Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon (Meg Langslow Series #4)

Poor Meg Langslow. She's blessed in so many ways. Michael, her boyfriend, is a handsome, delightful heartthrob who adores her. She's a successful blacksmith, known for her artistic wrought-iron creations. But somehow Meg's road to contentment is more rutted and filled with potholes than seems fair.

There are Michael's and Meg's doting but demanding mothers, for a start. And then there's the fruitless hunt for a place big enough for the couple to live together. And a succession of crises brought on by the well-meaning but utterly wacky demands of her friends and family. Demands that Meg has a hard time refusing—-which is why she's tending the switchboard of Mutant Wizards, where her brother's computer games are created, and handling all the office management problems that no one else bothers with. For companionship, besides a crew of eccentric techies, she has a buzzard with one wing—-who she must feed frozen mice thawed in the office microwave—-and Michael's mother's nightmare dog. Not to mention the psychotherapists who refuse to give up their lease on half of the office space, and whose conflicting therapies cause continuing dissension. This is not what Meg had in mind when she agreed to help her brother move his staff to new offices.

In fact, the atmosphere is so consistently loony that the office mail cart makes several passes through the reception room, with the office practical joker lying on top of it pretending to be dead, before Meg realizes that he's become the victim of someone who wasn't joking at all. He's been murdered for real.

Donna Andrews's debut book, Murder with Peacocks, won the St. Martin's Malice Domestic best first novel contest and reaped a harvest of other honors as well. This is the fourth book in the Meg Langslow series, which features the intrepid Meg and her cast of oddball relatives. Their capers are a lighthearted joy to read.

When Arthur hears his sister singing a catchy tune, he wonders if he could call that jingle his own and enter it in the Crunch Cereal Contest.

Donna Andrews has won...

The Agatha The Anthony The Barry The Malice Domestic Award for...

Murder With Peacocks,

the first novel in her bird-themed mystery series

Now, more feathers are about to fly in. . .

Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon

As a favor to her brother, Meg agrees to tend the switchboard at his computer game company Mutant Wizards. For companionship, besides a crew of eccentric techies, she has a buzzard with one wing and her boyfriend's mother's nightmare dog. Not to mention the psychotherapists who refuse to give up their lease on half of the office space. This is not what Meg had in mind when she agreed to help her brother move his staff to new offices.

In fact, the atmosphere is so consistently loony that the office mail cart makes several passes through the reception room, with the office practical joker lying on top of it pretending to be dying, before Meg realizes that he's become the victim of someone who wasn't joking at all. He's been murdered for real. Now Meg has to play out one dangerous scenario to find out who's guilty-before a cold-blooded murderer ends her game for keeps.

Publishers Weekly

In Agatha and Anthony-winner Andrews's fourth wacky bird-themed mystery (Murder with Peacocks, etc.), Meg Langslow, a temporary switchboard operator at her brother Rob's computer-game company, Mutant Wizards, must find the real killer when Rob, who made his fortune from a game called Lawyers from Hell, is accused of strangling the office pest to death with a computer mouse cable. Keeping exposition to a minimum, the author lets crackling dialogue propel the plot. The office boasts a menagerie of remarkable pets, notably George, a buzzard with only one wing who has a perch by Meg's desk. There's a smile on nearly every page and at least one chuckle per chapter. The denouement may stretch credibility, but getting there is such fun it scarcely matters. (Feb. 10) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Donna Andrews’s first mystery, Murder with Peacocks, won the Agatha, Anthony, and Barry Awards, a Romantic Times award for best first novel, and a Lefty for funniest mystery. She spends her free time gardening at her home in Reston, Virginia. Visit her Web site at www.donnaandrews.com.