Meg Langslow organizes a Renaissance Faire with her grandmother, Cordelia, in The Falcon Always Wings Twice, the 27th book in Donna Andrews’s Meg Langslow series. Located at the Biscuit Mountain Craft Center, which Cordelia runs, the faire has been growing in numbers each weekend for a month, with each member of Meg’s family playing a role. As Meg works her blacksmith forge, her twin sons serve as apprentices, her mother has designed the costumes, and her father is in charge of the first aid tent. Even Michael, Meg’s husband, a drama professor at the prestigious Caerphilly College, directs a street theater with a Renaissance- themed premise. Everything is going well except that one actor, Terrance, seems determined to wreak as much havoc as possible among all the actors participating in “the game.”
Then, before dawn the next day, Meg’s family goes on an owl watching expedition. When Meg’s grandfather, a world-class zoologist in his 90s, trips over a staff from the faire and falls down a slope, Meg discovers the body of Terrance tied to a tree, and her father, the medical examiner for his own county, notices that the victim has been stabbed in the back with a cheap knife of a type often sold at the RenFest. Suddenly Meg is involved deeply in trying to solve the murder while also trying to run the faire. In addition, she has to deal with a famous stage director who is eagerly trying to take over “the game.”
After the incredible depth and power of Andrews’s 24th book, Lark! The Herald Angels Sing, I was a bit disappointed when the next two books came across as fun but without the depth and empowerment of Lark. I became afraid that Andrews had run out of creative ideas after writing so many books in the series. But Andrews has come back strong with The Falcon Always Wings Twice, which has a unique setting that I’ve never encountered in any other mystery book.
I enjoyed getting to reconnect with characters who already seem so much like friends. I laughed when Meg’s grandfather shows up at the festival with a cage full of birds. He didn’t want their RenFest to have to go without any wrens after all! Then, once he learns that RenFest is not about birds, Grandfather immerses himself fully in the faire, even taking on the character of Magister Blake and threatening to turn the villain into a toad! Cordelia demonstrates the power of a strong woman, both in her role as Queen Cordelia and in her own personality as the woman in charge. The other returning characters also give plenty of delight in their real lives and roles within the faire. My only disappointment was that we didn’t get to see Rob until the very end and saw very little of Spike.
I also thoroughly enjoyed being reunited with Tad and Falk, the now-married gay couple we met in book three, Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos. Falk served as Meg’s mentor as she learned how to be a blacksmith, and the two work together in the blacksmithing booth, assisted by Meg’s 12-year-old twins, Josh and Jamie. The boys take on the role of apprentices as Falk directs them and teaches the crowd about the role of apprentices in the Renaissance era. Cozy mysteries have only recently begun to feature gay characters to try to reflect the actual makeup of society, so it is nice to see this couple, and they do not fit traditional stereotypes of gay couples, being interracial and holding careers of blacksmithing and computer programming. I look forward to getting to spend more time with this pair in future books.
Bernadette Dunne, one of my favorite narrators, performs the audiobook of The Falcon Always Wings Twice. As always, she delights her listeners with her performance, making Meg’s family highly recognizable just by the sound of each one’s voice. Her manner of making some frankly odd characters seem almost normal does her immense credit.
If you are new to audiobooks, then I highly recommend this series as a great way to get an introduction to this medium, since Andrews writes with real humor and clever mysteries, while Dunne brings the books to life in a highly accessible manner. These are also audiobooks that I frequently recommend to my international student friends to help with their English too. It is wonderful to pair the genius of an author and a narrator to create the perfect audiobook. I give this book five stars!
Disclaimer: I received this audiobook for free for review purposes, but that had no influence on the content of my review.
The Falcon Always Wings Twice comes out in all formats on August 4, 2020.
To purchase the Kindle version of this book for yourself, click here on Amazon Kindle.
To purchase the hardback of this book for yourself, click here on Amazon hardback.
To purchase this audiobook for yourself, click here on Amazon audiobook.
