Lord of the Wings

September 28, 2015
Newcomers to Andrews’s wacky little burg of Caerphilly, Va., may feel a bit overwhelmed by this comedy/mystery’s large cast (most of whom have appeared in 18 previous series entries). Fortunately, reader Dunne provides assistance in distinguishing, say, the mayor’s wife, who speaks with a chirpy hard r, from his special assistant, Lydia, whose faux perkiness can’t hide her inefficiency. Mayor Shiffley sounds a bit scattered himself, as opposed to Dr. Smoot, the town’s former coroner, whose orations are brimming with confidence. Smoot has a penchant for dressing like Dracula, which costs him his job, but Caerphilly’s 10-day Halloween celebration has elevated his prominence and enhanced the allure of his home’s conversion to a year-round haunted house, at least until a thief breaks in, which leads to a couple of murders. The series’ protagonist, Meg Langslow, an ornamental blacksmith moonlighting as the head of the Halloween-festival security, is solidly down to earth, strong in mind and body, and has an appealing sense of humor, all of which Dunne manages to convey. A Minotaur hardcover.

June 22, 2015
In Andrews’s endearing 19th Meg Langslow mystery (after 2014’s The Nightingale Before Christmas), the residents of Caerphilly, Va., go all out to celebrate Halloween by turning their little town into Spooky City. When a man who was playing pranks, or perhaps participating in a scavenger hunt that required scaring somebody with a fake body part, turns up dead at the local zoo run by Meg’s grandfather, Dr. Montgomery Blake, she enlists the aid of Mutant Wizards—the game development company of her brother, Rob—in ferreting out the culprit. But when the Haunted House, the home of a former medical examiner who apparently wants to be a vampire, is the site of burglary and arson, and Mayor Randall Shiffley’s assistant, Lydia Van Meter, vanishes, the search for answers becomes even murkier. As head of festival security, the Goblin Patrol, Meg is in the thick of things in a cozy sure to delight series fans and newcomers alike. Agent: Ellen Geiger, Frances Goldin Literary Agency.

Meg Langslow is facing double-duty while managing security for her town's Halloween festival and solving the mystery of why the Haunted House is attracting some truly ghoulish activity before it has even opened. The best part of this story is definitely narrator Bernadette Dunne, who captures with apparent ease a truly batty set of characters. Dunne's biggest trick is talking (intelligibly) like a man who is wearing fangs; her biggest treat is rendering personable and believable children's voices. But despite the presence of fangs, the humor that Andrews's novels are known for lacks its usual bite here. Even fans of this cozy series are unlikely to consider this Langslow outing among their favorites. K.W. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine