Die Like an Eagle: A Meg Langslow Mystery

family, family-dynamics, teamwork, situational-humor, verbal-humor, amateur-sleuth, murder-investigation, law-enforcement, rivalry, baseball Play ball! Summer in Caerphilly means grade school softball, but not everyone is sportsmanlike. Meg finds the body in the only latrine but even she isn't so sure that it's the intended victim. Too many suspects, lots of other issues, and then there's the family. Well, at least she's able to point out the perfect property for cousin Festus! Hope everyone enjoys this one as much as I did! Bernadette Dunne continues to be excellent as narrator!

Too many notes. Although the writing was good there was way too many details. I just skipped whole portions. The conclusion came out of nowhere. I didn't even have a clue and that was not a good thing.

Meg Langslow Waterson and her husband Michael have entered their kids Josh and Jaime into a coach pitch baseball league called Summerball. Michael is a coach along with a father named Chuck, who doesn't seem to know what he's doing. Others with more experience were blackballed because they are a woman like Chuck's wife or because of their past run-ins with Biff Brown who is running the league this year. The league is run this year by Biff Brown whom the parents set up Summerball to avoid dealing with him under Little League which he ran. Biff would make up local rules at the drop of a hat. He also berated the two teams he coached. But he had loyal parents that believed in him just as he had parents that were too scared to cross him, but silently hated what he was doing.On top of that his construction company was in charge of the upkeep of the ballfield which was a disaster. It also only had one porta potty which was nasty. When Meg found out about this she became determined to give it to someone else like the Shiffley's Construction Company to take it over and fix it and give them flush toilets. Also, Biff has a contract with the city of Caerphilly to fix up the town square by Memorial Day but he has yet to start. Meg has made numerous calls to his office but he won't take her call or call her back. When she finally meets him at the ballfield he weasels out of talking to her about it and skedaddles.Biff had invited a big wig from Summerball, Mr. Witherington to throw out the first pitch. Meg and the mayor, her boss, see this as an opportunity to oust Biff from running the league if they can show Mr. Witherington that he is unfit. On Opening Day Meg goes to force the porta potty door open for one of the kids and discovers a body that looks like Biff but turns out to be his half-brother Shep who was supposed to be the umpire of the game. He had been shot sometime last night and shoved inside the porta potty.Chief Burke believes that it's possible that the killer mistook Shep for Biff as the two look very similar to each other especially in the dark. Shep didn't have many enemies, but Biff had a long list of them including the parents of the baseball league and his customers of a construction company who are suing him and a vengeful soon-to-be ex-wife. Though Shep did have an insurance policy that was made out to his brother, his ex-wife didn't know that. His brother likely did and Biff was broke and needed money.Andrews has written another great mystery where you're back and forth on who could possibly have done it until she unties the plot at the end with the distinction of a magician going "Abracadabra". The character of Shep's ex-wife Callie is so hilarious with her red hair that is not a shade in nature, piled high on top of her head, wearing the highest heels, and wearing the oddest clothing that doesn't necessarily cover all of her body, such as the bra she wore as a top. And she was never sober. I really liked this book and I give it four out of five stars.

Cozy mystery author, Donna Andrews, delivers, yet again, a charming and amusing cozy mystery. This time it's all about baseball and the rules of the game - on and off the field. Meg Langslow's two sons are playing for the Caerphilly Eagles and were just about to play. That is until the playing field grounds suddenly became a murder crime scene. Can the field be cleared in to for a very tight playing schedule and what about the imminent threat of rain. Meg's unofficially on the case and reports her findings back to Chief Burke. Something fishy is going on with the league and while we're at it, might that have anything to do with a motive for murder? Ride along with Meg and try and keep up. It's never a dull moment in this supermom's world.Synopsis (from inside book's front cover):Meg is Team Mom and Michael is coach of their twin sons' youth baseball team, the Caerphilly Eagles. Meg tangles with Biff Brown, the petty, vindictive league head. On opening day, Biff's lookalike brother is found dead in the porta-potty at the ball field. So many people think Biff's scum that it would be easy to blame him, but he has an alibi--and Meg suspects he may actually have been the intended victim.

