If I'm looking for a mystery that will make me smile, the Meg Langslow series is always the one that I find. There is something about Meg and her slightly wacky family that I absolutely love. Caerphilly sounds like a very interesting place that I'd love to visit. Once again Meg, is doing her best to keep the town moving along smoothly. I love the way the neighbors and family do their best to help her and each has their specific role. Overall, it was very well-written and it kept my interest from the first few pages.

Donna Andrews involves Meg Langslow and her family in Between a Flock and a Hard Place in which a flock of wild turkeys are sneaked into a neighborhood of Caerphilly where a tv crew is filming a rehab of a home. Complete chaos follows; the house is falling down because of incompetent work and then the body of the wife of the couple owning the house is found in the debris. Hilarious confusion about whodunit; suspicious characters, and heartwarming small town life. Read and enjoy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely adored this! From the incredible characters, to the plot, to falling in love with everything so quickly- I couldn’t put this down. I highly recommend this! It really just sucks you in and makes you never want to leave. In my opinion, those are the best books and I couldn't get enough.

Cozy Meg Langslow mystery #35! This was just the pallet cleanser I needed in between some deep dives. The book takes place over just a few days, involves all of the usual players, a flock of turkeys, a home makeover show in town, an unhappy couple, two deaths - one new & one old, and a cyber-criminal. Its bound to make you smile. I think my favorite character is Rose Noir and although she is featured in this book it's on a lesser role than some of the others.

This is one of my favorite cozy mystery series and this book did not disappoint! This was a fun read about how a house remodel literally went to the birds. I loved the quirky characters; especially Meg who was down-to-earth and constantly running around town making sure the citizens of Caerphilly were ok while getting the tea on all the suspects. Meg's grandpa was another of my favorites with his thirst for knowledge and high energy. Through his character, the reader learns about turkeys and how they are related to dinosaurs. The other thing I enjoyed about his book was the humor sprinkled throughout the story. It kept things light during the town's time of turmoil. This story had several mysteries to solve, keeping the story moving and interesting. I was not totally surprised by the main reveal of the house but I was surprised by some of the smaller subplots of the story.
The audiobook was a joy to listen to as I read the book. The narrator Bernadette Dunne is a great storyteller. There was a voice for every character which made it easy to follow along as I listened. This would be a great choice for a road trip, driving around town, or while doing chores around the house.
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for the ARC and the audiobook of this book in exchange for my honest review!

4 stars - Great! Might re-read.

This is a fun, twisty addition to the series. The turkey situation was a hoot. Lots of time with community members in this book instead of Meg's extended family like in other books in the series, so this was a nice change of pace. (view spoiler) That being said, I did enjoy the whole story and the characters. Meg's always a fun main character, and I enjoy the whole group in Caerphilly.

Another excellent installment to the series. Randomly shenanigans, a murder, and lovable characters!

A home renovation tv show is making over the Smetkamp’s home in a historic neighbourhood in Caerphilly much to the chagrin of the neighbours so tensions are already high when someone releases dozens of feral turkeys near the house. It shuts the project down but the turkeys are territorial, aggressive and, in general, creating complete chaos. When Meg Langslow, as the Mayor’s assistant, is called in to help with coordinating efforts to round up the recalcitrant fowl, she stumbles across the dead body of Mrs Smetkamp in the shed and it is very clear she has been murdered.

Between a Flock and a Hard Place is the 35th book in the Meg Langlsow cozy mystery series by Donna Andrews and it is all kinds of fun. As always, the story is entertaining with a nice thread of humour running through it and the mystery was interesting with plenty of suspects and red herrings to keep the reader guessing. Visiting Meg and all the other denizens of Caerphilly is always a pleasure and I look forward to more adventures with them in the future. I read an arc of the book while listening to an audiobook narrated by Bernadette Dunne who does a wonderful job.

