Listening to Bernadette Dunne perform the Meg Langslow audiobooks gives listeners a sense of coming home to a beloved family. In this installment, Meg and her family hold a Renaissance Faire at her grandmother's craft center. Dunne builds up listeners' ill will toward a particularly vicious performer, bringing it to a climax when he carries out his most dramatic and malicious action yet. Though it comes as no surprise when this performer is murdered, Dunne creates a sense of tragedy when the body is found, followed by relief that the victim isn't someone everyone likes. As Meg investigates the crime while also trying to keep the festival running smoothly, Dunne vividly portrays her exhaustion and her worry that the murderer could be a friend. V.M.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

06/22/2020

Bestseller Andrews’s charming 27th mystery featuring level-headed Meg Langslow (after 2019’s Owl Be Home for Christmas) finds Meg’s grandmother, Cordelia Mason, hosting the Riverton, Va., Renaissance Faire at her Biscuit Mountain Craft Center, where Meg is conducting blacksmithing demonstrations, along with her teacher and mentor, Faulk Cates, and her twin sons. Meanwhile, Meg’s husband, Michael Waterston, is participating in “the Game,” a “semi-improvisational entertainment” put on by professional actors that’s popular with Faire visitors. Unfortunately, actor Terence Cox turns out to be a not-so-merry-prankster who delights in humiliating his fellow Game participants, so it’s not as shocking as it should be when he turns up dead in the woods, stabbed in the back with a cheap faux-Renaissance dagger. As usual, Meg is front and center helping Riverton police chief Mo Heedles track down the culprit. Andrews supplies her usual droll plot and familiar cast of eccentrics, and the picturesque Renaissance Faire setting adds to the fun. This quirky, long-running cozy series shows no signs of losing steam. Agent: Ellen Geiger, Frances Goldin Literary. (Aug.)

Praise for The Falcon Always Wings Twice:

"Andrews deftly juggles franchise characters, newbies, red herrings, Renaissance tidbits, and murder most welcome." —Kirkus Reviews

"This quirky, long-running cozy series shows no signs of losing steam." —Publishers Weekly

"Fans of Andrews' humorous cozy series will enjoy the familiar quirky characters, all in fine form in this satisfying entry." —Booklist

Praise for Donna Andrews:

"If you long for more fun mysteries, a la Janet Evanovich, you'll love Donna Andrews's Meg Langslow series." —Charlotte Observer

"A long-running series that gets better all the time. A fine blend of academic satire, screwball comedy, and murder." —Booklist

"This long-running cozy series shows no signs of losing its freshness." —Publishers Weekly

“With its well-spun plots and distinctive characters, Andrews’s amusing avian-named series shows no signs of growing stale.” —Publishers Weekly

“Meg grows more endearing with each book.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Fans will find all the beloved hallmarks of this award-winning series: fresh characters, an engaging puzzle, and delightful humor.” —Library Journal

03/01/2020

In multi-award-winning Andrews's latest "Meg Langslow" mystery, an actor ends up dead at the Renaissance Faire hosted by Meg's grandmother at her crafts center, and Meg must investigate. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Listening to Bernadette Dunne perform the Meg Langslow audiobooks gives listeners a sense of coming home to a beloved family. In this installment, Meg and her family hold a Renaissance Faire at her grandmother's craft center. Dunne builds up listeners' ill will toward a particularly vicious performer, bringing it to a climax when he carries out his most dramatic and malicious action yet. Though it comes as no surprise when this performer is murdered, Dunne creates a sense of tragedy when the body is found, followed by relief that the victim isn't someone everyone likes. As Meg investigates the crime while also trying to keep the festival running smoothly, Dunne vividly portrays her exhaustion and her worry that the murderer could be a friend. V.M.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

2020-05-18
Sudden death competes for attention with Andrews’ trademark brand of comic bedlam at the Riverton Renaissance Faire.

The highlight of the festival is the Game, the semi-improvised period soap opera that climaxes most evenings in a duel between the Duke of Waterston, played by professor Michael Waterston, and his archrival, Sir George of Simsdale, played by George Sims, before continuing with new developments the next day. The lowlight is Terence Cox, a difficult actor whose issues include an awkward amatory history with another cast member; an attempt to blackmail another player; a spot of reckless horsing around that gets computer programmer Tad Jackson, the husband of ornamental blacksmith Faulkner Cates, fired from his job; and perhaps even antagonizing Gracie and Harry, a pair of peregrine falcons who’ve become one of the faire’s signature attractions. It’s lucky that when Terence is killed, inevitably by a period dagger to the back, Michael’s wife and Faulk’s most famous pupil, Meg Langslow, is on hand to help Riverton police chief Mo Heedles with the job of sifting through the dozens of suspects, beginning with two local actors both convinced they’ve been cast as Polonius in eccentric director Neil O’Malley’s new production of Hamlet. Although Andrews keeps the proceedings as light and brisk as a carnival, there’s more mystery than in Meg’s last several adventures, and Meg rises to the occasion till she’s cornered by not one but two independent candidates for the hoosegow.

Andrews deftly juggles franchise characters, newbies, red herrings, Renaissance tidbits, and murder most welcome.