A new side-splitting Meg Langslow mystery from the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Toucan Keep a Secret. Meg Langslow’s grandfather has been booked by a cruise line to give lectures on birds and other environmental topics as part of their ship’s education/entertainment itinerary, and Grandfather has arranged for a passel of family members to join him. The passengers’ vacation … join him.
The passengers’ vacation quickly becomes a nightmare when they wake up to find themselves broken down and in need of repairs in the Bermuda Triangle. To keep the stranded passengers calm, Meg’s family and friends band together to keep things organized and provide entertainment. Some even take up the cause of nursing an injured tern back to health.
But things get even worse when a crew member announces to all that a woman has jumped overboard, leaving behind her shoes, shawl, and a note. The note reveals she’s the mortal enemy of group of writers who came on board for a retreat, and the group is split on whether suicide is in-character for her. Meanwhile, grandfather’s assistant Trevor seems to have gone missing too!
The captain decides not to investigate, saying he’ll notify American authorities when they reach their destination. But Meg’s father thinks they should find out whether there was foul play while the prime suspects are all stuck on board. Who wanted the writer dead? Why doesn’t the captain seem concerned? What happened to Trevor? It’ll be a race against the clock to solve these mysteries before they make the necessary repairs and return to shore.
Terns of Endearment is the twenty-fifth book in New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews’ hilarious Mag Langslow mystery series.
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Meg Langslow’s grandfather has taken a job on a cruise ship for one voyage presenting nightly lectures on animals and the environment. Primetime, the cruise line, has offered a discount, so Meg and several other family members have joined this cruise to Bermuda. However, things don’t go as planned. The first morning as sea, the passengers wake up to find that the ship is dead in the water. Then, as the captain is briefing the passengers on the situation, another crew member bursts into the meeting to say that one of the passengers has gone overboard. It appears to be suicide, and the captain is willing to write it off as such, but Meg’s dad isn’t so sure. While the passengers wait for the ship to be fixed, he goads Meg into doing a little investigating. What will she uncover?
Yes, the usual assortment of Meg’s relatives join her for this cruise, and they are up to their usual antics. I don’t find these books as funny as they used to be, but I still find them highly amusing, and I completely enjoyed my time with the characters as usual. The ship is filled with new characters, and I loved how they were developed as the story went along. The action was a little slow getting going, but once the ship got stuck, things really picked up and I was hooked. I finished the book from that point on in about 24 hours, and that included time to sleep and work. The ending is a bit rushed, but everything is explained before we turn the final page. Fans will be delighted to find the series is still going strong twenty-five books in, and I enjoyed a reference to something from the early books in the series. This is another relaxing mystery, although you might not want to take it on your next cruise.
It’s a Donna Andrews…..nothing more needs to be said!
One of my favorite series. Meg is great
Poweful woman who deals with everyday family life too.
A cruise in the Bermuda Triangle veers into intrigue and ever more outlandish circumstances as everything goes wrong. This book is great fun! Meg Langslow, the lead character, has a knack for uniting people through various exploits to solve problems and serve up justice. Her relatives and new friends add the humor and light-hearted elements peppered throughout the story.
TERNS OF ENDEARMENT by Donna Andrews
The Twenty-Fifth Meg Langslow Mystery
Finally giving into requests Meg’s grandfather has joined the cruise ship lecture circuit. With the offer of heavily discounted fares for family and friends, the whole clan has joined him for an environmental cruise to Bermuda. While Michael and the twins spend time playing miniature golf, her mother takes tea, and Rose Noir attempts to protect the ship and its passengers from the Bermuda Triangle, Meg befriends a group of writers. Events take a terrible turn as the ship stops during the first night and loses all power. The fancy shoes and clothing of the Diva hated by the authors are found along with a suicide note. And Grandfather’s assistant has gone missing. Much to the amazement of Meg and her dad, the Captain has no intention of investigating. With nary a crew member in sight, temperatures rising, food going bad, and no way to flush the toilets, Meg’s mother takes charge and all members of the clan begin, not only to investigate, but organize all of the passengers to fix the ship. Did the Diva truly commit suicide? Did Trevor merely miss the boat? Will they ever make it to Bermuda? Or are the passengers and crew in as much danger as the Bermuda skink?
