Between a Flock and a Hard Place by Donna Andrews

Available: August 6, 2024

Rated: 5 turkeys

Meg is as busy as she's ever been when a local neighborhood is swarmed by a flock of wild turkeys. The turkeys have been plaguing Caerphilly for months but they'd been gradually steered to the edge of town before suddenly showing up en masse in the middle of a home renovation show. As the angry homeowner barks orders, Meg, Randall Shiffley, and the chief of police are trying to figure out who got the birds there and how they did it (we never do figure out the how). When the angry homeowner turns up dead, the easier question to answer would be "who didn't want to kill her?" Narrowing down the suspects may be even more difficult than wrangling dozens of wild turkeys!

This is one of my favorite cozy series and one of few that I binge read. I love Meg and Michael and Josh and Jamie and Spike and Rose Noire and Grandfather and all the crazy characters that appear in the story. I think my favorite thing about the series is how they all find their perfect selves in this idyllic little town. Horace started out as this timid man who hid inside a mascot uniform and now he's a renowned forensic scientist (he still has his fears but they're much more relatable). Rose Noire was kind of flighty and no one really appreciated her unique skills, now she's the resident fixer of everything from breakfast to minor health issues (both physical and mental) to gardening. Even Meg started out as a young woman (literally) banging out a life for herself and by just being herself she found love and a new home and great purpose.

This book seemed a bit slow in the middle. The focus was mainly on the turkeys and their efforts to get the turkeys out of town to Grandfather's zoo. The murder was investigated and there were lots of suspects but there weren't really a lot of clues gathered and the woman had so repulsed the entire neighborhood that everyone had a motive, we didn't do a lot of narrowing-down of our suspect list. But then... the last few dozen pages have some big (HUGE) reveals that brought everything together. The ending was so great and so unexpected (for me) I could forgive a bit of drag in the middle.

Meg is a must read for any fan of cozy mysteries and a great starting place for anyone who maybe has never read a cozy and is interested in trying them out. This is not a series that can be read out of order though, there are a bazillion characters and unless the books are read in order I think they would be hard to follow. The characters are introduced gradually and very well-developed so when reading in order it's not at all difficult to keep track of who is who.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.