Family fun!

I love this family! I'm going to suggest a "milder" version of extreme croquet to my family! So much of this rings true with my family. It's a fun read that you actually figure out as they do! I'll be checking out more of this series!

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This is an EXTREMELY fun murder mystery!

Another older book in the Meg Langslow series was recently released. I was very happy with the opportunity to "hear" this book. Take a nice genteel game of croquet and turn it into an extreme game filled with cows, sheep, barking dogs, college students, a gaggle of women, and a dead body. What? Who is the dead person and why oh why is the body found at the edge of the tournament grounds? This zany book is filled with intrigue, extremely competitive women of a certain age, college students, and Meg's crazy family and friends. I loved this book when I first read it years ago and it translates beautifully into an audio version. There is plently to laugh about in this cozy mystery and I highly recommend it to one and all. Audible, please release this entire series in the audio format.

2 people found this helpful

A bird mystery book

I loved this book and I think anyone with a sense of humor will enjoy it too. Donna Andrews takes one duck and one tournament of unusual croquet; and creates a teaser of a title for another fun, funny, and creative story.
The narrator Burnadette Dunne has had practice bring Andrews characters to life, because she's been the narrator for many of Donna Andrews books.
I couldn't put this book down and I have already downloaded the next book!

Fun and full of surprises!

One of her best yet. The characters are well developed and the plot twists and turns keep the reader wondering what could possibly happen next! Really a fun listen.

Fun with Xtreme Croquet!

Donna Andrews really comes through with her seventh book in her “bird series,” No Nest for the Wicket . Meg Langslow’s relative Mrs. Fenniman has decided to organize a croquet tournament, but in her own unique style, she can’t run just any old traditional tournament. She has to hold a tournament of Xtreme croquet, with crazy obstacles taking place in pastures of two acres filled with quicksand, rivers, and “walking wickets,” since players can get points for going through a wicket by sending their ball under any animal in the field. When Meg’s ball gets “roqueted” into a sand trap, she finds the body of a beautiful young woman staring at her, but no one in the tournament claims any knowledge of the victim.

Then Michael, Meg’s drama professor fiance, comes home and recognizes the victim as his ex-girlfriend. Fortunately, Michael has an alibi, but his explanation of Lindsey, the victim, reveals that almost everyone in the tournament had known her during her year as a history lecturer at Caerphilly College.

The case seems to involve a battle over a proposed new outlet mall that might be located next door to Meg and Michael’s new farm. This then gets wrapped up in a historical enigma, the Civil War’s Battle of Pruitt’s Ridge, which might have taken place at the proposed development site. But then why had Lindsey been so interested in the topic and hinting that she could show anomalies about it if not given her way in other matters?

As in the other books in this series that have been recorded, Bernadette Dunne does a fine job of performing the narration of this book.

No Nest for the Wicket is one of the best books in this series. Not only is the premise of Xtreme Croquet so wildly ridiculous as to be hilarious, the angles the investigation takes, as they uncover first one person and then another who knew Lindsey, is done very creatively. The historical research also made this book extra enjoyable. I give this book five stars and eagerly await the audio releases of the other books yet to be recorded.

Great job

Love this book funny but mysterious kept guessing until the last chapter. the voices great.

Great series

Finding the lake to a bird that is normally in this series was a bit harder than normal, and I only get five star ratings to the audio level if it has multiple voice actors however this one is close the extreme Koke event everything happens around us another interesting fact I would advise this one for calm people who love comedy and murder mysteries to check it out. The mistakes in this wording is due to using a voice input system.

Engaging but weak story line

I enjoy this mystery series. I’ve read 4 in the series so far. This one I didn’t find as captivating as the first 3 i’ve Read. The story line was a bit tame and I was able to solve the whodunnit mystery early in the book therefore the mystery wasn’t as complex as I prefer. It was just a matter of how it would be revealed.

Improbable but plausible plot

While their home is undergoing extensive repairs, Meg Langslow and her boyfriend Michael are camping out in the barn. They have plenty of room for other campers at their home for a weekend of Extreme Croquet. The terrain of their yard along with the uneven field across the road in Mr. Early’s sheep farm along with a nearby cow pasture provide a perfect course, with the legs of sheep and cows providing extra wickets if needed. Communicating by cell phones from distance positions in the course, Meg delays the game to find a lost ball. What she finds is a dead female body at the bottom of a small cliff. The woman was not a participant in the game. Actually, no one seems to know who this woman was.

Chatter throughout the game and while waiting for police Chief Burke to arrive had been about a nearby farm owner selling his acreage to real estate developers for an outlet mall to be built across the street from Meg and Michael’s new Victorian home. Dissenting votes came from residents who said this was historic land, the site of a small local battle during the Civil War.

Meg is wondering what happened to the professor from the University of Virginia who was to come pick up 23 boxes of the papers of Edwina Sprocket, former owner of their home, that they figured some historian would want to review. Until the murder victim could be identified, Chief Burke advised to store the boxes in a safer place, so nothing could disturb them. This meant that Meg and Michael had to go through them that night. What they found included the original newspaper account describing the local battle. They bring that to the town’s librarian for authentication, and she bursts into laughter.

The extreme croquet game was beginning to start up again the next day when a woman’s purse was found in the field. Finally, the murder victim is identified, but even she isn’t whom she appeared to be. As usual, Meg had discovered as much about the victim as Chief Burke was about uncover himself.

I truly admire Donna Andrews who can write such a hilarious mystery from such ordinary events, events that if taken singly would present laughter. Bunch them all together, however, and it becomes bedlam. It wasn’t uncommon for me to giggle to myself or even laugh out loud over the improbable but plausible plot around the unfortunate murder. Ultimately, the solution to the murder is discovered in plain sight, but only after all the clues were uncovered.

Bernadette Dunne lends her tranquil voice to narrate this frenzy of events. Told from the first person perspective of Meg Langslow, she mirrors her calm demeanor throughout the turmoil. Dunne does equally well at portraying the characters crowding Meg’s life, including the various croquet players.

Extreme croquet?!?

amateur-sleuth, american-civil-war, women-sleuths, cozy-mystery, verbal-humor, situational-humor, law-enforcement

Morris dancers! Extreme croquet! An unknown battle from The Late Unpleasantness! And a murder on the property, of course. The extended family and also the local historical society add almost as much madness as the Morris dancers sharing the barn with Meg and her Michael. Laugh yourself silly once again as Meg does more sleuthing!
Bernadette Dunne continues to be fantastic as narrator.