Meg’s Latest Case is Not a Turkey
I’m always ready to dive into the latest Meg Langslow Mystery, so when Between a Flock and a Hard Place arrived, I made it my next read. And I’m glad I did because it was delightful as usual.
This is book thirty-five in the series, but these read more as standalones, so it is easy to jump in anywhere. Yes, there are some books that have been more impactful to the series than others, but for the most part, the characters and their relationships are easy to glean from what is on the page. It also helps that not every character we’ve met along the way is in every book.
This book finds the town of Caerphilly dealing with a reality show. Marvelous Mansions is a new home renovation show, and they are working on the Smetkamp home in a track home neighborhood. The neighbors are frustrated and the town council is less than impressed, and the show has just started. Meg, in her part time job as special envoy to the mayor, is up early this particular Monday to try to keep the crew in line.
She’s in for a surprise when she arrives, however. The town’s feral flock of turkeys has descended, causing even more chaos for the residents. While police chief Burke attempts to figure out who helped the turkeys that over the neighborhood, Meg gets involved in the plan to clear them out. Then a dead body turns up. Are the two events connected?
Fans of the series know to expect lots of antics. This book is no different. Not that I’m complaining since I was laughing at some of what took place over the course of the book. Turkeys descending on a neighborhood is something that would only happen to Meg, and it is why we love these books.
Having said that, I did feel like we were a bit more focused on antics than on the mystery in the early part of the book. Yes, we were meeting suspects and the victim, but it still felt a little like it was focused on the turnkey problem. Having said that, I was have a wonderful time, so I’m not truly complaining.
And once the murder took place, the plot picked up. We had some nice surprises along the way to the logical climax.
Really, the reason I love coming back to these books are the characters. They are like old friends at this point, and this series is a comforting read. The familiar characters were their usual charming selves, and the new characters we met along the way fit into Meg’s world perfectly.
Each new Meg Langslow Mystery is a reason to celebrate, and Between a Flock and a Hard Place is no exception.
Any fan will be happy they picked this book up, and if you haven’t
started the series yet, now’s the time to fix that.
This was definitely very antic heavy! I was so caught up in what the turkeys were doing that when the murder happened it was kind of surprising - like I had forgotten it was supposed to be a murder mystery!
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