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| The Penguin Who Knew Too Much (Meg Langslow Mysteries) | 
 enlarge | Author: Donna Andrews
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $3.45
You Save: $3.54 (51%)
New (23) Used (13) from $2.51
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 25130
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0312997922
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312997922
ASIN: 0312997922
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New Book! Delivered direct from our US warehouse in 3-6 days (Expedited) or 10-14 days (Standard). Expedited shipping recommended for speedy delivery. Over 1 million satisfied customers.
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Product Description
Meg Langslow never thought that moving into a new home with her fiancee would be easy. But a Virginia basement full of arctic penguins? And a dead body? That’s just bad manners…from Meg and Michael’s perspective, at least. As for Meg’s father, he took in the penguins as a favor to the bankrupt Caerphilly Zoo, where they’re set to return just as soon as the zoo’s fundraising efforts pay off. Problem is that the zoo-keeper himself has gone missing—and only the animals know the truth about his whereabouts. Now it’s up to Meg to find out more about her DOA houseguest…before the ice melts on this very cold case.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 This jocular whodunit is a terrific tale August 11, 2007
8 out of 12 found this review helpful
Meg Langslow and her fiance Michael Waterston are moving into their renovated home in Caerphilly, Virginia with the help (an extremely loose use of the word help that is) of her dad and her relatives from mom's side. Dad suddenly leaves the basement to inform his daughter that he ran into a slight problem while digging a swimming hole for the penguins he adopted from a bankrupt zoo; he dug up a corpse.
The police investigate, but struggle with identifying the John Doe. The assumption made by the townsfolk and fostered by Meg's family is that the deceased is the bankrupt zoo's missing owner. Thus those who were fostering animals no longer want them on their property so they drop them off at Meg's place. Meg and Michael discuss eloping early to elude the menagerie; that is the two legged beasts who share her DNA. However, first there is a question of who killed and interred the body in their basement.
This jocular whodunit is a terrific tale that will leave the audience laughing especially with some outrageous slapstick yet the humor remains inside a strong mystery. The incredibly calm Meg does not blink as animals run amok and her family is even more out of control. Fans will appreciate her calm juggling act as Donna Andrews provides a great entry in what may be the best humor-mystery series on the market today.
Harriet Klausner
Donna Andrews has done it again. August 27, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Once again Donna Andrews has given us a wild and wacky mystery.
This book starts off with Meg's father joyfully asking her to guess what he's found in the basement. She jokingly answers "A body?" and he replies "Oh, rats---you already knew? Well, how soon will the police get here? I need to move the penguins---we don't want them any more upset then they already are."
Meg is off and running from there. With the dubious help of family and friends Meg and Michael are moving into their renovated house, throwing an over the top house warming party and planning to elope in the middle of it all. Now Meg has to add solving the murder to her list of things to do.
Like the other books in this series, this is a well written mystery that is also highly amusing. Anyone who has read the rest of the series will be glad to attend another Hollingsworth get-together with a little murder on-the-side. For those who are new to Meg's world, get ready to enjoy the ride.
 Laughs, Murder, and Zoo Animals September 3, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Meg and Michael are finally moving into their new house. All of Meg's relatives are coming to help. And in the middle of the house warming party to follow, Meg and Michael plan to slip away to elope.
Everyone is just beginning to work when Meg's dad appears, announces he found a body in the basement while digging a swimming pit for the penguins, and disappears again.
Dead body? Penguins? Unfortunately, both prove to be true.
The penguins are refugees from the local zoo which has closed temporarily due to poor financial management. And they are just the beginning of the animals that begin to show up since Meg's dad has volunteered to take care of any animals that need to be watched.
Even worse, the body turns out to be the zoo's owner. Now Meg has a few days to find the killer and solve her sudden animal problem or risk watching her carefully planned elopement fall apart. Can she do it?
The books in this series are always funny, and this book is no exception. I chuckled and laugh the entire way through. There are some great new characters that provide some of the best laughs of the book. And, of course, there are the antics of the animals as well.
The plot suffered a little at the expense of the comedy. It starts out strong and develops pretty evenly. But the ending seems rushed to me.
Frankly, fans of the series won't care. They'll be laughing so hard at the antics of animal and human alike. This is another treat from a master of humor.
Much better effort! August 29, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is much better than her last one (No Rest for the Wicket) and it's a promising return to form for Ms Andrews.
The plot is excellent and the funny lines are back again, as well as the expected rich and colourful cast of characters.
If I have a quibble, it's that Meg's Dad has finally lost his charm and become selfishly oblivious to anything but his own interests. He's happy to abuse Meg's good nature for his own ends. Not only that - he's become stupid. Why on earth would a supposedly intelligent man dig a pond for penguins in Meg's unsuitable basement when there was already a real, outdoor pond available just across the road? The 'Virginia heat' explanation doesn't wash, since the penguins are re-located to the pond almost immediately, and Dr Langslow doesn't give a damn about the heat or the animals' welfare by then... It's a plot device, but with a little more effort there could have been any number of more logical ways to reveal the body.(Ok, it's fiction and I'm picky, but these inconsistencies do jar...)
Apart from that, I really enjoyed the strong story and hope Ms Andrews carries on raising her game. Not as good as 'Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon' but it does give me hope for the next one in the series...
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much (A Meg Langslow Mystery) September 6, 2007
Loved it! Have read it repeatedly, and I keep laughing at the antics of Meg's odd family and neighbors. Somehow, I begin to feel that I know them pretty well.
Thanks to Donna Andrews for another great book! I have all her others, in well-worn condition, and am looking forward to her next!
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