Swan for the Money

cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth, competition, family-dynamics, verbal-humor, situational-humor There's a rose competition in Caerphilly and all the usual suspects are involved, especially Meg who always gets roped in by her mother. Because of the incredibly wet weather and the predations of deer , the competition is being held at the estate of a real pip. There's enough craziness to go around even before Meg finds the first victim butt then there's the goats, the cows, and especially the attack swans. Of course I loved it! Bernadette Dunne continues to ace the narration!

Her stories use to be "cute"....now I find the characters; shelfish, self-centered & mired in co-dependency....the stories are tedious, repetitive.

Another great Meg Langslow book! Killer Black Swans, Feinting goats, and murder rolled in to one!

This is the latest in the Meg Langslow series and this time there's something afoot with a dog going missing, goats keeling over, black swans terrorizing everyone during the preparations for the Rose Show ... oh, and someone is murdered. With the usual cast of characters, Meg has to juggle being the organizer of the event as well as finding out who's behind the poisoning, the murder, the missing dog and maybe even a bit of cattle rustling in pouring rain. Donna Andrews is as usual, not short of humor, and this light-hearted mystery with the zaniest family I've fallen in love with, is the perfect relaxation companion.

Funny as always. Meg is in charge of the local rose show when someone is murdered. Hijinks ensue.

I love this most recent entry in the Meg Langslow mystery series, set in fictional Caerphilly County, Virginia, and featuring the indefatigable Meg and her motley crew of relatives and neighbors in crime-solving antics reminiscent of the glory days of Harold Lloyd.What fun, of course, and as expected, the action doesn't stop for a minute around Meg. But this time, her case is set amid the bizarre and highly competitive world of rose-show trophy hounding. How completely weird, I thought as I looked at the book...rose shows? Who cares?Well, I still don't care about rose shows, but I'll never look at a rose the same way again. I had no idea (admittedly, even less interest) that there were literally hundreds of categories a rose could fit into for showing purposes, and the virulence of the passions of rose-growers came as a surprise as well.Meg's mysterious task this time is determining who, among the hundred or so people exhibiting and competing in this bloom-binge murdered a sweet, kindly old lady who just happened to bear a strong resemblance to the world's nastiest battle-ax, whose huge color-themed estate is the site of the show. Her usual good temper is sorely tried at every turn by the battle-ax, a complete nutball whose fetish is making everything in her world black or white. She has black swans. Black and white Belted Gloucester cattle. Black fainting goats, including a very aggressive one named Algie whose passion for butting humans is completely understandable...wouldn't YOU need to take a swing at a creature who meddled with your DNA to make sure you fainted dead away at danger, making you a perfect victim for predators?But since she's been drafted to run this beano (one guess by whom...oh good, all who said "her mama" win!), she's coping. That is, barely coping since husband Michael is in New York attending a former student's play (a musical about Millard Fillmore and the Compromise of 1850, with a catchy little ditty about the Wilmot Proviso...Wikipedia has the whole story, never fear) in its death throes. Every time Meg tries to talk to Michael, asking him to bring back a pregnancy test, she's interrupted...so she asks him to bring back 1) bagels, lox, and cream cheese 2) cheesecake 3) real New York pastrami and rye sandwiches...you get the picture.So add that to the list of problems Meg has, trying to figure out how to ascertain if she's pregnant in a place crawling with people who know her, her mama, her grandparents and cousins and aunties and all, each and every one, glad to gossip their lungs out.Well, the murder is solved, the wicked are punished, the unappealing are redeemed (somewhat) and the pregnancy test arrives via the hopeful Michael, who interpreted all the food requests as wicked-bad cravings and arrived at the main question: A new little Waterston-Langslow?Stay tuned. I certainly plan to.

Another slight but enjoyable entry in this long-running series. Meg has been roped into organizing the annual rose show, even though she neither knows nor cares much about roses. The host of the show is a very unpleasant woman who is obsessed with black, white, and gray--mostly black. Wackiness, as always in this series, ensues. The wild humor in some of the earlier entries is missing, but this is still a pleasant way to spend a few hours catching up with Meg and associates.

Swan for the Money is the 11th novel in the Meg Langslow series, but was a first for me.Meg has volunteered to organize the local competitive rose show - her parent's new hobby. It's being held on the estate of Mrs. Winkleson. Now, Mrs. Winkleson hasn't ingratiated herself with the others in the group. Between her insistence that everything on her estate be black, grey or white - including the livestock - and the growing (pun intended!) suspicion that her rose propogation techniques may not be on the up and up, she is causing some headaches. Meg's grandfather and his cronies are skulking about the estate as well, looking for animal rights abuses among those colour coordinated animals. And when a body is found on the grounds of the estate......Donna Andrews has created a wonderfully warm, cozy mystery series. No overt violence, lots of humour and and an eclectic group of characters. There is such a mix of ages in the characters that this series would appeal to a variety of ages. Some of the characters are over the top (the murder victim in this case) but they're great fun to read. It took me a couple of chapters to get up to speed with who's who, but after that it was no problem. I found the descriptions of the competitors and the goings on at the rose show quite funny, reminding me of the mockumentary Best in Show that spoofed dog shows. Meg herself is a great recurring vehicle - an amateur sleuth who can't stop herself from helping solve the mysteries that she stumbles into.There's no great mystery as to whodunit, but the read itself is the most enjoyable part, not the solving. Fans of any of the themed series out there, such as Diane Mott Davidson, Carolyn Haines or Joanne Fluke would enjoy this series.

