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Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos
by
Donna Andrews
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Minotaur Books on February 7, 2006 and has 324 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, Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, We’ll Always Have Parrots, Owls Well That Ends Well, Terns of Endearment
Third in the Meg Langslow cozy mystery series revolving around an amateur sleuth who is also a blacksmith. The focus is on maintaining the historical accuracy of a craft fair plying alongside a reenactment in October of 2005 in Yorktown of the 1781 surrender by the British in the Revolutionary War.
My Take
Oh my lord. Mrs Waterston is too obsessed with historical accuracy! No eyeglasses unless they’re wire rims. Then she insists on cannons going off hour after hour to give a real feel for what citizens felt back then. As for her officious “Town Watch”, oh lordy, I do love Meg’s revenge at the end, lol.
Yeah, and Amanda is not thrilled at having to dress up like Aunt Jemima. Nor am I sure everyone is thrilled with having to use period tents, although Meg is discovering the delights of corsets.
Michael better keep his mother far from Meg — she’s having second thoughts of her as her mother-in-law, who’s making digs at Meg all story long. It does not help that everyone is trying to encourage Michael to ask the big question while Meg and Michael are at a crossroads with dating while living in separate towns, and he wants more time with her.
If only Meg weren’t so effective, so organized, so practical. Everyone thinks only Meg can talk to Mrs Waterston. Meg twisted arms for crafters to participate, harassed newspapers to provide publicity, and browbeat relatives and friends to show up. It does crack me up how Meg comes up with these off-the-cuff “excuses” to ward Mrs Waterston off, lol. That woman does not consider the dangers of some of the costume stylings, among many other issues.
Naturally, there are areas of conflict, including Michael’s jealousy and his burgeoning excitement about reenactments, lawsuits, software piracy, being gay, the feuding between Michael’s mother and Meg’s, the rapidly spiraling fines, blackmail, Duck’s unexpected aid in stopping the nighttime cannon fire, the elect-the-sheriff feud between the current sheriff and Mrs Fenniman, and so much more action with a number of characters driving it.
Lol, the crafters seem to get some revenge with those soft tomatoes at the stocks, even as Meg gets some from the overzealous Monty handling the weapon she warned him about. Serves the bugger right, lol.
I like Faulk’s point about knowing everything about making weapons in the traditional way, so as to really understand the steel. It turns out well for Meg as many of the participants on the military side are eager for well-made weapons. She’s also quite practical on the old-fashioned hardware that make it easier to have an authentic camp.
It’s sad that Faulk’s family has such an issue with his being gay.
I swear, Meg’s dad has more hobbies! Antique medical equipment (most of them made by Meg), birdwatching, reading at least six mystery novels a week, his passion for being a suspect, gardening, helping to detect mysteries, etc. Thank god he wasn’t there when Meg and Michael help make black powder charges!
There’s more laughter — I have to think it’s due to Mrs Waterston’s reaction to learning who the real killer that’s sets everyone off.
We know all this from Andrews’ use of first person protagonist point-of-view from Meg’s perspective.
Hmm, I don’t think the diversity training took . . . Although, the Town Watch’s emphasis on anachronisms took well, ROFLMAO, for everyone else.
The Story
It’s Mrs Waterston’s first year as chairwoman of Yorktown Day, and Meg has unfortunately agreed to ensure none of her fellow crafters ruin the historical authenticity of the fair with forbidden modern devices . . . all in an effort to keep the peace with her.
On the plus side, the craft fair is being a bonanza for Meg’s ironmongery — if only no one discovers she’s the creator of the commissioned flamingos. She does not want to be stereotyped for them!
Michael is having fun as well donning the white-and-gold uniform of a French officer for the reenactment — what actor could resist a role like that?
As usual, Meg’s family is adding their own angles with Dad scaring many of the tourists with his impersonation of an 18th century physician. Her naive brother Rob is falling to the dubious charms of a con man while dodging a snoopy reporter.
