Murder with Peacocks (Meg Langslow Mystery, #1)

by Donna Andrews

In this winner of the 1997 St Martin's Malice Domestic Award, plans for three family weddings in one summer are made even more hectic by murder. All indications lead to foul play, and subsequent disasters heighten the atmosphere of unease

• ISBN10: 0312199295
• ISBN13: 9780312199296
• Publish Date: 1 January 1999
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 13 December 2008
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Harmless, clean, escapist fun. Don't expect to be challenged, but it's definitely a good '15 minutes on the bus' commute book.

[layawaydragon]

When first reading this, I didn't like it. It was pretentious with a ridiculous cast of unbelievable rich white people running around like morons. The author hardly took any time to describe the places, or people for that matter, unless the Meg decided to use her so called wit to describe them. Like what the hell does the houses and rooms actually look like or Micheal the love interest for that matter, or good lord, Meg herself? I do however know what Berry the "slow" creeper Meg hates look like. I wanted to put it down and hate it but since I hate leaving things unfinished even more, I finished it. I want to preserve my list of its-so-horrible-I-couldn't-finish-it list and didn't want to add a so-so book to it.

Its an amateur cozy-mystery and it is actually more about the cast of clowns the authors wants us to believe than anything else. Meg did hardly any sleuthing and the mystery itself was so underrated because Meg herself was hardly bothered by it. There was no suspense about it, no build up, it was utterly lame on the mystery front. Its more of a rich white eccentric family and chaos ensues kind of book, like a family vacation summer movie. The murders were just mentioned as an inconvenience to the family in the background most of the time. Someone rids off a cliff in your backyard RIGHT in FRONT of YOU because someone tampered with it trying to kill your father and its just thank god we found someone to replace him as an usher in the wedding? WTF?

But Oh lord! Nobody is enjoying the party or eating the food because of a would be poisoner, oh woes me. Get the mentally challenged person to test all the food to ensure its safe for you. Yes, that character is a major creep but I have major problems with the privilege and bigotry shown in this book. The author totally nails the selfish stuck snobs that are completely intolerance so well it makes me wonder about the author herself.


This is the part that frustrates me,it picked up beyond page 100 and I actually laughed out loud at several places. So despite everything, this book definitely gets points for making me laugh. I don't want to like this book but few authors make me laugh out loud.

I hope it picks up in the next book or its going to be a long love-hate relationship. I can't believe I'm reading more. I hate that I even like it a little, even if its because it made me laugh.