Owls Well that Ends Well has not yet been reviewed at ParaNormalRomance Reviews.
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"Satirical amateur sleuth mystery"
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 27, 2005 on The Best Reviews
SummaryEver since Murder with Peacocks won the Malice Domestic
Contest (not to mention the Agatha and Anthony awards for
best first novel), Donna Andrews has kept readers
laughing. As Publishers Weekly says of Crouching Buzzard,
Leaping Loon, "There's a smile on every page and at least
one chuckle per chapter."
But the secret of Andrews's humor isn't sharp gags and one-
liners. From Meg Langslow and her boyfriend, Michael, to
the minor characters who cross the stage and disappear,
Andrews writes about real people, and invites the reader
to join in the fun.
In Owls Well That Ends Well, Meg and Michael have bought a
very elderly house from the estate of the uncrowned Queen
of the Packrats. She bought everything and kept it all.
When the house became overcrowded, she moved the overflow
into the barn. When the barn was crammed, she began
filling the property's sheds. When she died,
her "holdings" left the various grandnieces and
grandnephews with decades of junk. They avoid the job of
cleaning it up by selling the place "as is" to Meg and
Michael, sticking them with the lot. Their solution: a
yard sale.
As always, Meg's large family flocks in to offer their
dubious help. Many even come with junk of their own to add
to the sale. Meg's mother, sure that Meg has taken care of
all the "treasures," turns to drawing up elaborate
redecorating plans. Meg's dad, newly elected president of
SPOOR (Stop Poisoning Our Owls and Raptors) shoulders the
cause of the endangered baby owls and their mother that
live in the barn. His further contribution is the
announcement that anyone who arrives in costume earns a
ten percent discount.
Meg is coping (barely) with all this until the body of a
local antique dealer is discovered in an old trunk. She
and her dad have a further shock: the trunk is in the
barn, in reckless disregard of Dad's beloved newborn owls.
The police temporarily close the sale down to investigate.
When the professor who can swing the vote in favor of
Michael's tenure becomes a suspect, Meg decides that the
only way to prove his innocence, and avoid being stuck
with several tons of unsold junk, is to find the killer
herself, and quickly.
Andrews's amusing signature spin on mystery and a new
assortment of feathery friends make this a priceless
addition to the series.
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