I expected to really enjoy this one but somehow it fell flat for me. Maybe it was all just a bit too over the top -- the abundance of relatives, the abundance of weddings (I didn't mind the abundance of peacocks, however). Maybe my problem is that I imagine myself in the situation too much -- much as I was never too amused by the "Kramer" character in Seinfeld (I kept picturing having him as a neighbour myself), the idea of organizing a wedding for an unpleasant sister-in-law and receiving little thanks for the trouble is a bit too realistic to be enjoyable (but then, I also sympathize with David Bowie's laments about Iggy Pop's constantly emptying Bowie's fridge during their shared years in Berlin, so don't mind me:).

The first mystery in Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series, Murder with Peacocks is a laid-back and comfortable book, perfect for slow evenings after a long day. As an author, Andrews doesn't seem to ask much of her readers, and instead lets them drift along as she develops her story at her own pace. Murder with Peacocks doesn't "pop" like many mysteries do, but the style of the writing just adds to the slow enjoyment of the reader. I will certainly be pursuing the series in the future. ( )

The first of the Meg Langslow mysteries, this kicks off with Meg, a blacksmith, packing up for the summer so she can go home to Virginia and help out with the three weddings she is maid of honour for: her best friend, Eileen, who is terminally vague and is currently considering a Native American herbal purification ceremony; her sister-in-law-to-be, Samantha, who is highly demanding and currently requiring peacocks to be sourced for her wedding; and her mother, who is marrying her new beau after an amicable divorce that was positively cheerful and who still has Meg's father pottering around, gardening.

Cue a whirlwind of far too much wedding planning (but it was fun, because you know it's all going to be a disaster), peacock wrangling, dodging dodgy wannabe-beaus, endless garden parties, deliciously described food, the drop-dead-gorgeous but probably gay Michael, and one dead body and what looks like a serial murder trying to bump Meg and/or her family off. And, believe me, there's a lot of family to bump off.

And therein lies the charm of this series (well, the first book, at any rate). Meg's family are charmingly, dottily, scattily, eccentric. Meg's father is a retired doctor with an obsession over crime and poisonous plants. Meg's mother is part of the local royalty and is a perfumed bulldozer who gets her own way just by expecting it. The smaller roles are delightful too, I really liked the aunts and uncles playing croquet during a garden party, and yelling "duck!" whenever a ball gets too close to the other guests. Croquet is obviously not quite as genteel as one would have expected. And Meg is terribly good fun too, with a good blend of niceness, ability, intelligence, and sass. (Sass has to be my favourite thing in literary female detectives.)

It's rather nice to have the Evil Person in a murder mystery just being unpleasant - she's mightily unpleasant, of course, but the worst thing she seems to do to Meg & her family is blatantly out one of Meg's aunts as wearing a wig.

This was also a well-plotted whodunnit, which kept me guessing until the end.

This series was originally recommended to me by my mate Miss FiFi Trixibelle (well, no, that's not really her name, but we like to torture her by calling her that), and it only just got rejigged in my memory when RichardDerus highly recommended it over on his thread. So, thank you both! It may have taken me a while to get around to it, but it was worth the wait. ( )

Richard was touting this series so much on his 75 Challenge thread (and getting them on Hot Review list—so I got a double dose of the reviews!) that I finally broke down this weekend and decided to try the first one. I picked it up at the library Saturday morning when hubby and I started on our long list of errands. He drove and I read. The first 50 pages I was thinking, “Okay, this is cute. I think I’ll probably enjoy this.” By the time we got home I was half way through the book, so as soon as we unloaded the car I plopped myself in my recliner and continued to read. Suddenly I burst out laughing aloud. Hubby asked what I was reading and I read him the funny part—even he chuckled. I then said to him that this book was definitely getting three stars! About an hour—and several guffaws —later hubby said he thought I was enjoying it enough to give it a higher rating, so I said 3 stars for the mystery and extra ½ star for the humor. By the time I finished the book that night hubby insisted I had had too good of a time with the book not to give it at least 4 stars.

This is not generally the type of mystery I enjoy but this was one of the best humorous novels I’ve read in a long time. The mystery was okay—although I knew “who dunnit” early on—but the delightful characters and the humor made me think of Jerome K. Jerome or P.G. Wodehouse at their best. I will definitely be reading the next one in the series! Highly Recommended—4 stars ( )

Cute fun read ( )