The Penguin Who Knew Too Much
By Donna Andrews
St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95
ISBN: 978-0312329426

By now, iron sculptor Meg Langslow should know that every time her family gathers together there will be chaos, ambulance visits, and probably a dead body or two.

After surviving a civil war reenactment, an extreme Wicket competition and a family yard sale, Meg and her fiancé, aspiring actor/professor Michael, are being given a welcoming move-in party by their family and friends. So when her forensically-obsessed physician father announces that he's discovered a body in their basement's penguin pool Meg's not certain which part of the statement disturbs her the most. It seems that the bank has foreclosed on the Caerphilly Zoo, and her father has volunteered to temporarily house the penguins along with a few other orphaned animals. Although this explains the Noah's Ark atmosphere, it doesn't answer the question of what the body's doing buried in Meg's basement. While she's trying to farm out the animals and keep the anti-zoo protestors off her property, a world-famous zoologist drops by with his own hidden agenda. When suspicion falls on the young construction worker of the shifty Shiffley cousins, Meg decides to protect the one member of that family with potential to escape a life of crime.

As always, Andrews surrounds Meg with a gaggle of eccentrics who bring hilarity to murder. Even though there's a lot going on, Andrews succeeds in tying everything together in the end. Meg's superhumanly patient fiancé Michael steadfastly remains a ballast of sanity in the midst of her family's bizzarro world. That Andrews maintains the reader's focus with her numerous characters and plotlines is a tribute to her talent and skill. This is a series that continues to entertain with its reliably comic and likeable characters.

Review by CINDY CHOW

©2008 Lorie Ham. All rights reserved.