Some Like It Hawk: A Meg Langslow Mystery

Donna Andrews

Jul 2012 · Meg Langslow Mysteries Book 14 · Sold by Minotaur Books

About this ebook

Meg helps run Caerphilly's summer arts and crafts festival while trying to smoke out a murderer—turn up the heat, because Some Like it Hawk!

The hilariously funny Donna Andrews delivers another winner in the award-winning New York Times bestselling series that has captured human and avian hearts alike. Meg Langslow is plying her blacksmith's trade at "Caerphilly Days," a festival inspired by her town's sudden notoriety as "The Town That Mortgaged Its Jail." The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all employees have evacuated —except one. Phineas Throckmorton, the town clerk, has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year.

Mr. Throckmorton's long siege has only been possible because of a pre-Civil War tunnel leading from the courthouse basement to a crawl space beneath the bandstand. The real reason for Caerphilly Days is to conceal the existence of the tunnel: the tourist crowds camouflage supply deliveries, and the ghastly screeching of the tunnel's rusty trap door is drowned out by as many noisy activities as the locals can arrange. But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict Mr. Throckmorton—and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot, apparently from inside the basement. Meg and her fellow townspeople suspect that someone hopes to end the siege by framing Mr. Throckmorton. Unless the real killer can be found quickly, the town will have to reveal the secret of the tunnel—and the fact that they've been aiding and abetting the basement's inhabitant. Meg soon deduces that the killer isn't just trying to end the siege but to conceal information that would help the town reclaim its buildings--if the townspeople can find it before the lender destroys it in a gut-busting caper that will have giggles and guffaws coming as fast as a four-alarm fire.

A gaggle of praise for Donna Andrews and the Meg Langslow Mystery Series:

"If you long for more fun mysteries, a la Janet Evanovich, you'll love Donna Andrews's Meg Langslow series." —Charlotte Observer

"A long-running series that gets better all the time. A fine blend of academic satire, screwball comedy, and murder." —Booklist
"As always, Andrews laces this entertaining whodunit with wit, a fine storyline and characters we've come to know and love." —Richmond Times-Dispatch on The Real Macaw

Ratings and reviews

situational-humor, verbal-humor, family-dynamics, friendship, cozy-mystery ***** The town of Caerphilly has been tossed out of its municipal buildings by The Evil Lender since the felonious former mayor did not make payment on loans which used the buildings as collateral and then absconded with the money. Almost all of the relevant offices and materials were relocated when the problem came to light over a year ago, but one citizen has camped out in an area of the basement which appears inaccessible and is guarding all of the documents stored there. There actually is a tunnel to the hidden area and it is kind of an open secret to the townsfolk who have been supplying foodstuffs and other necessities. But of course there are complications and a murder, so then the fun and the sleuthing begin in earnest! Loved it!

What fun to read

About the author

DONNA ANDREWS’s debut novel, Murder with Peacocks, introduced the Meg Langslow series and won the Agatha, Anthony, and Barry Awards for best first novel, as well as a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for best first mystery. She has also received three Lefty Awards (Murder with Peacocks, We’ll Always Have Parrots, The Real Macaw) and two Toby Bromberg awards for funniest mystery (Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon; Swan For the Money). She spends her free time gardening at her home in Reston, Virginia.