Audiobook Review: The Falcon Always Wings Twice by Donna Andrews

The Falcon Always Wings Twice
Author: Donna Andrews

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
Series: Meg Langslow (Book 27)
Publication: Minotaur Books & Macmillan Audio (August 4, 2020)

Length: 10 hours and 30 minutes

Description: A new side-splitting Meg Langslow mystery from award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Terns of Endearment.

When Meg's grandmother Cordelia hosts a Renaissance Faire at her craft center, the whole family is put to work: Meg handles the blacksmithing, Michael and the boys will be performing, and no one misses the opportunity to dress up in full regalia.

More exciting to Grandfather is the pair of rare falcons he discovers breeding at the fairgrounds. Concerned for their well-being amid all the activity, he appoints himself their protector.

When one of the actors performing at the fair is found dead—an actor suspected of mistreating one of the falcons, among other sins—Grandfather is a prime suspect.

Donna Andrews’s long-running Meg Langslow series continues to be beloved by its fans, who loyally read every new installment.

The Falcon Always Wings Twice is a perfect new addition, full of laughter, adventure, and Andrews's wonderful cast of wacky characters.

My Thoughts: Meg, Michael and their twins are spending the summer helping her grandmother Caroline run a Renaissance Faire at her crafts center. Michael is in charge of the various actors who roam the faire doing scenes while Meg does blacksmithing demonstrations and helps Caroline manage the faire. 

Things are going pretty well except for an actor named Terence who delights in causing trouble including sometimes dangerous pranks and sexual harassment of one of the young actresses. Caroline has been documenting all the times she has needed to talk to him about his antics, and his next prank will be his last. But before he can stray again someone decides that a dagger in the chest would solve the problem. 

So many people wanted Terence dead that Meg doesn't know where to start in her investigation. Even her fellow blacksmith and good friend has a motive. One of Terence's pranks caused her friend's husband to lose his job which means no health insurance to cover her friend's much needed heart surgery. 

Other suspects include a stage director who had cast Terence into a role in his production of Hamlet in Washington, DC. He comes and begins throwing his weight around and wandering where he shouldn't be. Michael had worked with him before and resolved never to work with him again. He is angry with the director who had promised the same role in his production to two of the actors working with Michael at the faire. 

This was another engaging and humorous mystery. Meg's family is always good for comic relief. This time her grandfather stars as he throws himself into the role of a wizard while spending most of his time with the falcons and their keeper. 

Fans of the series will enjoy this episode. 

I bought the Kindle copy November 21, 2024, and the audiobook June 5, 2026. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Dog Eat Dog by David Rosenfelt

Dog Eat Dog
Author: David Rosenfelt

Narrator: Grover Gardner
Series: Andy Carpenter (Book 23)
Publication: Minotaur Books & Macmillan Audio (July 6, 2021)

Length: 6 hours and 30 minutes

Description: Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his golden retriever, Tara, work to free a man who risked it all to help a dog in need

Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his wife, Laurie, enjoy walking their dogs, Tara and Sebastian. By this point in their marriage, it’s routine. When out for one of their strolls, their simple ritual isn’t so simple anymore. Across the street, a man is mistreating his dog. Three things happen at once: Andy yells, Laurie runs to stop the abuse, and so does a closer passerby, who so thoroughly beats the owner that both are arrested when the cops arrive.

Andy scoops up the dog and takes him to the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization that’s always been his true passion. Meanwhile, at the police station, the passerby is identified as Matthew Jantzen, and he’s wanted for murder. Andy and Laurie are struck by the fact that Jantzen, a man on the run, would nevertheless intervene to help a dog, and decide to find out more.

Dog Eat Dog, the twenty-second installment in the Andy Carpenter series, features the charming cast of characters - old and new - that David Rosenfelt is known for and the dogs that accompany them.

My Thoughts: Andy's next case comes to him when he and Laurie are out walking their dogs and see a man attack another who is abusing a dog. The man is Matthew Jantzen who is subsequently arrested for murder and extradited to Maine where he is accused of a home invasion murder of two people. 

