Owls Well That Ends Well (Meg Langslow Mysteries)

By Donna Andrews

Book Overview

Ever since Murder with Peacocks won the Malice Domestic Contest (not to mention the Agatha and Anthony awards for best first novel), Donna Andrews has kept readers laughing. As Publishers Weekly says of Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon , "There's a smile on every page and at least one chuckle per chapter."But the secret of Andrews's humor isn't sharp gags and one-liners. From Meg Langslow and her boyfriend, Michael, to the minor characters who cross the stage and disappear, Andrews writes about real people, and invites the reader to join in the fun.In Owls Well That Ends Well , Meg and Michael have bought a very elderly house from the estate of the uncrowned Queen of the Packrats. She bought everything and kept it all. When the house became overcrowded, she moved the overflow into the barn. When the barn was crammed, she began filling the property's sheds. When she died, her "holdings" left the various grandnieces and grandnephews with decades of junk. They avoid the job of cleaning it up by selling the place "as is" to Meg and Michael, sticking them with the lot. Their solution: a yard sale.As always, Meg's large family flocks in to offer their dubious help. Many even come with junk of their own to add to the sale. Meg's mother, sure that Meg has taken care of all the "treasures," turns to drawing up elaborate redecorating plans. Meg's dad, newly elected president of SPOOR (Stop Poisoning Our Owls and Raptors) shoulders the cause of the endangered baby owls and their mother that live in the barn. His further contribution is the announcement that anyone who arrives in costume earns a ten percent discount.Meg is coping (barely) with all this until the body of a local antique dealer is discovered in an old trunk. She and her dad have a further shock: the trunk is in the barn, in reckless disregard of Dad's beloved newborn owls.The police temporarily close the sale down to investigate. When the professor who can swing the vote in favor of Michael's tenure becomes a suspect, Meg decides that the only way to prove his innocence, and avoid being stuck with several tons of unsold junk, is to find the killer herself, and quickly.Andrews's amusing signature spin on mystery and a new assortment of feathery friends make this a priceless addition to the series.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312329385
• ISBN13: 9780312329389
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.1" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

GREAT SERIES!!

This is one of the BEST mystery series I have read!! I can't wait for the next one!!! They make me laugh and I don't even try to figure out "who did it" and even if I "think" I know I am wrong!! The "friends" are all unique! It only takes me about 2 days or less to read them, I can't put them down!!! I have shared this series with all my "reading buddies" and they all agree these are some of the best!!

Completely charming

Blacksmith Meg Langslow is having a yard sale. Which wouldn't be so bad except the yard is multi-acres. The home they bought was filled with junk and she and her significant other, Michael, need to get the clutter cleared out before it destroys their relationship. Members of Meg's (weird) family have descended to 'help,' bringing their own junk to add to the sale. The last thing Meg needs is another dead body--but when a well-known antiques dealer is found dead in an antique chest, Meg decides she needs to put her sleuthing skills back to work--especially since the police are quick to accuse the one college professor who actually seems willing to help Michael with his tenure status. Meg's investigation involves evesdropping from a dumbwaiter, dealing with her father's obsession with owls and owl droppings (they aren't what you think--at least not exactly), sorting out complicated family dealings, and learning that just about everyone in town had it in for the dead man. I admit that I'm a sucker for funny light mystery, and OWLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL fits the bill perfectly. The family interaction is charming. Author Donna Andrews does a fabulous job characterizing Meg, her brother Rob, and Meg's parents. The whole yard-sale thing will be familiar to anyone who's every hosted one, down to the early arrivals and funky excuses (even without the dead body in the trunk). If you're looking for a great mix of family and murder, OWLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL is a charmer.

A Hoot!

When Meg and Michael bought their house on the edge of town, they knew it would take lots of work. For one thing, it's old, so there's plenty of repair work. More immediate, the former owner was a pack rat, and they bought the house with all the contents as well. Now, after several months of hard work, they're ready for the yard sale to end all yard sales. With plenty of Meg's relatives on hand to "help" and sell their own items, it promises to be an event. The customers start coming before dawn. Among the first is local antiques dealer Gordon McCoy. Always out to make a quick buck, no one trusts him. Sure enough, he's quickly hording treasures in the barn to check out later, even though the barn is off limits because of the owls nesting there. But when a customer drags a trunk out of the barn, Gordon's body is locked inside. The police quickly zero in on one of Michael's fellow professors since he was seen wandering around the sale with the murder weapon. Since Meg is trying to win the man over as a friend, she sets out to make sure the police have a better suspect. With the yard sale temporarily on hold while the police investigate, Meg is able to dive in, especially since the crowd, suspects included, seem to be staying around the house hoping the sale will reopen. Can Meg deal with the restless crowd and solve the murder? With each book, I fall further in love with this series. I giggled and laughed my way through this entry. There are several funny sub-plots that weave their way through the book, and I think there are a larger then normal assortment of relatives, adding to the general wackiness. The mains storyline is handled well with some nice development the entire way through. Donna Andrews proves with each new book that she is at the top of her game. I can't wait to see what she does next.

in this series, one good tern deserves another

and we have a first rate turn in this volume. the usual cast of appealing characters is back, with some additions. the dialogue is wonderful, the puns are wonderful, the situations are hilarious, and the plot is wonderfully twisty and surprising. if you've been reading the previous books, you will definitely enjoy this one--the quality remains high. if you haven't read any of this series, start right now, then read this one.