Meg's neighbors, the Smetkamps, have won a makeover for their old home from Marvelous Mansions, a flashy, yet dubious company, focused on making historic homes more "modern." The company already several days into its makeover of the Smetkamps' house, and tensions are running high--not only between the officious, demanding Mrs. Smetkamp and her neighbors, but also between her and the renovation crew. Meg, who is trying to keep the peace and prevent the makeover crew from trampling on every clause of the county's building code, arrives at the Smetkamps to find that Caerphilly's resident flock of feral turkeys has moved into their yard--or been relocated there by someone who wanted to cause them trouble.

The turkeys are huge, territorial, cranky and aggressive - and impossible to move! Meg does what she can to calm down the irate neighbors and help the makeover crew make progress in spite of the turkeys. She comes up with a plan to gather a group of turkey wranglers to snatch them early in the morning. But when they arrive, they find the body of Mrs. Smetkamp in her backyard. Someone stabbed her, and then tried to make it look as if she was attacked by one of the turkeys, but Meg, the Chief, and the Sheriff are not fooled. Together, they must figure out what really happened to Mrs. Smetkamp...and what to do with all these turkeys!

Marvelous Mansions, a TV makeover show, is renovating the Smetkamp’s house but all is not going well. Meg is on her way to check that the TV crew is sticking to the plans but she finds the work on-hold and the neighborhood at a standstill as it is besieged by a flock of feral turkeys. She helps formulate a plan to round up the turkeys at dawn but even as the roundup begins Meg stumbles over Mrs. Smetkamp’s body. There are suspects galore as Mrs. Smetkamp was an incredibly unpleasant woman and had disputes with lots of people - Jason, the home’s previous owner, Jared, the TV show producer, her husband, of course, as well as almost every person in the neighborhood.  But who hated her enough to murder her?

This was a quick and fun read. While I was sure of the murderer’s identity and motive very early on, the fun with Meg is getting to the big reveal. The action moves quickly, maybe four days from murder to solution, and there was an interesting side plot that was not part of the murder. The whole series is recommended and this is a delightful entry. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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