Andy agrees to be with him when he makes his plea but then intends to find a local lawyer to defend him. The baffling piece of evidence in this case is that Matthew's DNA was found under the fingernails of the male victim. Matt insists that he didn't know either person. He had no idea how his blood could get under the man's nails. 

Andy's investigation uncovers a potential terrorist plot but doesn't give him a way to connect it to the murder investigation until a brainstorm in court provides the answer for him. 

This is the twenty-second in the Andy Carpenter series and is filled with the usual witty dialog and cute dogs. Andy is a snarky character that I would definitely want on my side if I were ever accused of murder. 

I bought the Kindle copy November 7, 2023, and the audiobook June 5, 2023. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead

Hot Girl Murder Club
Author: Ashley Winstead
Publication: Minotaur Books (July 14, 2026)

Description: From national bestselling author Ashley Winstead comes a buzzy, bloody new thriller about success, sisterhood, and demanding justice…by any means necessary.

What’s a girl got to do to get some fame, a few million record sales, and justice for murder?

Ten years ago, aspiring singer-actress Scout Sage lost the only thing that mattered: her sister, Georgia. Ever since Georgia’s mysterious death at a Hollywood party, Scout’s done her best to honor her memory, clawing her way through the industry and collecting a network of climbers along the way, fellow hot girls in stilettos with cutthroat ambition, a new Hollywood order.

But when a slew of targeted murders makes headlines across L.A., all pointing to Scout as the killer, she turns overnight from a mid-tier pop star into the world’s most famous (alleged) murderer. Now everything she’s worked to build―including the justice she wants for Georgia―will fall apart unless Scout can prove she’s not guilty.

Meanwhile, the young and unusual detective assigned to her case, herself no stranger to tragedy, begins to unearth secrets not even Scout knows, let alone her millions of new fans. Particularly about the ways Georgia’s death connects to an even older pattern of crimes long hushed over in Hollywood―an old reign of terror that, if brought to light, could be the fuel that ignites a reckoning the world over.

My Thoughts: HOT GIRL MURDER CLUB hits all the tropes in a fascinating and compelling story of women's power, ambition, and murder. It is told from multiple viewpoints including excerpts from a PhD dissertation about a group of young women known as Our Ladies of the Dark.

Grey Holloway is a LAPD detective whose father was fired for his obsession that someone at the LAPD sabotaged his investigation into his daughter's disappearance. Grey's older sister Alice disappeared ten years earlier while working one night at the Serpent Room, a club that was popular with the in-crowd then and still attracts the current in-crowd. Grey is determined to solve her sister's case and moonlights herself as a bottle girl at the Serpent Room. 

Grey's current case is investigating the murder of a woman who looks just like her. Elizabeth Drake had worked for a number of Hollywood movers and shakers. There is a quotation written on the wall in her blood which turns out to be an excerpt from the lyrics of a song written by Scout Sage.

Scout Sage and her best friend Isabel came from New Jersey to become stars. Scout's sister Georgia came a year later to attend UCLA. In a flashback from ten years ago, we see Scout, Isabel, and Georgia attending a party at an influential man's home. They were looking for contacts and maybe a break, but when Georgia was found murdered, Scout and Isabel have a new goal. They need to find her killer. 

Over the ten years, Scout gains some minor fame as a musician and Isabel becomes her assistant. But their real purpose is to find Georgia's killer and help other young women who are being done wrong by men. They have gathered a posse of influential women that they have helped over the years but have come no closer to finding Georgia's killer. 

However, in the present storyline things are finally breaking open. 

I enjoyed this twisty story with all its various themes. I liked all of the viewpoint characters and the way their lives intertwined. It was an intriguing story filled with memorable characters. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Cloak and Dagger Club by Jackie McMahon

The Cloak and Dagger Club
Author: Jackie McMahon
Series: A Cloak and Dagger Club Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Berkley (July 14, 2026)

Description: Inspired by Agatha Christie's real-life Detection Club, a murder among a group of golden age mystery writers meets a second chance romance in this debut novel from author Jackie McMahon.

