Stork Raving Mad - A Meg Langslow Mystery

Meg juggles twins, murder, and a back-talking bird in the next side-splittingly funny installment in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling series

During a 2am feeding for her four-month-old twins, Meg Langslow hears an odd noise and goes downstairs to find her living room filled with dozens of animals—cats, dogs, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, guinea pigs, and a stunningly foul-mouthed macaw. She soon learns that financial woes have caused the local animal shelter to repeal its no-kill policy.

Her kindhearted father, her zoologist grandfather, and other like-minded citizens have stolen all the shelter’s animals, both as a gesture of protest and to protect them until the hated policy can be repealed. But the volunteer who was to transport the animals to new homes has been murdered. Was it the victim’s tangled love life that drove someone to murder? Or the dark secrets behind local politics? And will Meg ever succeed in finding homes for all the animals that have landed in her life?

            Full of the hilarious shenanigans – avian as well as human – that have come to surround Meg and her eccentric band of friends and family, the latest from the one and only Donna Andrews will have you laughing until the very last page: it’s The Real Macaw!

The brilliantly funny and talented Donna Andrews delivers another winner in the acclaimed avian-themed mystery series readers have come to love.

Meg Langslow’s eccentric parents have a new hobby: growing roses and entering them in highly competitive shows. Dad’s gardening skill and Mother’s gift for selecting and arranging the blossoms should make them an unbeatable team---and Meg is relieved they’ve taken up such a safe, gentle hobby. She even volunteers to help when the Caerphilly Garden Club sponsors its first annual rose show. But after a few hours of dealing with her parents’ competitors, Meg is worried. Rose growers are so eccentric that they make Meg’s family seem almost normal, and so competitive that they will do nearly anything to take home the show’s grand prize---making them prime suspects when Meg discovers that someone is attempting to kill the wealthy woman on whose estate the competition is being held. Of course, the intended victim had other enemies---her treatment of her farm animals had aroused the interest of several animal welfare activists, including Meg’s zoologist grandfather. Meg tries to leave the detecting to the local police and focus on protecting her parents’ chances to win the coveted Black Swan trophy, but she soon finds herself compelled to solve the crime before any more rose growers die.

It’s Swan for the Money, two for the show, three to get ready... now go, Meg, go!

It’s time for more outrageous and feathered fun in the award-winning, laugh-out-loud Meg Langslow series.

When her old friend Karen drops by with two-year-old son Timmy, Meg Langslow reluctantly agrees to babysit “just for a little while.” But when nightfall comes, the toddler is still in residence and Karen isn’t answering any phone calls. Meg decides she must find out what’s happening, so the next morning, with Timmy in tow, she retraces her friend’s footsteps---and begins to suspect that Karen’s disappearance is tied to at least one serious crime. Has Karen been killed or kidnapped? Is she on the run from the bad guys? Or is she one of the bad guys? The police don’t seem to care, so Meg once again plays sleuth---this time with a toddler as her sidekick.

As usual, Meg’s extended family adds to the complications in her life. What covert animal welfare project are Dad and the curmudgeonly zoologist Dr. Montgomery Blake working on---and will Meg have to make another late-night trip to bail them out of jail? Why does Meg’s brother keep disappearing---is he merely trying to avoid babysitting, or is he involved in something more mysterious? Will taking care of Timmy dampen newly married Meg and Michael’s enthusiasm for starting a family of their own? And are any of Meg’s relatives reliable enough to be trusted with a two-year-old---especially a two-year-old whose whereabouts might be of interest to some very dangerous people?

Donna Andrews once again proves her skill as one of the funniest, most entertaining mystery authors around.

Meg and Michael’s house is serving as the marshaling point for the annual Caerphilly Christmas parade. The theme is “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and it features twelve drummers from the school marching band, eleven bagpipers, ten leaping lords costumed in medieval finery from the college drama department, etc. There are also assorted Christmas-themed floats, a live nativity scene on a flatbed truck, the Three Wise Men on Caerphilly zoo camels, and Santa Claus in a bright red horse-drawn sleigh (eight reindeer were beyond the zoo’s scope).

Meg has been volunteered to organize the parade, which is to proceed from her house to the local campus, where Santa will take up residence to hear the Christmas wishes of the town’s children. Of course, getting all the camels, pipers, leapers, and drummers in order is proving every bit as difficult as Meg feared it would be. Then her nephew Eric, wide-eyed and ashen-faced, whispers, “Meg, something’s wrong with Santa.”

The local curmudgeon, whose beard and belly made him a natural for the role, has been murdered. Now Meg and Chief Burke, who is playing one of the wise men, are faced with the two-fold mission of solving the murder and saving Christmas!

Readers can look forward to another zany Meg Langslow mystery---this one filled with outrageous Christmas spirit…and mayhem.