The Good, the Bad, and the Emus (Meg Langslow, Bk 17 )
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
The characters and situations in this series continue to develop: Meg Langslow is maturing from the hysterically funny and therefore slightly hysterical young woman of "Murder with Peacocks" who was fearful of commitment and living as far from her family as possible to being now (a number of years later) the mother of growing twin boys who better understands and appreciates the dynamics of family and parenthood.
Andrew's plots have always been well crafted. They are becoming more serious now, literally bringing Meg's family together, with the serious healing that brings to her ever-less-dysfunctional family, As a result, Andrews is settling down to more realistic, less manic plots. Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed the "laugh a minute" style of the first books in the series, because that's who Meg was at the time, but all of the characters are gradually maturing, perhaps I would even say becoming more believable, and for that reason, what happens to them has also become much more important. We won't mind when Meg's hand gets better and we hear more about her iron-crafting, but this is the book that tells the story of her grandmother's joining the family, and at the same time, the ending seems to be paving the way for showcasing the entire family's creativity. Michael and the boys could not realistically have been center stage in this book: Grandmother Cordelia was a woman seriously frightened for her life, acting the part of an elderly recluse who could not have handled boisterous 4-year-old twins boys.
If you take a book like this seriously enough to read it more than once, you realize how much the author has put into it. Andrews is doing a great job juggling an enormous family and cast of characters. She doesn't focus on every person the same way in every book, and that keeps us looking for what will happen next, seeing that she eventually catches up with everyone.
I look forward to getting to know grandmother Cordelia better. Michael might well have more focus soon, too -- we're left with that bit of a cliff-hanger: Meg and her grandmother are kindred spirits, and it seems logical that Michael will be drawn to this newly-discovered relation just as he's dawn to his wife. I confess I don't see how the boys can be center stage with that yet, but Andrews is good at bridging the age gap, and I'm not just saying it -- I really am looking forward to seeing what she does with the next book! Credit Mother Raphaela.
Andrew's plots have always been well crafted. They are becoming more serious now, literally bringing Meg's family together, with the serious healing that brings to her ever-less-dysfunctional family, As a result, Andrews is settling down to more realistic, less manic plots. Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed the "laugh a minute" style of the first books in the series, because that's who Meg was at the time, but all of the characters are gradually maturing, perhaps I would even say becoming more believable, and for that reason, what happens to them has also become much more important. We won't mind when Meg's hand gets better and we hear more about her iron-crafting, but this is the book that tells the story of her grandmother's joining the family, and at the same time, the ending seems to be paving the way for showcasing the entire family's creativity. Michael and the boys could not realistically have been center stage in this book: Grandmother Cordelia was a woman seriously frightened for her life, acting the part of an elderly recluse who could not have handled boisterous 4-year-old twins boys.
If you take a book like this seriously enough to read it more than once, you realize how much the author has put into it. Andrews is doing a great job juggling an enormous family and cast of characters. She doesn't focus on every person the same way in every book, and that keeps us looking for what will happen next, seeing that she eventually catches up with everyone.
I look forward to getting to know grandmother Cordelia better. Michael might well have more focus soon, too -- we're left with that bit of a cliff-hanger: Meg and her grandmother are kindred spirits, and it seems logical that Michael will be drawn to this newly-discovered relation just as he's dawn to his wife. I confess I don't see how the boys can be center stage with that yet, but Andrews is good at bridging the age gap, and I'm not just saying it -- I really am looking forward to seeing what she does with the next book! Credit Mother Raphaela.