I loved the first few books in this series and was disappointed in this one. Perhaps my expectations were too high. It lacked the laugh out loud wit of the earlier entries, so was merely light and fluffy without the kick.

Swan for the Money is pretty typical for Donna Andrews and Meg Langlsow, although this is the first book of the series that left me without some way to relate personally. Unfortunately, the publishers yanked all copies of this book from stores in preparation for the paperback publication in August ... and the latest Langslow mystery was published a month before. I eventually gave in and located a used copy of the title, but I would have much preferred that the publisher either a) left the hardcopies in stores or b) published the paperback before the latest edition. Not Ms. Andrews' fault, but a minor disappointment.

Swan for the Money by Donna Andrews is a 2009 Minotaur Books publication. I’m slowly reading my way through the Meg Langslow series and so far, these books have been a real blast. This entry, unfortunately, fell a little flat. The plot was all over the place, the red herrings were way too obvious, which made it quite easy to guess whodunit. Meg’s usual witty inner monologue was stale, and I honestly don’t think I ever cracked a smile while reading this one. That said, every long running series I’ve ever read has had a few stinkers here and there, so I’m sure the next installment will be back on track. Don’t let my disappointment in this one installment deter you from trying this series. Normally, the whodunit is well done, and Meg keeps me in stitches. This one missed the mark for me- but the series is truly wonderful- one all cozy fans would love. 2 stars

I loved Donna Andrews’ Swan for the Money! I could easily picture it as a comedy mystery movie. This time, Meg Laslow’s parents were not as bizarre as usual. They had adopted a new hobby, growing and showing roses. My mother and I had grown experimental roses for a well-known rose company many years ago so I was very familiar with all the work that goes into making sure that roses thrive but Meg’s mother,in this story, taught me about the madness of preparing the roses to show. But the real star of this book was Mrs. Winkleson! A small but very controlling woman who had her mansion done in black and white. Black floors, black painted walls, black granite counter tops, white accents. She always dressed in keeping with the theme too along with drinking only Black Russians. It is not difficult to imagine the outside of her estate either. She even had her livestock color coordinated, black belted cows, black geese, sheep. At the beginning, she is upset because her white Maltese dog is missing and requests that the matter be investigated. But a more serious crime is to follow.The rose competition was to be held at Meg’s parent’s place but unfortunately the odor of the manure that her father had recently added to the roses and elsewhere made the place stink. So Meg has to ask Mrs. Winkleson for permission to hold it at the monochromatic estate.Thank you, so much Donna Andrews for creating this perfect mystery cozy! I laughed and laughed and I want a movie mad of it for everybody to enjoy.This is truly a memorable cozy with excellent character development and fantastic description.

Meg Langslow’s parents have a new retirement hobby: raising and showing roses. They rope Meg into chairing the Caerphilly Garden Club’s Rose Show, which is to be held on the grounds of Philomena Winkleson’s farm. She is a horrible woman, nasty to her family, her employees and even her animals. Her life and everything around her has a black and white theme – she gets rid of anything that would add color to her world. It’s no surprise that she is trying to breed a black rose so she can win the prize she herself is offering at the show. She’s in competition with Meg’s father, who has created a new variety of his own. Meg’s nonagenarian grandfather, Dr. Montgomery Blake, and his lady friend Caroline Willner, who is in her 80s, suspect Ms. Winkleson of animal abuse and are happy to have the opportunity to inspect the grounds. Animals are abundant, and include horses, fainting goats and aggressive black swans. Then a body of a rose grower is found among the fainting goats. What else could happen to further complicate things for Meg? As usual, Donna Andrews has a few more things up her sleeve!I’ve read several of Donna Andrews’s bird-themed mysteries -- some were over-the-top silly and, occasionally, hard for me to get into. (The author cannot be faulted, however, for her use of the English language and her plots – as farfetched as they sometimes can be.) Swan for the Money seemed tamer, cozier, less manic – and much more fun for me to read. Swan for the Money was also a bit more believable then its predecessors. The plot moved along nicely and the book had a tidy, manageable cast of characters. One particular development in Meg’s personal life, should make some interesting reading over the next few books.By Diana. First published in Mystery News, August-September 2009 issue.