Die Like an Eagle

By: Donna Andrews

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

With Die Like an Eagle, listeners can look forward to another zany Meg Langslow mystery - this one filled with the spirit of America's pastime and Donna's eagle eye.

©2016 Donna Andrews (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Just love it.

I have fallen in love with Donna Andrews. Her stories are full of laughter and mystery and family and friends. The fun never stops. The mystery is surprising . I never stopped guessing.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Book 20 and still going strong!

Meg Langslow's twin sons are now playing in a softball league. The children all know how to play together in a nice way. However, the adults are another matter. Bad management of the ball league, poor conditions at the ball field lead to extremely angry people. But who is angry enough to commit murder? This is what Meg and her list of friends and family need to figure out. Meg and her friends work hard to allow the children to play ball while protecting them from the harsh realities of murder.

I must say this book has a wonderful storyline. It feels like the start of a series, with a freshness to it that usually doesn't happen in a long-lived series. I was kept guessing until the end of the book trying to figure out who dunnit?

This is well written and I was pleased with the narration of this story. I do recommend this to all of you who have enjoyed Meg's previous stories!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Not just baseball! Murder AND baseball!

In <strong>Die Like an Eagle</strong> by Donna Andrews, opening day of Summerball Baseball has arrived in Caerphilly. Nearly Meg's entire family has descended upon the town to cheer on Josh and Jamie as they play for the Eagles in coach- pitch baseball, with Michael as the assistant coach. Meg memorized the entire Summerball rule book as an antidote to her insomnia, but she soon discovers that Biff Brown, the league head, has created his own set of unwritten rules and blackballs anyone who challenges him in any way. Because Biff forbids any practice beyond the one hour allowed each day (or is week?), Meg gets inspired to hold a picnic for the team the evening before opening day, and if baseball occurs, who are they to stop the boys? There two women stand out especially in their coaching of the boys. Tori, the wife of the head coach, was the best pitcher to come from UCLA. Further, Meg learns that Cordelia, her long-lost grandmother, once played professional women's baseball as Delia Brandt. Suddenly two boys run to the coach to announce they have a Biff Alert! As Biff tries to sniff out "illicit baseball" going on," Meg tries to nail him down in her capacity as special assistant to Mayor Schiffley, to work that Brown's construction company is supposed to be doing for the city square. But he gets away anyway, and the baseball resumes.

The next morning, the Eagles have the first game, against Brown's Stoats, but one boy on the team complains that someone has occupied the Port-A-Potty all morning. Meg gets out her tools and opens the door, only to have a body slump over as it falls out of the Port-A-Potty. It seems to be Biff! However, the body's cell phone rings, and when Police Chief Burke answers it, he hears the voice of Biff yelling. Meg has mistaken for Biff his half- brother, Shep Henson, who also was the umpire for his brother's league. But did someone try to kill the umpire? Or was he mistaken for his decidedly unpleasant, even abusive, half- brother?

I love all the Meg Langslow books by Donna Andrews, but <strong>Die Like an Eagle</strong> ranks high in my list of favorites. The humor found in the whole series stands out especially well in this book. Just the premise that the entire family comes from out of town to watch coach- pitch baseball has a fun touch to it. Then, the excitement of Meg's father, the medical examiner, and Horace, the crime scene technician, made me laugh: Not only do they get to watch baseball, but they get to participate in a crime scene, followed, hopefully, by baseball! Further, who would have thought that a mystery centered around a Port-A-Potty could be funny and clever?

Even if you haven't read or listened to any of the previous books in this series, you will soon become invested in each of the characters and the setting of the book. We quickly join Meg's mother in becoming charter members of NAFOB (Not a Friend of Biff) and cheer as the Summerball bigwig, Mr. Witherington, comes to side with the town against Biff. Shep's ex-wife, Callie Peebles, adds all the more flavor, but what can you expect from a woman whose parents named her Caligula? But in the meantime, there is a murder to solve.

The audio edition is performed by Bernadette Dunne, who always brings joy to the listening experience. Her particular strength is the creative voices she uses for each character. We feel that we know each one by the voice Dunne uses for that person, and we don't even need to hear her state which character is speaking in order to know which person it is.

I really loved the experience of listening to <strong>Die Like an Eagle</strong>. I have listened to it many times since it came out in 2016 and never fail to laugh out loud and enjoy the mystery and characters. I highly recommend this book to any and all. I give it five stars!

Great entertainment

Love this series. Often I laugh right out loud & I'm always smiling at the end.

Always fun!

A big fan, Donna Andrew's writes fun and enjoyable murder mysteries 😊 . I always have a moment where I laugh out loud.

Baseball Langslow style

Would you consider the audio edition of Die Like an Eagle to be better than the print version?

Yes

Who was your favorite character and why?

Meg's grandfather, whose cranky, over the top Crocodile Hunter personality makes him such fun.

Have you listened to any of Bernadette Dunne’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. Dunne is consistently good as a narrator and "performs" each character rather than reads in a monotone.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Baseball can be murder

Any additional comments?

Another good story from Andrews filled with fun characters.