Part of Meg Langslow, book 8
First published 2007
Meg Langslow thought housing penguins in her Virginia basement was the strangest favor her father could ask. The local zoo had gone bankrupt, and her father volunteered to take the Antarctic birds temporarily. Then Meg stumbles across a corpse nestled among her unexpected houseguests. She believes the dead man is the zoo's missing owner, but proving his identity becomes a challenge. Word spreads through Caerphilly about the murder, and panicked neighbors start dumping their own borrowed zoo animals on Meg's father. Lions, monkeys, and exotic birds transform her renovated home into chaos. The timing couldn't be worse. Meg and Michael planned to elope quietly, hoping to sidestep their mothers' wedding obsessions. Now a murder case blocks their escape route. Meg faces a double mystery: she must name both the victim and the person who killed him before her life spins further out of control.
Genres: animals, mystery, cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth
Vibes: cozy, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Virginia, Caerphilly
262 pages · Hardcover · Minotaur Books