Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon

By: Donna Andrews

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Poor Meg Langslow. She's blessed in so many ways. Michael, her boyfriend, is a handsome, delightful heartthrob who adores her. She's a successful blacksmith, known for her artistic wrought-iron creations. But somehow Meg's road to contentment is more rutted and filled with potholes than seems fair.

There are Michael's and Meg's doting but demanding mothers, for a start. And then there's the fruitless hunt for a place big enough for the couple to live together. And a succession of crises brought on by the well-meaning but utterly wacky demands of her friends and family. Demands that Meg has a hard time refusing, which is why she's tending the switchboard of Mutant Wizards, where her brother's computer games are created, and handling all the office management problems that no one else bothers with. For companionship, besides a crew of eccentric techies, she has a buzzard with one wing, who she must feed frozen mice thawed in the office microwave, and Michael's mother's nightmare dog. Not to mention the psychotherapists who refuse to give up their lease on half of the office space, and whose conflicting therapies cause continuing dissension. This is not what Meg had in mind when she agreed to help her brother move his staff to new offices.

In fact, the atmosphere is so consistently loony that the office mail cart makes several passes through the reception room, with the office practical joker lying on top of it pretending to be dead, before Meg realizes that he's become the victim of someone who wasn't joking at all. He's been murdered for real.

Donna Andrews's debut book, Murder with Peacocks, won the St. Martin's Malice Domestic best first novel contest and reaped a harvest of other honors as well. This is the fourth book in the Meg Langslow series, which features the intrepid Meg and her cast of oddball relatives. Their capers are a lighthearted joy to read.

©2003 Donna Andrews (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"There's a smile on every page." (Publishers Weekly)
"This may be the funniest installment of Andrews' wonderfully wacky series yet." (Romantic Times)

Thoroughly Enjoyable

Because of my stressful job, I really wanted something light and funny. I am thoroughly enjoying this book. The characters and story are funny but the author still has a mystery in the book. I highly recommend this book and hope Audible gets more of this series soon.

catchy title

The title caught my attention.....and makes sense after you get into the story...this book was ok....but not on my favorite list

My Latest Addiction

Would you listen to Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon again? Why?

The story is great! just enough crazy to be totally believable. I Love Donna Andrews books. I honestly don't understand why they are not more popular.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon?

Its not just one thing....It's all the little bits. The crazy brother, the dad, the dog pack, the bikie, the ridiculous therapists. And right in the middle is this normal but wonderful main character that just seems to deal with it all beautifully.

What about Bernadette Dunne’s performance did you like?

Her reading was great. Pace, Pitch, power were all perfect and she changes voices beautifully for different characters.

Any additional comments?

Please Audible, Can we have the whole series???

Wild and fun romp

Meg Langslow’s brother Rob has created a popular online game called Lawyers from Hell. In Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews, Meg has agreed to assist Rob at his office while she is unable to do her blacksmith work due to an injury to her hand. This office is inhabited by many crazy programmers, hence the word “loon” found in the title. In addition to the human employees, the office contains a resident buzzard with only one wing who was rescued by someone of Mutant Wizards, the name of the company. Then there are Spike, the 9-pound vicious furball of a dog, along with the 8 or 9 nice dogs of employees who travel in a pack all over the office. And speaking of traveling, there is an automatic mail cart that moves on its own all over the office.

Ted, one of the most odious men in the office, has been having fun riding around on the cart pretending to be a murder victim, complete with fake blood, until Meg realizes that he is no longer faking his death. Ted has been strangled with a mouse cord!

Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon follows the investigation of the police chief, who focuses on Rob based upon a blackmail note seeming to be written by Ted and found in Rob’s office. So to save her brother, Meg becomes forced to do her own investigation.

The book is full of humor along with a fascinating plot line. Andrews is a really gifted writer in being creative both with her mystery lines and her incredible humor. The titles of each of the books in this series, this being the fourth, refer to birds, the first book being called Murder with Peacocks. But Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, a take-off of the acclaimed movie  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, begins Andrews’s pattern of using birds in puns for her titles. What I find remarkable is the way that with a total of 19 books in the series and 16 titles using bird puns, Andrews manages to make each bird relevant to the book. With this book, the buzzard lives in the office, and the loons work there.

