do a lot of blacksmith work for Ragnar Ragnarsen, a retired heavy metal drummer who took over Raven Hill, the Philomena Winkleson house from Swan for the Money, 11. Only Ragnar has renamed it Ragnarsholm. Some of Ragnar’s guests include Alice, the house chef; Ben is probably a musician of note; Lars, who plays the piano; and, Cassie, who is building a guitar.
Holly McKenna is planning the wedding with Mother. Demetria is a pavement artist whose work will last longer than expected.
Charles Gardner, a friend of Michael’s, is assistant dean, of what I don’t know. I do know he’s in the administrative end of things. He would love, love, love to create problems for the B-school! Caerphilly College Business School, based in Pruitt Hall, isn’t concerned about ethics or today’s job market.
Professor David Bradshaw was the one at the heart of the cheating scandal. His family had been one of the FFVs, First Families of Virginia. Professor Giles Forstner is in the History Department and had been Bradshaw’s best friend. Casey’s uncle Barney had been a student back then. It was his eruption at dinner that started Casey on this cold case.
Some B-school alumni include Morton Fairweather who has stayed on working in Administration in Facilities; Professor Claude Vansittart is a stuffed shirt on the B-school faculty; Vincent R Vansittart is his snotty, “successful” younger brother at VVS Holdings. Professor Wyndham, a.k.a. Old Windy, must be nearly a hundred. Ingrid Bjornstrom, a secretary at the school back then, is a staff member, who has stayed on as the B-school conscience. The Grill is a staff dining area.
The Caerphilly Inn is a five-star hotel managed by Ekaterina. Robyn Smith is the rector of Trinity Episcopal.
Amanda is an African American weaver Meg and Faulk know from the craft fair circuit. Jared is her husband who runs a music studio at their home near Charlottesville. Tony Antonelli had been the alcoholic drummer in Maddy’s band. Today he plays with “a random agglomeration of amazingly unmusical wannabes” that includes the hobbit-like Willie on bass, Rock the poseur on lead guitar, and Bob. Reading about these band members will make you so sad, lol. Detective Smith had been in charge of Maddy’s case. The Prism had been a coffeehouse back in Meg’s day. Duane is a friend of Jared’s who does cybersecurity for the university. Mr Fremont is a peacock-fancier. McCoy and Hatfield are some of his peacocks.
The College Arms, better known as the Armpits, is a seedy apartment complex in town. The Caerphilly Clarion is the local paper.
Clay County is . . .
. . . well, not a rival, but definitely an enemy to Caerphilly County folk. Could be all that corruption and backwardness. Jimmy Parrish and Duane Dingle are stupid impersonators. Gotta watch out for those Plunketts, Dingles, Peebleses, and Whickers. Sheriff Dingle is definitely one to watch out for. Lucas Plunkett is now out of prison and wants to go to college.
The rapacious Samantha had been Rob’s first potential bride (Murder with Peacocks, 1). The Pruitts had been former rulers of half Caerphilly County. *snicker* Most everything had been named for them, but that’s a’changin’. A skeleton was found in Jamestown that could be a potential cold case for the podcast, involving George Harrison and Richard Stephens.
The Cover and Title
The background of the cover has a pink gradation of deep pink on top and bottom that gradates to a pale, pale pink oval in the center where the graphic is centered. Awww, I’m guessing the two peacocks are meant to stand in for the bride and groom. The one on the left is almost facing us with his beautiful blue-green-yellow tail feathers spread out like a fan standing behind a lopsided layer of wedding cake. The other peacock with his royal blue body and green and blue back is in profile on the right, his feathers down, one leg holding the magnifying glass he’s using to closely examine the tilting top two layers of the cake with its bride and groom topping. Behind him is the bottom layer of the pink and white cake. At the top is an info blurb in black. Below that is the author’s name (the letters in the last name askew) in a deep purplish pink with a deeper purple beribboned bouquet with white and pink roses below the “re”. Centered slightly below that is the series info in black. Beneath the peacocks is the wavy title in the same purplish pink.
The title is a snarky reference to the catastrophe that hits at the start with molting peacocks. Thankfully, the end will allow the Langslow-Waterston’s to Round Up the Usual Peacocks.
