Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon [Unknown Binding]

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Books on Tape (2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736690816
• ISBN-13: 978-0736690812
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,950,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've been writing since I learned to print, but didn't get published until Murder with Peacocks won the Malice Domestic/St. Martins Press Best First Traditional Mystery contest in spring 1998. Since then I've written six more comic mysteries books featuring ornamental blacksmith Meg Langslow: Murder with Puffins (2000), Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos (2001), Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon (2003), We'll Always Have Parrots (2004), Owls Well That Ends Well (2005), and No Nest for the Wicket (August 2006). I've also started another series in with the sleuth, Turing Hopper, is an artificial intelligence personality living inside a corporate computer: You've Got Murder (2002), Click Here for Murder (2003), Access Denied (2004), and Delete All Suspects (2005).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better and Better, March 21, 2006

By 

feysidhe "feysidhe" (Mount Kisco, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon (Meg Langslow Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Although this book certainly can stand on its own, you should really start this series at the beginning, with Murder With Peacocks. This book is definitely the laugh-out-loud funniest of the series thus far. (The weakest--in my opinion--is the second book, Murder with Puffins.)

Some people will find this book a tad on the "too outrageous" side. The stereotypical programmers and psychiatrists are funny because they're *meant* to be funny; if you are expecting a serious character study, you won't find it here. Meg remains the only finely-drawn individual, but that's okay because the rest of the characters are just that: characters.

To get a sense of what happens in this book and the general level of bizarre humor, here's the basic hook: Meg takes a job at her brother's software company. They have an electronic mail cart that one of the office jokers like to ride around on playing dead. Because of this ghoulish habit, it takes a while for anyone to realize that he really *is* dead when the mail cart makes its final run.

And the "affirmation bear"...that alone is worth the price of admission.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I think this is the best yet in the Meg Langslow series..., March 22, 2004

By 

M. C. Crammer (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon (Hardcover)

You shouldn't read this book anyplace where you will be embarrassed to burst out laughing. The Affirmation Bears are side-splittingly funny, in my opinion, and the author has such a funny way of stating things and such funny situations. Imagine what she does with a computer game company (the hero-detective's brother's) sharing office space with therapists -- she manages to poke gentle fun that is nevertheless laugh out loud funny at both groups. The description of the computer people (almost all men) painstakingly picking vegetables off their pizza or the competing ideologies of the therapists (one, for example, is a weight-acceptance therapist, whereas another specializes in eating disorder) are examples of the humor that will make people in these professions laugh at themselves.

The plot takes a lot of suspension of disbelief, but is still well-done. Basically, there's something very odd going on in this new computer game company ("Lawyers from Hell" is the game) and Meg has been asked by her brother to try to figure out what's going on. She has to take a break from blacksmithing because she injured her hand, so she's trying to manage the wacky office. Not far into the story, one of the computer folk is murdered, and her brother is suspected of the crime -- so she must find out enough to get her brother off the hook.

I highly recommend this book -- it's one of the funniest mysteries I've read, and I can hardly wait to read the next in the series. I might even buy the hardback...

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars humorous amateur sleuth novel, February 4, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon (Hardcover)

A blacksmith cannot work with only one hand so when Rob Langslow asks his sister to take on the job as office manager, Meg can't think of a reason to refuse although she wishes she could. Being office manager at Mutant Wizards is a cross between being a den mother at a college dorm or perhaps an older sister to a pack of brilliant eccentric adult children. Rob thinks something is wrong at the company and he wants Meg to find out what it is.

With all the craziness going on at the company Meg doesn't have a clue what is going on until someone is murdered on the automated mail cart and everyone in the company has a reason to want to see him dead. Meg finds a list showing the victim is trying to blackmail many of the workers at the company and once she breaks the code she's sure she will find the perpetrator. Unfortunately, the killer doesn't give Meg time to decipher the data before the culprit makes another move.

One of the reasons this series is so successful is that Donna Andrews keeps moving the heroine into a different environment with each new novel. This ensures the story line remains fresh and original as Meg leaps into new arenas. CROUCHING BUZZARD, LEAPING LOON is a humorous amateur sleuth novel that will have the audience chuckling out loud at some of the events that take place in various portions of the novel especially in the office space. The support cast is so loony that they manage to make the lead champion look like a levelheaded, down-to-earth changeling sort of like Marilyn Munster.

Harriet Klausner