Birder, She Wrote

A Meg Langslow Mystery

By: Donna Andrews

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

"Listening to Bernadette Dunne perform the Meg Langslow audiobooks gives listeners a sense of coming home to a beloved family." —AudioFile on The Falcon Always Wings Twice

Meg is relaxing in the hammock, taste-testing Michael’s latest batch of Arnold Palmers and watching the hummingbirds at their feeders when her hopes for a relaxing early summer morning are dashed.

First her father recruits her to help him install a new batch of bees in the hive in her backyard. Then Mayor Shiffley recruits her to placate the NIMBYs (Not in my backyard), as she calls them—a group of newcomers to Caerphilly who have built McMansions next door to working farms and then do their best to make life miserable for the farmers. And finally Meg’s grandmother, shows up, trailed by a nosy reporter who is writing a feature on her for a genteel Southern ladies’ magazine.

Cordelia drafts Meg to accompany her and Deacon Washington of the New Life Baptist Church—and the reporter, alas—in their search for a long-lost African-American cemetery. Unfortunately what they discover is not an ancient cemetery but a fresh corpse. Can Meg protect her grandmother—and Caerphilly—from the reporter who seems to see the worst in everything . . . and help crack the case before the killer finds another victim?

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

©2022 Donna Andrews (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Excellent as always!

Have read and enjoyed every Meg Langslow mystery and always learn some new and interesting things!
Keep them coming please!

Another great books.

Bernadette reads the book well and keeps it interesting. Love the way she changes voices.

Great content also.

Entertaining as always

I really liked this outing. I do wish that Meg's family figured a little more in this story. For a while it seemed like everything was about her Grandfather but this time family was barely fit into the story

Another fun romp in Caerphilly

I really enjoyed this romp around Caerphilly. it did not disappoint, even if I figured out the culprit early.
i've read the Meg Lanslow mysteries for years. it was a treat to discover my library had the audiobooks, through which I fell in love with Bernadette Dunne's narration skills. Now I can't wait for the new releases to hit the library, so I often buy the audio book as soon as it's available.

Hummingbirds and bees!

cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth, apiary, pet-dog, family-dynamics, family, friendship, forensics, small-town, unpleasant-neighbors, situational-humor, verbal-humor, relatives, murder-investigation, murder, Virginia, law-enforcement, reporter, NIMBY, entitled-attitude*****
March 19, 2023
Welcome back to the addictive, funny cozy mystery series that is always a fun read even if you've never read any of the earlier ones.
Laugh your way through the suspects, zany family members, goofy homeowners and their McMansions, facts about bees, amazing plot twists, and red herrings!
This cannot be an unbiased review because I reread some of them (the print copies walk away so now I have them in audio) and wait with bated breath for each new one.
I requested and received an EARC from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you!
I preordered it and have enjoyed it even more on audio!

Love this series

Donna Andrews has done it again. This addition to the Meg Langslow is just as enjoyable as previous installments with a great mystery as well.
Bernadette Dunne, as always breathed life into the storyline and gave each character their own unique voice along the way.
I look forward to the next in this series.
I highly recommend this book/audiobook to fans of cozy mysteries.

As usual great

My favorite so far. Anxiously awaiting the release of the new book. Thank you for so many enjoyable hours.

Oh I love visiting with Meg and her family!

Donna Andrews author: 5 stars
Bernadette Dunn narrator: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars

What can I say? This story holds all my favorite things: the welfare of all inhabitants of the animal kingdom. In this case it is our humble bumble bees. Did you know that Albert Einstein predicted the end of humanity within 5 years of the loss of our greatest pollinators. These little critters may sting, but they keep us supplied in food and honey. Back in the 1960’s I remember my family and all our neighbors trying to eradicate our lawns from anything but grass. Families wanted a green grass carpet. Parents wanted to stop the danger of stinging critters around our children. We were crazy back then!

Meg Langslow, et al, are caring for their own honeybee hives and hummingbird stations. I learned so much about keeping these creatures healthy, happy, and inhabiting our properties. But she sneaks the information into her clever Murder mysteries and you don’t realize how much you have learned until the story is over.

While on a hike with her friends and family, the Pomeranian pups get a chance to practice scenting form cadavers. The purpose of the hike is to try and locate a long-lost graveyard dedicated to the enslaved people of long ago. It is hoped that the Poms can track scent with their powerful little noses. Imagine the excitement when the group believes they found the graveyard. Then imagine finding a fresh dead body very near by!

So many of our favorites make an appearance in this story that you will feel like you spent a week at a reunion with your nearest and dearest.

I’m not going to tell you anything else. But please know I loved this book and give it my highest RECOMMENDATION.

Good performance as usual

Good performance, but the story was long and tedious in places and the perpetrator was obvious — especially when Meg described the features of the blackmail letter, which she didn’t realize until near the end of the book.

Bee Aware! Good country murder story.

Enjoyed the story line. Loved the characters.
No ugliness.
No major violence. Just an old fashioned murder.