Book Review: Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Donna Andrews
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Woman Main Character
Series: Meg Lanslow # 4
St. Martin’s, Jan 2003, $23.95, 320 pp.

A blacksmith cannot work with only one hand so when Rob Langslow asks his sister to take on the job as office manager, Meg can’t think of a reason to refuse although she wishes she could. Being office manager at Mutant Wizards is a cross between being a den mother at a college dorm or perhaps an older sister to a pack of brilliant eccentric adult children. Rob thinks something is wrong at the company and he wants Meg to find out what it is.

With all the craziness going on at the company Meg doesn’t have a clue what is going on until someone is murdered on the automated mail cart and everyone in the company has a reason to want to see him dead. Meg finds a list showing the victim is trying to blackmail many of the workers at the company and once she breaks the code she’s sure she will find the perpetrator. Unfortunately, the killer doesn’t give Meg time to decipher the data before the culprit makes another move.

One of the reasons this series is so successful is that Donna Andrews keeps moving the heroine into a different environment with each new novel. This ensures the story line remains fresh and original as Meg leaps into new arenas. CROUCHING BUZZARD, LEAPING LOON is a humorous amateur sleuth novel that will have the audience chuckling out loud at some of the events that take place in various portions of the novel especially in the office space. The support cast is so loony that they manage to make the lead champion look like a levelheaded, down-to-earth changeling sort of like Marilyn Munster.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner