Die Like an Eagle

June 27, 2016
In Agatha-winner Andrews’s charming 20th Meg Langslow mystery (after 2015’s Lord of the Wings), tenacious Meg must tangle with the dictatorial Summerball Youth Baseball League president and town contractor, Biff Brown. As special assistant to the mayor of Caerphilly, Va., Meg has had the job of hounding dodgy Biff about his unfulfilled government contracts. He’s clearly responsible for the dilapidated baseball field, where one day before a game the umpire, who happens to be Biff’s half-brother, is found dead of a gunshot wound inside the ball field’s lone portable toilet. Was Biff the culprit? Since plenty of people around the league (and the town, and the county), including family members, have a beef with Biff, Meg suspects that the bullet that hit his look-alike half-brother was really meant for him. As always, Meg turns sleuth and jumps to the rescue when needed. With its well-spun plots and distinctive characters, Andrews’s amusing avian-named series shows no signs of growing stale. Agent: Ellen Geiger, Frances Goldin Literary Agency.

October 3, 2016
Reader Dunne uses what may be a perfect mom voice for Meg, the amateur sleuth at the center of the Meg Langslow cozy mystery series. It’s a voice that’s comforting, good-natured, and sensible, attributes Andrews has written into her seemingly tireless overachiever who effortlessly balances family life with unmasking wily villains. Her 20th investigation involves the death of an umpire of her twin sons’ junior baseball league. Bill Brown’s body is discovered in a mobile toilet at the ballfield. Bill may not have been Mr. Popularity, but his look-alike half-brother, Biff, is loathed and despised by most of the little town of Caerphilly, Virginia. Was the wrong brother bumped off, or might the unloved Biff be the murderer? For the audio edition, reader Dunne focuses her vocal stylings on other characters in addition to the story’s protagonist. There’s the ill-tempered, gravel-throated Biff, and the likable members of Meg’s multigenerational clan, including the energetic twins (whose voices resemble Bart Simpson’s minus the attitude), and her cheery, soft-spoken mother, who can whip up a picnic for 100 in the blink of an eye. A Minotaur hardcover.