In Lark! The Herald Angels Sing, book 24 of the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews, Meg gets involved in one of her wildest cases yet. While directing the practice for the children’s Christmas pageant at Trinity Episcopal Church, Meg discovers a real baby lying in the manger. Then she sees the note. It says that Meg’s brother, Rob, is the baby’s father. And this happens just as Rob is about to propose to Delany, his girlfriend of two years. Then when Rob shows up at the church upon Meg’s demand that he do so, he brings Delany with him, which causes a massive rift in their relationship when she discovers the claim of Rob’s paternity.
In the meantime, neighboring Clay County has been putting pressure on Caerphilly to arrest fugitive Mark Caverly for the murder of a citizen of their county, causing Chief Burke to send his officers scouring through the county. But the Caerphilly police suspect that Mark is being framed by the Dingle family, who control Clay County, for a crime he didn’t commit. Afraid that if Mark gets taken by Clay County, he could be abused, so they work to search for him before Clay County can capture him. When the men of Caerphilly get themselves into trouble, it takes the cleverness of Meg enlisting the help of all the women of the town to save the day.
I have loved every book in the Meg Langslow series and have listened to all but the most recent one numerous times (and I’ve listened to even book 23, Toucan Keep a Secret, at least twice). In fact, I’ve given five stars to all but only one out of all the Meg Langslow books, Gone Gull, which got four stars. One might think that by book 24, Andrews would have run out of creative new angles for her books and perhaps have reverted to formulaic styles for her books. However, not only is she still keeping her creative juices flowing, she keeps getting better at writing exciting, creative, and funny books that lately seem to top each other in quality.
The plot of Lark! The Herald Angels Sing takes a different turn than typical books in this series, dealing with trying to take down the corrupt government in Clayville and Clay County, run by the Dingles. The details of the abandoned baby just serve to add color and a measure of comic relief at times. But what I especially loved was the way the women save the day by using their wits in the most creative manner. The humor in this book just adds to the strength of the book.
Bernadette Dunne performs the audio version of this book and makes it highly enjoyable. She uses clever, distinct voices for even the most minor characters so well that we don’t need to be told who is speaking in order to know exactly who it is. Dunne does such a good job of performing the books in this series that when someone wants to give audiobooks a try, I like to recommend these books to that person as especially accessible to everyone.
I highly loved listening to Lark! The Herald Angels Sing, which was an excellent book. This is one of the very best in the series, and I loved this book highly. I give it five stars!
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