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the arc and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook

Book 35 of the Meg Langslow series is just as good as the ones that came before. I do miss reading about Meg working as a blacksmith, she hasn’t quite she just seems a little busy. I used to want to be part of Meg’s mom’s family, now I think that the best position would be to have a parent who is a Hollingsworth and the other is a Shifley. Once you get two chapters into the story you will see what I mean. About two chapters into the story is about where the crazy begins and I am not talking about the murder. The crazy starts with the turkeys. Feral turkeys, yes you read that correctly, feral turkeys and they have been relocated under cover of night to the home where a reality remodel show is taking place. No one seems to know how the turkeys were moved but it has halted production of the show. In addition, Mayor Randall Shifley, who owns his own construction company, has halted the work on the remodel because at least one load bearing wall has been knocked down. There is absolute chaos going on but Meg does a great job keeping it together as the Mayor’s assistant thanks to her calm demeanor and her notebook that “tells her when to breathe.” The victim is not the nicest of people, Meg questions neighbors and learns that Mrs. Smetkamp is a bit snippy and should probably have bought in the Westlake community (read Birder, She Wrote) rather than remodeling a classically styled house. The former owner is not happy with the proposed changes and shows up often acting like an unofficial HOA board member to voice his disapproval. The producer disappears which is a bit concerning, is he running because he is guilty of murder or is he another victim? Meg learns from husband Michael’s coworker Gloria who also lives next to the remodel mishap that her tenant Kevin, is renting out the attic and quite possibly stealing power to run his bank of servers so who knows what else he may be capable of. It is a bit creepy how he keeps looking out between the curtains while the volunteers round up the turkeys and the police handle the murder.

As you can see there are plenty of suspects, plenty of crazy, and plenty of entertainment. This is a stand alone but you really should read the whole series so truly appreciate its brilliance. It would not be a Caerphilly cozy without those aspects. I give it a five turkeys out of five.

It's hard to believe this is the 35th book in the Meg Langslow series. It seems like yesterday that Meg was a blacksmith and going to fairs. Now she is aide to the mayor and wife, mother and keeper of the family farm. I love this series, and look forward to many more books. When wild turkeys take over a neighborhood where they are filming a home improvement show it's chaos. When the wife of the home mak over is found dead it's murder. Meg and her grandfather work together with the chief to find the "gang" that moved the turkeys and she works with the sheriff to find who murdered the victim.

In “Between a Flock and a Hard Place” the 35th book in Donna Andrews Meg Langslow Mystery Series, Meg finds herself involved in a shady home makeover, a demanding homeowner, a flock of feral turkeys that have been let loose in the neighborhood, a suspicious tenant, and a murder. Unfortunately, while it sounds like there was a lot going on in this book, it wasn’t one of my favorites in the series. The feral turkey plot took over much of the book and while it did add some humor to the book (especially the part involving an Amazon delivery driver which had me laughing out loud), it overshadowed the murder plot which didn’t happen until almost halfway through the book. Meg’s family – outside of her cousin Kevin – also take a backseat in this story as it is all about Meg helping round up the turkeys and solving the mystery. Still, there were some surprises in the book and it took a turn that I wasn’t expecting – I was completely surprised with not only who the killer was but the motive. All in all, not the best book in the series but not a bad way to spend an hour or two.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

Thanks to SMP & NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Donna Andrews takes me to my happy place yet again. Meg and the Gang are dealing with a crappy version of an HGTV crew in this outing, doing renovations for a married couple, the Smetkamps, in which the husband is pleasant enough, but the wife is ...not. Mrs. Smetkamp buys the farm in the midst of a terrible prank involving obnoxious wild turkeys (IYKYK - and no turkeys are harmed, don't worry).

This is a perfect vacation read: humorous, low-stakes, enjoyable characters who are regular folks. What's not to love? I recommend this to my cozy loving patrons all the time.

I am a big fan of the Meg Langslow series.
We don't spend as much time with Meg's family in this book but the turkeys and the neighbors in the cul de sac bring lots of laughs.
Fans of the series will enjoy this title.

Between a Flock and a Hard Place AUDIO by Donna Andrews is a Meg Langslow cozy mystery. As always, it is outrageous. There have been problems with feral turkeys on the outside of town and now somehow they are in town, harassing an entire neighborhood. To complicate matters, there is a home renovation underway in the same neighborhood. It doesn’t appear to be going well and the homeowners are sleeping in cots on the premises. The whole thing is really entertaining nonsense. The show runner for the home makeover show doesn’t know what he doing and has hired day labor to dismantle the interior of the home, including the load-bearing walls. Meg is right there in her job as assistant to the mayor, as she calls it “assistant in charge of nuts and nuisances.” As if things aren’t moving slowly enough, there is a murder: the lady of the house, found in the shed. The murderer tried to make it look as if the turkeys had done it, but that didn’t fly (sorry). There were all sorts of complications, starting with moving the turkeys.

