Customer Reviews

Swan for the Money: A Meg Langslow Mystery (Thorndike Mystery)

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This is the 11th in the Meg Langslow series of comic, cozy mysteries. Meg is a successful ornamental blacksmith, recently married to Michael, a soap opera star turned drama professor. They live in the college town of Caerphilly which seems to be populated with more than its fair share of eccentrics, oddballs and just plain kooks, most of whom are related to Meg. Each story incorporates not only memorable characters and wildly improbable situations but also somehow include some sort of bird into the story and into the title.

Meg's parents have taken up a new interest - growing and showing roses. As usual Meg has found herself roped into this new enterprise, her elegant mother has maneuvered Meg into organizing and running the biggest rose show of the season. The committee had vetoed Meg's suggestions of where to hold the event as too boring and so the estate of an eccentric rose enthusiast was secured instead. Unfortunately the owner, Mrs Winkleson, is not a charming eccentric like Meg's family, but is an overbearing, obsessive bully. Mrs Winkleson has decreed that the event must conform to her preferred color scheme, black, white and grey. She has even offered a special prize for the blackest rose of the show. As is the norm with this series Meg bounces from one zany misadventure to the next, aided (or hindered) by family and friends as they stumble over a dead body or two along the way.

The appeal of this series is not in the mysteries but in Meg and the ever expanding cast of secondary characters. The overall story arc of this series is quite pronounced so for maximum enjoyment begin at the beginning.

It's just hours from the first annual Caerphilly Rose Show, and things are getting out of hand. Not only does Meg have to organize the volunteers and make sure everything is set up correctly, but someone is sabotaging her parents' best shot at the black rose award, something unique to this competition.

Things aren't going well for Mrs. Winkleson either. The eccentric woman is hosting the show on her estate. She is obsessed with trying to make everything in the world conform to black and white. And her little dog has been kidnapped. Things get even worse when a body shows up. Does it have any connection to the other things going on? Who is taking this show seriously enough to kill?

This series is always a fun treat, and the eleventh book is no exception. The plot got a little bogged down approaching the half way point, but it quickly picked up again for the second half. The series regulars are fun as always.

But what made this book for me was Mrs. Winkleson and her animals. She collects animals based on their black and white color scheme. And they are a riot. I especially loved the fainting goats. Everything they showed up was a riot. The animals provided the best laugh out loud moments, but the humans did provide a few grins and chuckles as well.

If you haven't discovered this series already, you are in for a treat. Really, you can pretty much jump in anywhere and enjoy the adventures of Meg and her extended family.

I'm a sucker for the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews. Every single one is a winner. Murder With Peacocks is one of my all-time favorite books and Andrews remains on my list of writers of the most fun books. The stories are set up by the fact that Meg just can't say no when imposed upon to undertake some wildly complicated event (or events, as in Murder with Peacocks). Add in extremely quirky characters (and yet these people remind me of MY family), a victim who seems to be chosen to bring maximum complications into Meg's life, a touch of the nastiest little dog on the face of the earth, and Andrews stirs up a fun read every time. Swan for the Money continues the tradition as Meg tries to coordinate a rose show, handle an eccentric and nasty hostess, keep her relatives in line, and still find time for the love of her life, husband Michael. Will Meg be able to hold the aggressive swans at bay, and make a success of the rose show? Will her dad find the culprit who massacred his experimental roses? Will the nasty hostess come to a bad end? And will Meg ever get to ask Michael to pick up a pregnancy test while he's in New York away from nosy neighbors?

For once, Meg Langslow believes her parents have taken up a safe hobby that could not harm anyone. They are growing roses especially working on hybrids with a hope of creating a black version. Elated with their new pastime that is so safe, Meg agrees to organize the Caerphilly Garden Club first annual rose show.

The event is being held on the Winkleson estate because wealthy, influential but mean spirited Mrs. Winkleson wanted a home court advantage with everyone owing her favors and those who do not she bullies so she can win the Black Sawn Trophy. Meg goes to see the estate's beautiful fenced in rose garden, but instead of beautiful blooming flowers, she finds a dead female contestant. Soon afterward, the hostess becomes unconscious after taking a drink. It looks like someone was trying to kill her using cyanide. Meg as usual snoops, but quickly finds everyone including servants, but especially the club members have strong motives to kill Mrs. Wilkerson.

Donna Andrews is highly regarded for her comedic often slapstick amateur sleuths (see SIX GEESE A-SLAYING); her latest is once again a hilarious whodunit as eccentricity, including Meg's parents, runs rampart throughout the plot. The contestants are to say the least an unconventional crowd of oddballs, misfits, geeks, and hermits in which Ms. Andrews uses hyperbole to emphasis the diverse differences. Between protecting her out of control parents and dealing with belligerent club members, harried servants and sinister killer swans, Meg has her work cut out solving the rose garden murder.

