kgbooklog

Donna Andrews, "The Haire of the Beast"
Ace (2008) ISBN: 978-0-441-01633-4
Score: 1

A college student finds a grimoire with a spell to turn people into werewolves.

Donna Andrews, Cockatiels at Seven
Thomas Dunne (2008) ISBN: 0-312-37715-0
Score: -1

Ninth Meg Langslow mystery, in which the heroine gets some experience raising a child. Key characters deliberately did not do things they obviously needed to do to avoid suspicion, and the heroine's wacky family stopped being amusing a few books ago. I'm not going to continue the series.

Donna Andrews, The Penguin Who Knew Too Much
St. Martin's (2007) ISBN: 0-312-32942-3
Score: 1.5

Eighth Meg Langslow mystery, in which she and her fiance try to move into their new house (and finally elope), complicated by having to host a bunch of animals when the local zoo goes bankrupt.

Donna Andrews, No Nest for the Wicket
St. Martins (2006) ISBN: 0-312-32940-7
Score: 1.5

Seventh Meg Langslow mystery, dealing with eXtreme croquet and questionable Civil War battles. Typical of the series.

Next Book: papersky, Farthing

Donna Andrews, Delete All Suspects
Berkley (2005) ISBN: 0-425-20569-X
Score: 3

Fourth of the Turing Hopper techno cozy mysteries. Turing is a sapient AI, but that's the only SF bit in the series (which you should read in order, starting with You've Got Murder). Structurally, this book is the same as the previous: Tim (a PI) asks for help on a case, people die, Big Villain seems involved in some way, overall story arc advances slightly. Each book does have its own story arc, but the author is clearly in no hurry to resolve anything concerning the Big Villain. Which may be a good thing, since I'm not sure I like the direction that seems to be going.

Next Book: Kristine Smith, Code of Conduct

4-3-05
Donna Andrews, Owls Well that Ends Well
St. Martin's (2005) ISBN: 0-312-32938-5
Score: 2.5

Sixth book of the Meg Langslow series (amateur detective mysteries). Like the first book (Murder with Peacocks) Meg is in charge of organizing a large family event, this time a yard sale. The plot follows the established pattern: guy everybody hates is killed, Meg has personal reasons to prove the innocence of the guy arrested, murderer exposes himself by trying to kill Meg. The characters are still fun to watch, and with Meg's family, it's not too surprising she trips over a corpse every week.