Sandie Herron never knows when I’m going to use one of her reviews. I spent yesterday reading a book for review for Library Journal, so it was the perfect time to use this audiobook review. Thanks, Sandie. Check out the review of Donna Andrews’ audiobook, The Hen of the Baskervilles.

The Hen of the Baskervilles

Meg Langslow Mystery, Book 15

Written by Donna Andrews

Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged Audio

Dreamscape Media LLC (July 16, 2013)

Listening Length: 8 hours

Lefty Award Nominee (2014)

It’s time for the county Fair, um, Un-fair in Caerphilly, Virginia, and Meg Langslow Waterston finds herself in charge, again.  At least she has a committee of help this time including Mayor Shiffley and Police Chief Burke.  Since the fair in neighboring Clay county had been cancelled, the committee decided to hold part of the fair over the county line. 

The fair had the usual contingents of farm animals, prize vegetables including record-breaking pumpkins, artisan crafts including handmade quilts, and hobby winemaking.  The Un-fair featured the legacy or heritage breeds of many animals, breeds no longer popular with the big farmers and whose numbers were shrinking.  Many of their owners were not letting their birds or goats or sheep out of their sight.  Meg arranged for many of the owners to sleep near their animals.  Meg and her husband Michael and twins Josh and Jamie, now 2 years old, slept near their llamas that they were showing. 

When they awaken, they discover several acts of theft and vandalism.  A pair of Bantam Russian Orloff chickens had been taken from the chicken coop.  A beautiful handmade Boston Album quilt had been stolen from the arts and crafts tent.  A pumpkin weighing over a ton was smashed.  While searching the grounds, Meg runs into her friend Molly who makes cheeses, yet since she wants to divorce her husband Brett, who has taken up with a socialite active in hobby winemaking, she is worried if she will be left with any land to continue making cheeses after the divorce.  Later that evening Brett is found dead on the Clay county side of the fair.  Police Chief Burke has no choice but to allow the Clay county sheriff and his deputies to be involved in the investigation.  However, while the two disparate forces do not join together well, they both swiftly accuse Molly of his death when evidence shows up in her trailer.

The character list is rounded out with Meg’s Mother and dad, Dr. Langslow, as well as cousin Rose Noir and Horace, the crime tech.  Of course there were many laughs and giggles throughout the book.  However, the mystery in this book was not as straight forward as it has been in earlier titles in this series.  With such an award-winning series, one might expect Donna Andrews to continue on the same path.  With this fifteenth entry in the series, I found more depth and dimension to this entire story.  More thought was needed to solve the whodunit.  More energy was given to the stories behind items stolen or vandalized.  It was all a bit more serious.  A small shift in Ms. Andrews’ focus has brought us a perceptibly better mystery while keeping the charm, quirks, and laughter of previous stories.

I think this is a step forward for Donna Andrews, and I applaud it.