Then the swindler is found dead, slain in Meg’s booth with one of her own wrought-iron creations.
The Characters
Meg Langslow is a snoopy blacksmith who can’t leave a stone unturned. It’s her attention to detail that finds her Mrs Waterston’s deputy in ensuring all participants of the craft fair are anachronism-free. She and Professor Michael Waterston, who is with the Drama Department at Caerphilly College, have been together for a year now. Michael will be in French military costume with his fellow officers spouting French and kissing Meg’s hand in the Gatinois chasseurs unit.
Meg’s Family
Dad, Dr James Langslow, is having a ball with his period-accurate medical tent, down to the last gory detail. Mother, Margaret Hollingsworth Langslow, is quite sneaky in turning the tables on Mrs Waterston. Rob is Meg’s feckless brother, who squeaked by the Virginia bar exam last year and who has turned out to be good at producing video games. Pam is their older sister with six kids. Mrs Fenniman is Mother’s best friend, and she’s running for sheriff of Yorktown. She’s also the person who commissioned those revenge-driven wrought-iron flamingos from Meg. Eric McReady is Meg’s nephew still accompanied by Duck who’s laying eggs everywhere. And the Langslows still have that flock of peacocks from Murder with Peacocks, 1.
Yorktown Day Reenactment and Craft Fair
The hypercritical Dahlia Waterston, a.k.a. Madame Von Steuben, is Michael’s mother and in charge of Yorktown Day, with excessive attention to detail. She owns Be-Stitched, a dressmaking shop in Yorktown. Well, she owns half with Mrs Tranh owning the other half and hiring and managing the business side. Spike is her ill-mannered dog. Great-aunt Agatha used to be the committee chair for the annual Yorktown Day celebration. The “Town Watch“, a.k.a. “the Anachronism Police“, consists of overzealous idiots.
Eileen is Meg’s best friend and a fellow craftswoman. She married Steven in Murder with Peacocks, and they have a son, Samuel. Amanda, an African-American weaver, is across from Meg’s and Eileen’s booth. Merry is a glassblower. Tony Grimes, who runs a hardware store by day, fancies himself a blacksmith and copies (badly) the work of other smiths.
Faulk, a.k.a. William Faulkner Cates, is an old friend of Meg’s who had introduced her to ironworking and is now mentoring her on creating daggers and swords. Thaddeus “Tad” Jackson is Faulk’s life partner and driving Mrs Waterston nuts with his perception of what an African man was wearing in Colonial America, lol. Tad is the inventor of CraftWorks, a program crafters use to run their businesses. He’s also noted for his hot temper that isn’t always merited, and he told Meg he was an only child.
Captain Jess, Mel (his day job is as a private investigator and bounty hunter), Danny, and Xavier are part of the artillery component. Aunt Phoebe is an avid birder. Uncle Stanley is a federal judge. Didier is the chef from Le Rivage.
Yorktown PD
Horace Hollingsworth, a cousin with a chemistry degree who was sent off to forensics training, does love a costume, especially his gorilla suit. The sheriff is incompetent. Ranulf Brakenridge “Monty” Montgomery is the new deputy with big-city police experience. Ricky and Fred are fellow deputies. Ricky’s mom is also Aunt Alice.
Wesley Hatcher is the world’s sneakiest, muckraking reporter — and a distant cousin — currently working for a third-rate tabloid, the Super Snooper. The landscaping sub-committee of the Visual Enhancement and Aesthetics Committee despises plastic lawn ornaments. Justin is fascinated by Dad’s leeches.
Roger Benson represents the software company who wants to produce “Lawyers from Hell”, Rob’s video game invention. Cooper and Anthony had been a pulp mill company purposefully run into the ground.
The Cover and Title
The cover’s background starts with a summer blue sky gradating into a soft green just above three lush green plants from which three pink flamingos emerge. At the top is the title in deep pink with the author’s name at the bottom with an info blurb below that in white.
The title is true in so many ways, in the Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos.
