After transporting several unruly prisoners by herself and handing them off to her father, Meg Langslow gave him a stern warning about how much trouble they could be. But he didn’t believe her, and when he carelessly opened the cage a little too close to the house, he found out just how unruly those peacocks could be. The large birds attacked the grills where dinner was being prepared as well as several nearby relatives. The chickens knew to run for cover, and the llamas did their best to protect them. It wasn’t until the neighbor’s dog showed up with his herding expertise that they were able to get the peacocks contained in a back field by themselves.
These weren’t Meg’s usual peacocks. The family peacocks were molting, and Mother couldn’t have that for the wedding. She needed beautiful peacocks that could strut around and add grace and elegance to the celebration. However, these borrowed peacocks did not seem up to the job. Unless they could just look good from a distance.
Picking up the replacement peacocks was one of Meg’s few wedding tasks, since she and her husband Michael were already offering their home for the big family wedding of Meg’s brother Rob and his fiancée Delaney. And Meg was also trying to find out who might be trying to kill her nephew Kevin and his friend Casey. That took precedent over the wedding tasks.
Kevin and Casey had started a true crime podcast about cold cases in Virginia, and one night someone had tried to run Casey over as he was walking home. Kevin and Casey are great with internet research, but they lack skills for investigating in the real world, so Kevin asked Meg to help them out. As she had solved a murder or twenty in the past, she has the experience they lack. And she took an attack on family, or near family, seriously, so she wanted to find out what she could about the almost hit-and-run.
Kevin went through their podcast cases and came up with three episodes that might have riled some feathers. While most of their cases are old enough that there is no one still living who had been involved, there are a few that happened more recently and could have caused someone to panic. Twenty years ago, a female musician had gone missing right before she was about to sign a contract. The local college had a cheating scandal that had ended with two students getting expelled and a professor committing suicide. And a prisoner recently released, a man who had always claimed innocence from the crime, may have been wrongly imprisoned after all, possibly even set up by an unethical sheriff.
As Meg finds herself travelling around, asking questions about these three cases, she collects witnesses and information, suspect ideas, and a possible way to burgle the business school for information. She works with her local police chief to trade information, so he could work on the more dangerous ideas while Meg keeps chipping away at the facts she could access. But she still finds that there are moments that she feels a little unsettled, like she’s being watched. Will she be able to find the answers she needs and keep herself and her favorite podcasters safe long enough to see the big wedding, or will someone try to cover up old crimes by committing a new one?
Round Up the Usual Peacocks is the 31st mystery in Donna Andrews’s loveable Meg Langslow series. These bird-themed mysteries revolve around Meg and her large extended family. As a part-time blacksmith, part-time assistant to the mayor, part-time investigator, and full-time wife, mother, and keeper of the sanity for her parents and grandfather, Meg has her work cut out for her each time. But with a large support system, a lot of common sense, protective animals, and her notebook-that-tells-her-when-to-breathe, Meg is up for any task that she faces.
I have been a big fan of Meg and her family for a very long time (since the series was back in single digits), and I think Andrews just keeps getting better. Round Up the Usual Peacocks is not a typical cozy, but having Meg juggle three investigations at once in her killer style brought so much fresh energy to this novel. There was never a dull moment, and while I could see some of those reveals coming from early on, I still got completely caught up.
Readers who are getting a little tired of the traditional cozy format might find this series a breath of fresh air. For me, they’re a way to reconnect with old friends. If you’ve not read any of the Langslow mysteries yet, be prepared for a large cast of characters. But they’re all great fun, and there is always room for another at the table, so grab a plate and pull up a chair. You’re about to make a whole bunch of new friends. Although prepare yourself—some of those friends may be llamas. And you may end up sorting confetti, to pick out the ugly green ones.
Egalleys for Round Up the Usual Peacocks were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