London, 1930. Lucy Hubbard is on the cusp of achieving her dreams. With her first mystery novel debuting with strong sales and glowing reviews, she's been invited by Horace Hazelmoor, the king of crime fiction, to join his elite group of writers—the Cloak and Dagger Club.

Thrilled at the opportunity, Lucy finds herself swept up into Horace's glamorous world at the Ritz hotel. She's even willing to put up with the inconvenient presence of her former fiancé, Frank Murray, the club's rising star who is on track to eclipse Horace as Britain's most popular crime writer.

But when Horace is found with a knife in his back, Frank is the police's prime suspect. Despite their complicated history, Lucy knows he's not capable of murder. With suspects galore and the danger rising, these two mystery writers must race to solve the crime—and fight their lingering feelings for each other—before the murderer strikes again.

My Thoughts: Lucy Hubbard who has recently published her first mystery to great acclaim is invited by best-selling author Horace Hazelmoor to join the prestigious Cloak and Dagger Club. She's intrigued but rather reluctant because her former fiancé Frank Murray is also a member. 

The first meeting doesn't go well because Hazelmoor is illuminated as a drunk and as a man who is mercurial. He is also eager for any opportunity to prove his superiority in writing despite the fact that his last mystery didn't do well. Blows are exchanged and he's escorted to his suite where he is discovered dead 36 hours later. 

When Frank becomes the prime suspect, Lucy is determined to discover who really killed Horace Hazelmoor. She needs to uncover the secrets of the other members of the club if she wants to clear Frank's name. And all the other members do have their secrets.

Frank and Lucy's romance is rekindled but they need to battle both external enemies and themselves before they find their way to a happy ending. 

I enjoyed this historical mystery and the intriguing cast of characters who inhabit it. I enjoyed the period details.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Unpredictable Magic by Faith Hunter

Unpredictable Magic
Author: Faith Hunter
Publication: Ace (July 14, 2026)

Description: Witches Angelina and Evan Everhart-Trueblood take a case that spirals out of control until the whole city is at risk in this exciting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter.

Angelina Everhart-Trueblood and her brother Evan run Everhart Investigations, a PI firm in Chattanooga that solves paranormal crimes committed by supernatural beings. When their new client wants help finding her friend, who supposedly disappeared during a reception at Angie’s aunt Jane’s winter residence, things get . . . complicated.

The client is not who she appears to be, and demons strike the city for the first time since the Witch War. On top of that, evidence is pointing toward the involvement of an overly ambitious vampire—who just happens to be Angie’s ex-husband.

As Angie and Evan team up with CPD, they will have to dig deep into their magical reserves—and rely on some friends in high places—to rid Chattanooga of the danger creeping into their city.

My Thoughts: This traditional urban fantasy stars siblings Angelina Everhart-Trueblood and her brother Evan. They are godchildren of the Dark Queen and royalty by decree who have managed to escape court formality and court politics by opening their own investigation agency in Chattanooga. Their next case which was supposed to be a simple missing person case drops them right back into the center of court politics again.

When their missing person is found to have been at a reception at the Queen's residence that they attended and that their vampire bodyguard Walter should have attended, they find themselves in a conspiracy to overthrow the queen and restart the demon wars. Angie's ex-husband is a vampire player in that conspiracy as is Evan's human girlfriend. Even an old companion of Walter's has a role in the conspiracy. 

It soon becomes clear that finding their client's missing friend is the very least of their concerns with stopping the conspiracy against the queen taking priority as well as dealing with their own personal issues regarding their various exes. 

This was an engaging urban fantasy title in the same world as the author's Jane Yellowrock world. A number of characters also made appearances in that series of fifteen books and multiple short stories. 

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and enjoyed the complex and intriguing main characters who exchanged viewpoints throughout the story. Now, I want to go and read the Jane Yellowrock series and, because of a preview at the end of this book, the Soulwood series. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Killer Vibes by Jack Friday

Killer Vibes
Author: Jack Friday
Series: Peter Key Mystery Series (Book 1)
Publication: Minotaur Books (July 14, 2026)

Description: A wild and wickedly funny series debut, introducing readers to the irresistible and irrepressible private investigator, Peter Key.

