Meg helps run Caerphilly's summer arts and crafts festival while trying to smoke out a murderer—turn up the heat, because Some Like it Hawk!

The hilariously funny Donna Andrews delivers another winner in the award-winning New York Times bestselling series that has captured human and avian hearts alike. Meg Langslow is plying her blacksmith's trade at "Caerphilly Days," a festival inspired by her town's sudden notoriety as "The Town That Mortgaged Its Jail." The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all employees have evacuated —except one. Phineas Throckmorton, the town clerk, has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year.

Mr. Throckmorton's long siege has only been possible because of a pre-Civil War tunnel leading from the courthouse basement to a crawl space beneath the bandstand. The real reason for Caerphilly Days is to conceal the existence of the tunnel: the tourist crowds camouflage supply deliveries, and the ghastly screeching of the tunnel's rusty trap door is drowned out by as many noisy activities as the locals can arrange. But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict Mr. Throckmorton—and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot, apparently from inside the basement. Meg and her fellow townspeople suspect that someone hopes to end the siege by framing Mr. Throckmorton. Unless the real killer can be found quickly, the town will have to reveal the secret of the tunnel—and the fact that they've been aiding and abetting the basement's inhabitant. Meg soon deduces that the killer isn't just trying to end the siege but to conceal information that would help the town reclaim its buildings--if the townspeople can find it before the lender destroys it in a gut-busting caper that will have giggles and guffaws coming as fast as a four-alarm fire.

It is a bit over a year since the county lost control of its buildings to a finance company determined to foreclose on a loan. The main building is the county courthouse which has been occupied by the country clerk who barricaded himself in the basement archives.  They thought to wait until he had to leave or starve but somehow he is getting supplies so the siege drags on until there is a murder and Mr. Throckmorten, the clerk, is implicated.  Meg and the crew have to solve the murder before the archives are raided or the debt collectors find out how Throckmorton has been getting supplies.

Like most of Meg’s cases, the action takes place over a short time; a few days this outing. Not as many laugh-out-loud moments this time but a solid and well-plotted murder. I was sure of the reason but not the culprit until the last moment. Most of Meg’s family makes an appearance as well as the growing members of the Langslow menagerie. I am enjoying this series, both the current releases as well as dipping into the beginnings with this entry.  Highly recommended ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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