Harriet Klausner

"Swan for the Money" is a book for rose lovers every where!
The coveted "Black Swan" award for the best rose, is a well written mystery.
In this book, we find poor Meg in charge of the Rose show this year.
I never knew people could get so involved or so violent over roses.
Meg has her hands full watching over roses,and gardens with more problems
than she can handle. Sabotage, stealing, murder....
all for the love of roses.
Of course, there is an occasional fainting goat, mean spirited swans, and a missing dog to tend with too.
You have to love a mystery with lovable characters and crazy rose enthusiasts.
Who could imagine all this fuss over a flower? I could. I love roses and this book delivers both a mystery, and roses.
What more could anyone ask for? Another winner for Donna Andrews.
I am looking forward to her next cozy.

Like all the books in this series, a bird (or birds) plays a role, hence the title always contains the name of a bird. In this book, the swan in the title is an aggressive black swan who attacks people more than once in the course of this mystery. Then there's fainting goats (really are such things), vampire horses, and belties (belted Galloway cattle). The setting is an "estate" (large, pretentious farm) near "detective" Meg Lanslow's country home in Caerphilly, VA. Meg has been pressured into taking on the management of a rose show, although she knows little about the subject: her parents, however, have become avid rose growers, and the local rose society needs someone to organize the show. The estate is owned by a crazy and unpopular woman who insists everything on her estate by black, grey, or white -- although black predominates.

Fairly late into the book, there's a murder. Although Meg is not actively trying to solve the case, in the course of the show, she ends up figuring out the killer. Most of the book involves preparations for the rose show. I thought there were several problems: I didn't find it particularly funny, as so many of Andrews' books are. The murder came too far into the book. And finally, I had a pretty good idea who the killer was and the other twists in the plot well before Meg.

This is a pleasant enough book, but there's no way I'd call it a pageturner.

Meg Langslow isn't looking forward to presiding over a rose show--but once again, her mother didn't take no for an answer. Meg didn't realize, however, how bad it could get. Deer are eating her father's contenders for darkest rose and they've obviously been artificially attracted. Then someone absconds with the dog owned by the woman who owns the barns where the show is being held, leaving a threatening note behind. Actually, Meg soon learns that any threats are justified. Mrs. Winkleson has called the rose club members, telling them only white and black roses are allowed, terrorizes her household staff, and instantly sells (or worse) any animals born on her farm lacking a pure black-and-white appearance. It's not a huge surprise when Meg finds the woman's body stabbed...with Meg's own special garden shears. Unfortunately, it's the wrong woman.

Author Donna Andrews continues her Meg Langslow mystery series with a charming story of love, roses, mistaken identity and murder. As always in this series, animals steal a good part of the show, with angry swans and fainting goats joining hungry deer on center stage. Meg's odd family all show up to add eccentricity. Meg's grandfather is plotting some daring animal rescue, her parents have gotten into rose breeding in a serious way, her brother Rob continues to be incompetent, and her cousin, Rose Noire continues to attract all of the men. Meg's own husband is largely missing, but he's at a musical about Millard Filmore...unlikely to survive its opening night.

I found SWAN FOR THE MONEY to be funny, informative (I now know more about rose breeding than I'd ever imagined), and offering an easy and breezy style that kept me turning the pages. The mystery itself might have been a little obvious, but Meg's assortment of friends, family and animals make for enjoyable reading.

The characters are fun and the plot, while predictable, is fun to read. This is certainly light reading, but we all need that sometimes. Another great book from Donna Andrews. It does make your family seem normal and that I'm glad I'm not Meg.

Donna Andrews' SWAN FOR THE MONEY is a funny delight, especially after several weeks of heavy reading.
Meg Langslow agrees to help her parents by organizing the annual rose show. Meg knows very little about roses or the cut throat competition which governs these affairs, but she is about to learn in spades.
The hostess of the club's show has an obsession with the color scheme of black and white and the balance must be perfect. Did wonder where she kept the Hampshire hogs, which a friend of mine had raised along with his Belted Galloway cattle. But the animals blended perfectly with the story. Philomena Winkleson is determined to win the top prize and works diligently to forestall all of her competition.
From page one to the last there is murder, envy, mayhem, and laugh out-loud chuckles for this entertaining humorous cozy.
Nash Black, author of Indie finalists WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.

I love this series of books. And Donna has not only created likable characters to people her stories, but she has kept her own interest in watching them develope and grow with each story. Keeping her characters balancing each other is a gift that Donna utilizes well in this story. The suspense is low key but still keeps the reader guessing. Meg is funny, and she loves her "crazy" family. If you are new to this series, you will want to read the rest of them to bring you up to speed on the development of each character in her family. I am anxious to read the next book. Keep up the great work, Donna.