Meg is a busy woman, as are her parents, and her grandparents, as well as taking care of teenage twin sons. She is competent and creative, always looking for solutions and using her family to implement many of them. Her husband, Michael, teaches drama at the local college and we don’t actually hear much from him. It’s life in a small town at its most interesting. All kind of characters populate this interesting series, one of the longest running in cozy history. It turned out to be a homegrown mystery, leaving the outsiders free and clear. The turkeys were looked after and stopped (surgically) from continuing to breed, living out their lives at grandfather’s zoo. The rest all took care of itself although at some peril to Meg. Very entertaining. Thanks Donna Andrews for this fun character!

Bernadette Dunne is the reader for this series and although her voice sounds too old for Meg, I have adjusted and fully enjoy her portrayals of all the characters. She lends a touch of background humor that is hard to beat!

I was invited to listen to Between a Rock and a Hard Place by MacMillan Audio and read by St Martin’s Press. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #MacMillanAudio #StMartinsPress #DonnaAndrews #BernadetteDunne #BetweenAFlockAndAHardPlace

Who besides Donna Andrews could make a flock of feral turkeys, a crowd of sometimes nutty neighbors, a reality TV show, and a murder into a weekend’s entertainment? As always, a keeper.

Donna Andrews is the queen of cozy mysteries and Between a Flock and a Hard Place did not disappoint. When turkeys take over the town after a home renovation reality TV show, the town organized to control the turkeys. When a woman winds up dead, the plot thickens and the mystery really raps up. With a lot of laughter and connecting the dos, Between a Flock and a Hard Place packs a punch.

Thank you Minotaur Books for the gifted ARC.

One of the things I love most about this series is all the chaos that always seems to be happening around Meg. This may be the most ever and may be my new favorite (narrowly edging out the Christmas mystery where they were all having to wear hats indoors to protect themselves from dive bombing blue jays). This time Meg goes to help out one disaster - an ill-informed resident who is participating in a home makeover show - and immediately lands in the middle of an even bigger disaster. This time it's a flock of over 200 feral turkeys running amok and causing massive amounts of damage.
While Meg and others try and deal with the turkey crisis they soon stumble on another and even bigger crisis - a murdered resident. Meg, as usual, ends up in the middle of the investigation with a handful of town officials and more than a few turkeys. I am very glad I'm not Meg and I don't know that I would visit Caerphilly if it was a real place as they do have a rather large number of disasters.
As usual, this was a lot of fun and incredibly entertaining read. I love catching up with Meg and her family and friends - and assorted animals. The mystery both of who relocated the turkeys and who killed the unpleasant homeowner kept me reading and guessing. This is my go-to series for a fun entertaining cozy with characters I love and a few laugh out loud moments. This one did not let me down!

Meg is trying to a deal with a flock of feral turkeys set loose in a suburban neighborhood, a shady house renovation show, and complaining neighbors in Between a Flock and a Hard Place.

This is the 35th book in this series and I’ve read them all. This book contains the same laugh-out-loud funny situations as all the others. However, this one focuses more on the town’s crazy residents than on Meg’s crazy family. And I admit I rather missed them. However, it is hard to fault any book in this series.

Between a Flock and a Hard Place is a zany way to spend a few hours. I guarantee you will feel better, and your family will look more normal, after reading it. 5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an advance review copy.

Caerphilly is not a dull place to live! This story starts with an invasion of an army of wild turkeys to a quiet neighborhood. Is it a prank? And how did they catch all those turkeys and transport them overnight? Reviews of this prank are mixed as the feral turkeys attack anyone they choose to. Is it a coincidence that it's stopped a TV makeover show from redoing a house at ground zero? Meg and her team are on the case! I enjoyed the imaginative ways the townspeople cope and help one another. Another winner!

Yet again Donna Andrews creates a perfect cozy mystery. Whether you have read all the others in this series or this is a one off the story is compelling and sucks you right in. I counsels get enough of the story of the turkeys and neighborhood goings on. The story is so well written I feel like I was in the story multiple times looking around to try and find the turkeys. Love this series and this author and can’t want for more in this perfectly cozy series.