In the latest entry in this long-running series, Meg's twin boys are old enough to play community baseball. The local Little League collapsed a few years ago because a very controlling leader drove most of the parents to Summerball instead. Unfortunately, Biff Brown followed them and is now running Summerball as his private fiefdom instead. Even more unfortunately, Meg has been butting heads with him, trying unsuccessfully to get him to honor his construction contract with the town of Caerfilly. Since this is a mystery novel, Biff is the obvious candidate for next body. But Andrews is not that obvious.People who have been following Meg Langslow's adventures already know that they want to read this book. People who like cosy mysteries but haven't yet discovered this series are in for a treat.Fun.

Number 20 - a milestone in any series, and Andrews has never once in 20 books disappointed me. Some that are weaker than others, but they're always entertaining and Meg's family just grows on you, until you often care more about them than the mystery itself. Die Like an Eagle centers on the fictional equivalent of Little League baseball. Meg's boys are old enough to start playing, and Michael's the assistant coach. Meg, of course, is the team mom. She soon learns that not everything is cool in the field of dreams, as the league is run by a despot who claims that it doesn't earn its keep, so the kids are forced to play on an overgrown field while the parents occasionally fall off the bleachers as the bolts give way. Meg to the rescue! With her over flowing well of common sense and a massive family at her disposal, she sets off fixing what's broke and going head to head with the league despot - and finds his look-alike brother dead in the feral port-a-potty, but was he the intended victim? I loved this book - I gave it four stars because the mystery was good, but the murderer was telegraphed early on - but the rest of it...I'm going to go all John Lennon here for a moment and say the non-mystery part of this book is how the world should be. This is how shit should work. Andrews has Meg look at a problem, break it down into its components and fix them one at a time. She is never about who to blame; she's just about finding a solution and the people around her who are willing to cooperate and participate. Not all of them are, of course, but enough to make a difference. It leaves the not-yet-too-cynical reader feeling good when the book is done. Bring on 21!

Die Like an Eagle is another fun addition to the Meg Lanslow series by Donna Andrews. Meg and Michael's twin sons are on a local baseball team, but the league is run by a tyrant that makes what should be a fun experience stressful instead. Biff is the league president and sets arbitrary rules that always seem to favor his teams. He's also the owner of a construction company which is hired by the town of Caerphily and Meg's job involves overseeing his work, but he ignores all of his calls. Then Meg finds a body...was it a case of mistaken identity? Is Biff the intended victim...or the killer? This was a good mystery, but lacked some of the wackiness of Meg's wonderful family.

DIE LIKE AN EAGLE BY DONNA ANDREWS. Yes folks its not only baseball season its Meg Langslow's newest novel ! And lo and behold this mystery is surrounded by baseball,go figure! Seriously, folks, if you love the cozy mystery type of book you will love Meg's adventures. Armed with her Notebook That Tells Her When To Breath, Meg is pitched into another murder, this time the bodies in the port o potty. I keep reading these because there comes a time when the stress of the world is bearing down that I need to get some crazy fiction in my life and Meg and her family of wacky individuals make me laugh and make me forget the troubles of the day. If you like the cozy mystery and strange family members like Meg's then read DIE LIKE AN EAGLE BY DONNA ANDREWS and brighten up your day a little.

I'm annoyed because the book itself was a good book. Funny and all that, but there were no relevant clues that I could see. The murderer was a surprise because we didn't have the information until the end.

Die Like An Eagle (2016) by Donna Andrews. Meg Langslow, star of this 20th addition to the series written by Ms. Andrews, is the kind of woman people love to hate. Every small town needs at least one “Alpha” female to take charge of just about everything just to make sure anything gets done. And she is just an ideal small town sleuth who butts into everyone’s troubles especially when there is a murder involved. Caerphilly has a lot of murders, so many that it makes me wonder why any one would want to live there. I suppose many people don’t want to but are to lazy to move away.Anyway, a murdered man is found stuffed in a portable toilet at the little kids baseball diamond. While not a nice man in life, Meg suspects it was his brother Biff who was the real target.A whole bunch of snooping ensues, some veiled threats are made. Meg pries into yet more small town seediness, and her husband happily tends to their flock of children.This is a nice read, nothing too thrilling or dangerous happens, and of course Meg solves the crime. Why Caerphilly even needs police is beyond me.