No Nest for the Wicket (Meg Langslow Mysteries) - Hardcover

Andrews, Donna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312329407 ISBN 13: 9780312329402

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2006

Synopsis

Croquet is a genteel game, usually played on a summer afternoon on a tranquil green lawn. Extreme Croquet is a whole other story. That's what Meg Langslow and her new friends (whether she wants to call them friends or not) are playing on the several-acre farm of her new neighbor.  It's a countryside studded with rocks, steep hills, and placid, seemingly immovable cows.
            Extreme Croquet is the current rage in Caerphilly, where Meg and her fiancé, Michael, have bought a house. While this society game can get quite warm, it hasn't reached the stage of actual homicide---at least not until Meg knocks her ball down a small cliff and encounters the body of a dead woman.  Her head has been bashed in, illustrating, perhaps, one of the many uses of a croquet mallet. It turns out that Michael knew the woman from years before.  Meg finds herself further drawn in when it's discovered that the woman was seeking to expose the bad dealings of a certain local society lady's ancestors.
            In the meantime, the old house needs many basic improvements and swarms with an entire family of working men, including countless second cousins, sawing and pounding away.  Meg's father is the overseer but is easily distracted since he has a tendency to become wrapped up in his current animal charges---this time it's ducks.       
            One of the beauties of fiction is that you can enjoy reading about someone who has been knocked on the head and killed.  The particular joy that Donna Andrews offers mystery lovers everywhere is the wonderful gift of laughter.  Her novels, filled with crazy relatives, puzzling murders, and the hilarious conquests of Meg, make for a combination found nowhere else. Fine-feathered friends are only one of the treats in this award-winning series from Donna Andrews, an author whose name has become synonymous with lighthearted, knee-slapping fun.
 

About this title

From the Back Cover:

LINE YOUR DUCKS UP IN A ROW...
The hilly terrain next to the old Sprocket house that Meg Langslow and her fiancé, Michael, are refurbishing is the perfect location for an "extreme" croquet field―even the legs of cows and sheep are convenient extra wickets. A sport traditionally reserved for genteel society, croquet has become all the rage in Caerphilly...until it appears someone in town has taken the "rage" a bit too literally.

AND KNOCK 'EM DEAD.
While stumbling down a steep bank after her ball, Meg encounters the body of a fresh female corpse with a mallet-sized dent in her head. If that isn't reason enough to call a time-out, it turns out that Michael knew the woman from years before. Ever curious, Meg decides that playing arm-chair sleuth is far more important than working on her game...and soon she finds herself in the perfect position to solve the murder mystery―or become the next victim.

"If you long for more `fun' mysteries, a la Janet Evanovich, you'll love Donna Andrews's Meg Langslow series."
―The Charlotte Observer

About the Author:

Donna Andrews's first mystery, Murder with Peacocks, won the Agatha, Anthony, and Barry wards, a Romantic Times award for best first novel, and a Lefty for funniest mystery. She spends her free time gardening at her home in Reston, Virginia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0312329407
• ISBN 13: 9780312329402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272