Stork Raving Mad: A Meg Langslow Mystery (Meg Langslow Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Donna Andrews (Author)

Book Description

Series: Meg Langslow Mysteries | Publication Date: July 6, 2010

Meg’s expecting twins---any minute!---in this next hilarious entry in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling series!

Meg is eight and a half months pregnant with twins when Michael asks if she wouldn’t mind another houseguest. One of his doctoral students is directing his new translation of a play by a minor Spanish playwright, and the playwright has agreed to come to town for the production.

Senor Mendoza turns out to be a drinker, a smoker, and an inveterate partygoer. Before long, Meg's kitchen is filled with the smells of Spanish food and the voices of all the wilder souls in both the drama and Spanish departments. Into this chaos arrive two prune-faced administrators, the dean of the English department and a man from the college president’s office, who say that the play must be canceled.

When the dean is found murdered, Meg's house becomes a crime scene, and the only way to restore peace is to help Chief Burke solve the murders---while rescuing the student's dissertation and Michael’s tenure---all before dashing off to the hospital to give birth to her twins!

The one and only Donna Andrews continues to surprise and delight in this next knee-slapping adventure featuring Meg Langslow and all the eccentric characters that make up her world.

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Agatha-winner Andrews's wacky 12th Meg Langslow mystery (after 2009's Swan for the Money), chaos erupts in the crowded household of expectant parents-to-be Meg Langslow and her husband, Caerphilly College associate professor Michael Waterston. Not only are they hosting numerous students made temporarily homeless due to a broken college heating plant but their library becomes a crime scene after the murder of English department diva Jean Wright. At first, it appears Wright received a fatal blow from an Egyptian fertility goddess statue, though later evidence suggests she was poisoned. The victim had arrived with Dr. Enrique Blanco of administrative services to inform Ramon Soto, a student of Michael's, that they are canceling the performance of his dissertation topic, an obscure "anti-Franco, anti-Fascist" play, because it contains "offensive and unsuitable material." Hilarity ensues as Meg refuses to let her pregnancy prevent her from catching a surprising killer.
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From Booklist

It seems impossible, but once again Meg Langslow’s home has been invaded by tons of eccentric characters. Regular readers of Andrews’ series, of course, have long recognized that such occurrences are business as usual in Caerphilly, Virginia. It’s not enough that Meg and husband Michael are expecting twins any day, and that the usual family members are running in and out of the home, but they are also hosting a couple of dozen displaced drama students. You’d think the college could somehow get the heating plant fixed, but remember this is Meg’s wacky world. Meg and Michael are also playing host to the eccentric Spanish playwright whose play is being produced by one of Michael’s graduate students. Trouble starts for real when the dean of the college English department announces that the play must be canceled. Next thing you know, the dean is dead, and Meg’s house has become a crime scene. Naturally, Meg must help Chief Burke solve the crime. This is the twelfth entry in a long-running series that gets better all the time. A fine blend of academic satire, screwball comedy, and murder. --Judy Coon

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (July 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312621191
• ISBN-13: 978-0312621193
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #586,016 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

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I loved it!, July 12, 2010

By 

Michelle in Maryland "michelleinmd" (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stork Raving Mad: A Meg Langslow Mystery (Meg Langslow Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I was a little skeptical about the storyline, but I love this series. She really made the plot believable. Well, for the outrageous Langslow family and the equally dysfunctional Caerphilly College staff. She even made the unloveable college administrators come to life. It's a quick read, perfect for the summer. I hated to see it end.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun.. but not her best, December 1, 2010

By 

JR (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stork Raving Mad: A Meg Langslow Mystery (Meg Langslow Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I always enjoy the Meg Langslow series and although I enjoyed this one as well,I must admit, this one wasnt my favorite.

I read the previous book in the series "Swan for the money" and enjoyed it, but well.. was there a time warp or did I miss a book? Where was the romance and excited discussions about the possible pregnancy with her husband Michael? Actually the poor guy was almost nonexistant in this book, and in the end we are left hanging.

There are a lot of funny situations that could have been used in Stork Raving Mad, starting out with an uproar caused by the " woohoo we are expecting", and following up with the possible hilarious reactions to "Wow its twins" announcement. Instead we loose all that excitement and family mayham that should have happened when it was announced to Megs relatives and instead we go straight to a hoohum ... I am 8 1/2 months pregnant and a casual, with twins. Alright women out there, can anyone tell me honestly at 8 1/2 months pregnant with twins would you have really been so calm about 50 or so strangers living in and creating havok in your house..uhmm I dont thinks so. To boot in the end we are left hanging again..about the delivery and sexes of the twins.

I know this is one way of keeping us excited about the next book but like some of the other readers it really wasnt appreciated. Honestly, we would have bought the next book anyway.

I did enjoy the "who done it ...first, second, third" scenario. It was an interesting twist, but there were so many charaters, students, staff etc., they didnt seem as well fleshed out as usual. I prefer her zany realatives to random love struck students who suddenly jump to murder..errr well sort of. I did enjoy the random wacky naming of the twins..ie heckle and jeckle etc., which in turn kept me constantly thinking of other "twosome names" as well. I hope to see a better timeline in the next book ie.. hope we dont see the kids are suddenly 2 or 3 years old.

This is a fun series and adding babies, zany realatives, unusual careers and of course murder should make it interesting and fun. I look forward to the next book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A little droopy, but still fun, November 30, 2010

By 

Richard Derus (Hempstead, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stork Raving Mad: A Meg Langslow Mystery (Meg Langslow Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Meg and Michael are homebound on a dreary winter's afternoon, marooned in their huge Victorian home. Alas, alack, poor things, right? Ha! They have dozens of houseguests. Students from Caerphilly College, where Michael teaches drama, slung out into the cold by the College's heating system going kerflooie in the coldest winter anyone can remember.

Add to the madness Meg's mom on a kamikaze decorating binge for the arrival of Meg's twins (genders unknown and referred to by cute names throughout like Castor and Pollux and Heckel and Jeckel), her brother Rob's computer interns, and oh yeah a murder, and the fun never stops.

But many things do, sad to note. A major plot thread involving an elderly Catalan Franco resistor and the US premiere of his sixty-year-old play goes absolutely nowhere and would have been unnoticeable had it been absent. Meg's ancient and irascible grandfather is deployed a couple times to very little immediate effect, but rather to set up and explain future plots (he donates a state-of-the-art theater and TV production facility to Caerphilly). A student love triangle resolves itself remarkably swiftly and tidily, but not hugely believably, and with little fanfare.

Still, the book was fun, and it's number 12 or some ridiculous thing, so one isn't expecting new literary forms to emerge or the Pulitzer committee to scrutinize Andrews's CV for accusations of plagiarism before awarding her an investigative journalism award or some damn thing. She's telling a fun story, taken on its own merits, and delivers on the promise implicit in the series: Sane center Meg is instrumental in weaving the correct picture from the chaos of tangled threads that surround her. Expect more, it won't deliver; expect this, you're in for a very nice afternoon's entertainment.