11/06/08

Between the Covers

A mystery that will make you smile

by Mary Burns

The Penguin Who Knew Too Much

By Donna Andrews

($6.99, St. Martin’s Press)

Meg Lanslow seems to be constantly insinuated into the local problems. Her eager father is always hopeful there’s a murder he can investigate. Their eclectic family meanders through this storyline, with Meg frequently musing about their past activities and current tendencies. This combination of characters and her own droll narrative has the reader smiling in pleasant anticipation of each new chapter.

Meg arrives at her new home to find that her father has unearthed a body in her cellar. He was digging a pond for the penguins he has taken in. While you and I might question the idea of penguins being in our own basement, Meg smoothly moves on to the feasibility of this hole her father has dug. As more strange animals arrive on her property, there is a growing concern of how many more will come, what they will be and how to house them, and when this will stop. The biggest question, beyond the corpse in the basement, is “Why aren’t they in the zoo?” Meg intends to find the answer.

Everyone can use some amusing reading and Donna Andrews delivers it well with this zany and delightful mystery.

Mary Burns is the owner of The BookWORKS in downtown Marysville and online at www.marysvillebookworks.com.