This is the first of the books in this series to be available in audio format. It seems strange to me that the publishers of the audio books do not offer the first three books in audio and offer books 4 and 5, along with 14-19, skipping books 6-13, though Owl’s Well that Ends Well, book six, will be released in October. This lack is all the more disappointing given the excellent narration of Bernadette Dunne. With the book written in first person, the choice of narrator is particularly important, as the narrator must portray Meg and not just read about her, and Dunne does a great job of being very believable in her role.

In all, Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon is a very fun read or listen, enjoyable to anyone, whether that person has any knowledge of the video game world or has never gone near a computer in her or his life. I give this a hearty five stars!

Another humorous mystery

I like Meg as she’s brave, doesn’t take herself to seriously and a good detective that amuses as she sleuthes.

outstanding book

This was one of the funniest books I've ever read. While I enjoyed the audio version, I was not as happy with the narrator as with the book.

Just as loony and madcap as ever

A buzzard is an odd pet for an office staff unless they are the computer programmers at Mutant Wizards where they are hard at work on a new version of the computer game Lawyers from Hell. Meg Langslow is pitching in on the switchboard while an injury from her blacksmithing vocation has her sidelined. Sound calm and serene? Think again!

The staff has just moved into space they share with six psychotherapists who are not used to guarding the door against rabid fans and spies from rival companies. Security becomes a greater issue when an employee known for his practical jokes is found dead on the automated mail cart that follows an invisible track around the office. Ted was strangled with a mouse cord in a move that resembles “purse fu” that Meg taught the staff from her martial arts defense class. However, police seem to think Meg’s brother Rob, the owner of Mutant Wizards, is the most suspicious when they find a blackmail note in his in-box.

Bouncing ideas off her boyfriend Michael who is currently acting in Hollywood, Meg visits Ted’s home and finds a secret stash of an odd collection of items that includes a list of code names that Meg suspects are all blackmail victims. She begins to decipher just who is who on this list from names such as the Voyeur, the Hacker, the Ninja, Mata Hari, and the Iron Maiden. As she figures out secret identities and night-time antics, Meg pieces together just who had it in for Ted.

This is another delightful entry in the Meg Langslow series (earlier entries are MURDER WITH PEACOCKS, MURDER WITH PUFFINS, REVENGE OF THE WROUGHT-IRON FLAMINGOS). There’s no need to read the earlier entries to enjoy the hilarity of this one; but the clarification of just how eccentric Meg’s family really is from those earlier tales would not dull your enjoyment of this installment in the Langslow history.

I have enjoyed all the entries in this series, but I found this one more advanced in its writing. The story is just as loony and madcap as ever but the biting sarcasm is gone that previously rubbed me the wrong way. There is no endless speculation ad nauseum to move the plot along. Sure the characters are just as quirky but a bit more believable and likeable. Who doesn’t have a mother with decorating tips and whose family is into gossip? Well, maybe not as deeply as the Langslow clan who can figure out who the biker dude searching for the pregnant cat under a car in the dark parking lot at midnight is. Meg’s dad, the doctor who adores mystery novels, is in his element and tags along with the medical examiner. Rob is his usual lovable and trusting self. And I got a good chuckle over the pink teddy bears who spout affirmations and the changes the programmers make in the numerous bears around the office.

Meg, well, if she can’t find a temp to take on this challenged office, she be stuck there forever. Let’s hope not. Her misadventures are too much fun to miss.

I want to be adopted by the Langslows

a laugh out loud funny murder romp through corporate America. just what we need to get through the struggles of life. I want to be a member of this madcap family, Christmas would be hilarious

Love Meg Langslow books!

Love Meg Langslow books! Donna Andrew's does a great job. The narrarator is great. Keep up the great work!

Whacky

I enjoy this series. This is the second time I’m reading through the series. I enjoy the calamity of the plot and the unique characters. Definitely, the suspense and intrigue are held throughout the story.