If you like zany mysteries, books that prove that an author not only has a good sense of humor, but an excellent vocabulary, you will like anything that Charlot MacLeod writes. She holds your interest, has interesting characters, plots with unexpected twists and turns to them and leaves you wanting to read another one of her mysteries.

I am one of those readers who deplores profanity in a book. If I wouldn't allow it to be spoken in my house, I will not allow it in my reading. I deplore those books where characters hop in and out of beds. There are things better left to the imagination, and that is where Charlotte MacLeod leaves them. Her books are good, wholesome, clean fun. It's my cup of tea, and if it is yours, you will enjoy her books. This one is a keeper and it will NOT be reposted by me!

Share/Like this Review?

Nobody writes more entertaining nonsense than Charlotte MacLeod and somehow she makes her goofy worlds work. You find yourself really caring who stabbed boorish Emory Emmerick while on an organized hunt for the rare snowy owl. Starring Peter Shandy, the Hercule Poirot of the turnip patch.

Share/Like this Review?

The tone was just too snooty for me. Stylisticly (is that a word?) it felt as if it was written in the late 1930's Far too formal for my taste, and I couldn't relate to any of the characters. All-in-all, this was a very disappointing story.

Share/Like this Review?

Offbeat characters are featured in this cozy mystery. Set at Balaclava Agricultural College, and starring Professor Peter Shandy and his wife Helen as sleuths, the book is light and witty and fun to read.

Share/Like this Review?

Another delightfully silly one from Charlotte MacLeod.

"The Annual Owl Count is a serious tradition at Balaclava College, and Peter Shandy and colleagues are busy identifying and counting owls during a crisp October evening in the woods. Glimpsing what appears to be an unseasonal snowy owl and anxious for a clear sighting, the group hurries along a dark path. Suddenly explosions are heard and confusion abounds. Emery Emmerick has been trapped in a net and fatally stabbed.

No one had invited Emmerick on the Owl Count. He had claimed to be the field engineer for the new television station being built with money from the Binks Trust, but it turns out no one has heard of him. Then Professor Winifred Binks, another of the owl counters, is kidnapped. It becomes increasingly apparent that these and other disturbing events are all related to the fortune Binks has recently inherited, the money she has donated for the television station, and the companies controlled by her trust. In an attempt to rescue Winifred, Peter Shandy ends up on a frightening tugboat ride down the raging Clavaclammer River and becomes embroiled in what appears to be a thoroughly hostile corporate takeover.

It is neither action nor cerebral detection that lures readers to the Shandy series. Rather it is MacLeod's outrageously inventive names, fantastical situations, and varied wit. The book combines many types of humor, from subtle to slapstick, and never insists the caper should be believable." -from enotes.com

8th in series.

Share/Like this Review?