Meg and her eccentric clan hit the high seas in this the twenty-fifth entry to the Meg Langslow Mystery series. I’ve never been on a cruise, and reading this book has ensured that I never will! What a nightmare. I thought seasickness might be bad, but toilets that don’t flush? Incomprehensible! As horrible as the conditions thrown at our characters, the book is actually great fun (as long as I’m reading it in my stationary air conditioned home with functioning plumbing). I love how every member of the Langslow clan, including Grandfather’s tech people, have such special areas of expertise and how they all join together to help everyone.
The story is compelling and the mystery intricately plotted. I was never sure exactly what was going on and how things were connected, if they even were connected. Lots of surprises kept me reading late into the night. And I loved the ending tern of events.
TERNS OF ENDEARMENT is a fun addition to this long running series. Always humorous with characters you must love I enjoyed the cruise despite, and in part because of, the mishaps and can’t wait to see what this amazing group of characters does next!
FTC Disclosure – The publisher sent me a digital ARC provided through NetGalley, in the hopes I would review it.
Like all the others, just great reading for enjoyment. Keep them coming
in this 25th book of the series Meg is off on a cruise with her family, her grandfather booked the ship so that he could give lectures on one of his favorite subjects, birds. Things start off well but when they wake up one morning to find themselves broken down, and in the Bermuda Triangle of all places things take a different turn for the worse. One of the passengers seems to have committed suicide leaving only an note and her shoes behind making everyone one wonder what brought her to that point. Not everyone thinks that the woman would have committed suicide, they say that wasn’t like her so the Captain agrees to investigate and call the American authorities to let them know what is going on. Meg is intrigued by what all has happened and can’t help but do her own investigating. When Meg’s grandfathers assistant, Trevor, goes missing things become much more worrisome. Where is Trevor and what could have happened to him? Follow along as Meg does her best to work both mysteries and come up with the answers to all the questions that she has been asking. Will she be able to figure out the truth about what is going on before something more sinister happens or will she be to late. This is a great series for anyone who loves a fun cozy mystery and birds!
The next in the Meg Langlow series. A good read full of “whatever can go wrong does!!” This is one is about Meg going on a cruise with the family and meeting up with some writers that are memorialising a friend that was also a friend and has committed suicide. Wacky characters and rotten luck is in store for the passengers and crew of the ship. It is a very good murder mystery story with a few twists. Fun to read.
Donna Andrew’s Terns of Endearment is all about a cruise gone wrong. A lot of Meg Langslow’s family and friends are onboard a lesser-known cruise line when things start going horribly wrong.
Terns of Endearment was an original plot and I enjoyed that very much. I also liked the cruising part up to a point.
There were a lot of characters and I found that hard to keep up with at times. I also felt like the story drug in places.
This was not the best Donna Andrews’ Meg Langslow mystery but was still entertaining and enjoyable.
Cozy Mystery on a Bermuda Cruise
Everything that could go wrong on a cruise does in this fun cozy mystery. The plot is nicely twisted. Our heroine has the most interesting family, they are a group of 16 on this cruise. This is book 25 of the series and it stands alone nicely. I enjoyed this book so much that I will be looking to read more of this author’s work. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
verbal-humor, situational-humor, family-dynamics, murder-investigation, cruise-ship, amateur-sleuth
***** A noted wildlife lecturer with entourage, an MD/ME, a holistic practitioner, a tech geek, a CSI tech, Meg Langslow with husband and twins, three popular fiction writers and one marketable but despicable one, a tippling captain, a full complement of passengers, and an overworked crew. What could possibly go wrong between Baltimore and Bermuda? Well, a suspected suicide, the cruise ship becoming disabled with no electricity or WiFi or water service while in the Bermuda Triangle, and that’s just for starters. Great sleuthing with twists and red herrings abound in a real groan of a good book!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from St Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank You!