Customer Reviews

Owls Well That Ends Well (Meg Langslow Mysteries)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When Meg and Michael bought their house on the edge of town, they knew it would take lots of work. For one thing, it's old, so there's plenty of repair work. More immediate, the former owner was a pack rat, and they bought the house with all the contents as well.

Now, after several months of hard work, they're ready for the yard sale to end all yard sales. With plenty of Meg's relatives on hand to "help" and sell their own items, it promises to be an event.

The customers start coming before dawn. Among the first is local antiques dealer Gordon McCoy. Always out to make a quick buck, no one trusts him. Sure enough, he's quickly hording treasures in the barn to check out later, even though the barn is off limits because of the owls nesting there. But when a customer drags a trunk out of the barn, Gordon's body is locked inside. The police quickly zero in on one of Michael's fellow professors since he was seen wandering around the sale with the murder weapon. Since Meg is trying to win the man over as a friend, she sets out to make sure the police have a better suspect. With the yard sale temporarily on hold while the police investigate, Meg is able to dive in, especially since the crowd, suspects included, seem to be staying around the house hoping the sale will reopen. Can Meg deal with the restless crowd and solve the murder?

With each book, I fall further in love with this series. I giggled and laughed my way through this entry. There are several funny sub-plots that weave their way through the book, and I think there are a larger then normal assortment of relatives, adding to the general wackiness. The mains storyline is handled well with some nice development the entire way through.

Donna Andrews proves with each new book that she is at the top of her game. I can't wait to see what she does next.

and we have a first rate turn in this volume.

the usual cast of appealing characters is back, with some additions. the dialogue is wonderful, the puns are wonderful, the situations are hilarious, and the plot is wonderfully twisty and surprising.

if you've been reading the previous books, you will definitely enjoy this one--the quality remains high. if you haven't read any of this series, start right now, then read this one.

Meg and Michael have taken a big step on the road to couplehood. They have just bought a three story Victorian fixer-upper. The catch: they have to remove from the premises the amazing amount of junk the former owner, Emma Sprocket, had secreted there over a lifetime. The relatively simple solution--have a yard sale--rapidly spirals out of control and between the obnoxious, money-grubbing Sprockets, odd family members, and a bizarre group of bargain hunters, Meg is rapidly losing her calm and her mind. When the body of a much-hated antiques dealer is found in a trunk in the barn, the cherry is really on the cake as far as Meg is concerned. Naturally, neither Meg nor Michael can resist assisting with the investigation, especially when suspicion falls on one of Michael's mild-mannered English professor colleagues.

One of the things I like about Donna Andrew's Meg Langslow mysteries is how she focuses on a different locale for each one, giving us the flavor of each particular community. In this book, Donna introduces us to the college town of Caerphilly where Michael works and where Meg has relocated. Although most of story takes place off-campus at the couple's house, there is a certain amount of college politics and intrigue involved. I also enjoyed the twist ending.

Another excellent entry in the Meg Langslow series.

So I was really looking forward to reading this book. I think she's very funny and good at plotting.

My reaction to this book was mixed. I thought it improved significantly in the second half. The first half mainly concerned Meg's wacky family holding an enormous yard sale. This sale is necessary because blacksmith/PT detective Meg Landslow and her boyfriend/drama professor Michael have just moved into an old farmhouse crammed full of junk by it's previous owner. Her relatives have brought their own stuff to sell, so it's quite a big sale, and it gets more out of hand after Meg's dad comes up with the idea that anyone who wears a costume gets a discount. It's almost Halloween. Someone is selling a few masks at the front, so there are a lot of Richard Nixons and Groucho Marxes running around. Then a body is found in a trunk and the sheriff shuts down their very successful sale so that he can investigate. He's trying to do it without Meg's interference, but she's snooping around and asking questions.

The book begins to pick up about the time that the sheep get loose, in part because that's a funny episode and in part because after that, Andrews turns her focus more to the mystery. There are a lot of twists and turns, and I was genuinely surprised at the ending.

I think it was primarily the slow start and the too-forced humor at the beginning that keeps me from giving this book a 5. Oh, and the title owl who is in the barn really does have a small role (all this series have a bird's name in the title).

Owls Well that Ends Well is a cheerful mystery story written with a deft touch. Meg Landslow, the lead character, is a strong, competent, pragmatic soul. She is fiercely loyal to her significant other, Michael, and is surrounded by eccentric relatives and town characters.

The plot and characterizations are hilarious. The background for this story is Meg's organization of a giant yard sale, which provides for many comedic opportunities, including unscrupulous antique dealers, combative curio seekers, helpful and not so helpful helpers, and more.

I really loved the first book in the series, Murder with Peacocks, and thought the next ones were fine, but not up to the standard of the first one. There was something about the breakneck pacing of Murder with Peacocks that kept me reading, plus I enjoyed the unuusual treatment of the wedding theme. And the situation with Meg's love life is hiliarious. In this book, I think the author has returned to the strengths of the first one. Meg is more like the person I met in the first book. I really enjoyed the yard sale theme, the crazy and unusual relatives, and most of all, how Meg manages the family and the mystery solution with such creativity. Much more captivating than the recent offerings, and I hope for more like this one.

Blacksmith Meg Langslow is having a yard sale. Which wouldn't be so bad except the yard is multi-acres. The home they bought was filled with junk and she and her significant other, Michael, need to get the clutter cleared out before it destroys their relationship. Members of Meg's (weird) family have descended to 'help,' bringing their own junk to add to the sale. The last thing Meg needs is another dead body--but when a well-known antiques dealer is found dead in an antique chest, Meg decides she needs to put her sleuthing skills back to work--especially since the police are quick to accuse the one college professor who actually seems willing to help Michael with his tenure status.

Meg's investigation involves evesdropping from a dumbwaiter, dealing with her father's obsession with owls and owl droppings (they aren't what you think--at least not exactly), sorting out complicated family dealings, and learning that just about everyone in town had it in for the dead man.

I admit that I'm a sucker for funny light mystery, and OWLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL fits the bill perfectly. The family interaction is charming. Author Donna Andrews does a fabulous job characterizing Meg, her brother Rob, and Meg's parents. The whole yard-sale thing will be familiar to anyone who's every hosted one, down to the early arrivals and funky excuses (even without the dead body in the trunk).

If you're looking for a great mix of family and murder, OWLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL is a charmer.

The Meg Langslow series is a wonderful thing. The cast of wacky characters in this book is just as great as always. A must read for murder mystery fans with a funny bone!!!!

This is one of the BEST mystery series I have read!! I can't wait for the next one!!! They make me laugh and I don't even try to figure out "who did it" and even if I "think" I know I am wrong!! The "friends" are all unique! It only takes me about 2 days or less to read them, I can't put them down!!! I have shared this series with all my "reading buddies" and they all agree these are some of the best!!

Meg Lanslow and he boyfriend have purchased the old Sprocket farmhouse (last seen in Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon) at a bargain price. The one catch, they have to clear out all of the junk the former owner left behind, and give her heirs 10% of any profits. Meg decides a yard sale is the most expedient way to get rid of the extra junk, and just can't say no when her relatives and Michael's college co-workers decide they are going to get into the action for a 17 family yard sale. With the house falling to pieces under her feet, hordes of yard sale goers stalking the house at all hours of the day and night, dozens of relative cluttering the house, and Sprockets haunting the sale looking for their 10% fee, a murder in the barn is the last thing on Meg's wish list. Funny, warm, and engaging. I can't wait for the next book in August 2006.