Lord of the Wings

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.

August 1, 2015

It's Halloween in Caerphilly, VA, and Meg's zany family is at it again. Grandpa opens a "Creatures of the Night" exhibit at the zoo, but then a body surfaces and a suspicious fire at the haunted house has everyone in jitters. Someone definitely wants to mar the town's creepy fun, so it's up to Meg to save the festivities. This 19th series entry (after The Nightingale Before Christmas) is another winner.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
Halloween is fast approaching, and Caerphilly's 10-day Halloween Festival is in full swing. This time volunteer extraordinaire Meg Langslow is only in charge of the Visitor Relations and Police Liaison Patrol, more commonly known as the Goblin Patrol, since Mayor Randall Shiffley hired Lydia Van Meter to run the festival. However, when fake body parts turn up in exhibits at the local zoo, followed by two murders and an attack on Dr. Smoot, owner of the festival's Haunted House, Meg assists Chief Burke with his investigation. They soon learn LARPers (live action role players) are acting out a creepy scavenger hunt in Caerphilly with a game master who may be bent on murder. With the town overrun by vampires, zombies, and other creatures of the night, Meg, the Goblin Patrol, and her grandfather's group of animal activists, Blake's Brigade, work to find the miscreants and a murdererwhose crimes may be tied to old family secrets. Quirky, sympathetic characters, from Meg's large extended family to a town full of Shiffley cousins, are woven throughout this fun, humorous, atmospheric cozy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

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.