Twice a year, I delight in a new cozy mystery from Andrews, featuring blacksmith Meg Langslow, her large extended family, and plenty of humor. A huge dog and puppy adoption event, complete with a parade, has taken over Caerphilly, Virginia. Many of the animals are being cared for on Meg and Michael’s farm, and Meg walks to her brother’s new home for some peace and quiet. A contractor excavating a duck pond for Rob and his wife finds some bones, old but not ancient. Meg helps Chief Burke search for stories of younger men who left Caerphilly a few decades ago. She does some research at the library, searching the local paper online and on microfilm, and also talks to some of Caerphilly’s oldest residents. Two older ladies steal several of the scenes, along with the adoptable animals. To add to the chaos, someone starts leaving ducks on Rob’s porch. Five Golden Wings will be published in October. These very cozy mysteries make for great escapist reading and rereading, and the audiobooks are excellent.
Cecily Foster lives in Washington, D.C., and produces podcasts. When offered the chance to host a show that her friend Julie would produce, she’s excited. Her boss Toby even agrees to let her tape a pilot of a podcast she will write. But the new podcast turns out to be Twenty Dates. Eliza Cassidy, an influencer turned life coach, will set up dates for Cecily with 20 suitable men, including a practice date, then arrange follow up dates.
Cecily does get some awesome meals, advice, and men who are okay, but they aren’t her meet-cute guy, Will. Cecily and Will meet four times by accident in her neighborhood, and the first time she helps him catch a large runaway dog, who isn’t even Will’s dog. Eliza does not think Will would be a good match, and discourages her from dating him. Layoffs are threatened at work, and the advertising revenue for Twenty Dates would really help her company. Cecily’s sister Molly is her lifeline when life gets too hectic.
A third of the way through the book I knew who Cecily would choose and wasn’t looking forward to the bumps in the road the author would be sure to put in her way. But Cecily and her podcasting work are quite interesting and there’s enough humor that I happily read through to the triumphant end, which has as much to do with Cecily’s work as it does her love life.
A feel-good read for fans of Emily Henry, Abbi Waxman, Jennifer Crusie and for readers of Evvie Drake Starts Over and Flying Solo, also by Holmes.
One of my very favorite cozy mystery writers is Donna Andrews. Birder, She Wrote is #33 in the delightful Meg Langslow series. Meg is a blacksmith in Virginia with a large extended family. It’s not a spoiler to share that she marries actor and drama professor Michael and they have twin boys. Almost every year, Donna publishes a winter holiday mystery and another mystery. The audiobooks are narrated by Bernadette Dunne, and I can’t decide whether I enjoy reading the print books or listening to the audiobooks more. There is good character development, lots of humor, and a good mystery. Also, pets, mostly dogs and sometimes a whole litter of Pomeranian puppies. Living outside Caerphilly, the extended family also has a number of other animals, from sheep to occasional peacocks and more. All of the books have a bird in their titles, beginning with Murder with Peacocks. They always entertain and amuse me, and are even good to reread or to listen to again. Most of the audiobooks can be downloaded from Hoopla or Libby/Overdrive library collections. I think readers can jump into the series pretty much anywhere, especially any of the first five or six books.
I recently reread the third book, Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos, set near Yorktown, during a Revolutionary War enactment. Meg is selling her wrought iron wares, hiding a case of flamingos made for her mother’s friend, admiring Michael in his French officer’s uniform, and making peace after Michael’s mother hands out another fine as she seeks complete authenticity among the crafters and reenactors.
Book 17, Good Emus, Bad Emus has the Langslow family searching for Meg’s grandmother Cordelia, who gave her son up for adoption. Meg looks just like a young Cordelia, and they’ve found her cousin. A murder must be solved, and the whole clan are trying to rescue a group, or mob, of feral emus.
In Meg’s latest mystery, Birder, She Wrote, she is hoping for a lazy summer day, lounging in a hammock sipping a cold drink and watching hummingbirds sip nectar from feeders. This sounds like a perfect day to me as well. Alas, Meg soon has several tasks to add to her to-do list. Edgar, a wildlife photographer and beekeeper, is missing, Meg’s father wants help moving beehives, and Edgar’s new neighbors keep complaining about his beehives. Meg goes along on a search for a lost graveyard and finds a body, but it isn’t Edgar. And then there’s a persistent young reporter who wants to interview Meg’s grandmother for a magazine profile. More mysteries then in many of the earlier books, but as full of family, humor, and animals as the others. More, please!
Book Girl & Little Bear 