Meet Peter Key: self-proclaimed “laziest private investigator in Texas” (it’s harder than it looks), unapologetic bisexual, dedicated stoner, and the surprised recipient of a windfall inheritance from an uncle he barely knew. Peter’s life was a mess before, but now― as the owner of a dilapidated house in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Austin―he has a mountain of debt to deal with and pressure to sell from every side.

But Peter doesn’t like to be pushed around. And when he discovers a bag full of cash, he starts to suspect his uncle’s death wasn’t an accident. He soon finds himself pulled into a lethal game where not everybody plays by the rules.

Fortunately, Peter’s never been good at following rules.

Sexy, suspenseful, and packed with Austin’s quirks, Killer Vibes is a wild and wickedly funny romp that introduces us to the irresistible and irrepressible PI, Peter Key.

My Thoughts: Peter Key is an unusual fictional detective. He's 28, bisexual, and a stoner. He is also depressed. When he inherits an uncle's house, fortune, and debts, he becomes determined to learn more about this man he only met a couple of times in his life. He soon comes to believe that his uncle was murdered and decides to solve the crime.

Peter's new home is in Austin which is new territory for him. He finds that his new house is dilapidated but in a very desirable area and is the immediate target of realtors and property management agencies. Peter finds himself followed and the target of some who might want him dead. 

This was an intriguing mystery with an engaging main character who stumbles into the correct career. It is told by Peter with some foreshadowing of the this will be important later school of writing. I liked the main character and liked seeing the world through his eyes. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 6, 2026)

 It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Want to See What I Added to My Stack? links to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality.

Other Than Reading...

This was a quiet week. The "heat wave" did give us a couple of days in the mid-80s. We were alternating between running the air conditioner and throwing open the windows. Right now, Sunday morning, it is 69 degrees and the windows are open. We also had a few thunderstorms run through the area which delayed but didn't postpone the 4th of July festivities. I heard the fireworks going off but couldn't see them from my house. 

I spent some of this week doing setups for my August calendar and looking back at June's reading. Posts for books this week will complete my July calendar and begin August's. With lots of review books on the calendar, I'll likely be relistening to some audiobooks so that I don't get too far out of sync on my calendar. I have eight review books to read before my next scheduled audiobook. 

This coming week should be quiet too. I have no appointments or cooking plans. My brother works through the supper hour every day that he works so no suppers together. He does have Monday and Thursday off, but we have no meals planned for either of those days. This looks to be another "what do you want to eat?" week. 

June Reading

I read 33 books in June. Twenty-one were mine including seven from by TBR Pile and fourteen rereads. I also read twelve review copies. All of the twenty-one books that were mine were audiobooks for a total of 262 hours of listening. Most of the audiobooks duplicated books that I already had in unread Kindle versions. Each of them lowered TBR mountain by two books. Others of my rereads were some of my favorite books from the Liaden Universe.

I added 36 new books to my LibraryThing account. Eighteen were review copies and ten were audiobooks. I used one Audible Credit and many of my other new audiobooks were on sale. All but one of my new Kindle books were Kindle Daily Deals or BookBub deals. Of the books I bought, eight are still on the TBR Pile. 

Here's my State of the Stack post.

Read Last Week

• Neogenesis by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (Audiobook Reread)
• Accepting the Lance by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (Audiobook Reread)
• Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst (Review, July 28) -- A romantasy which is third in the Spellshop series. My review will be posted on July 21)

• Dachshund Through the Snow by David Rosenfelt (Audiobook, Mine since June 5) -- 20th Andy Carpenter mystery. My review will be posted on July 24.
• Pride Comes Before a Fall by Virginia Heath (Review, July 28) -- Historical romance. My review will be posted on July 22.
• Fossil Feud by Maggie North (Review, July 28) -- Contemporary romance. Two rival paleontologists fall in love. My review will be posted on July 23.

• Falling Awake by Jayne Ann Krentz (Audiobook, Mine since December 3, 2025) -- Early Krentz with elements of the paranormal along with the romance. My review will be posted on July 23.
• The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz (Audiobook, Mine since April 26) -- Second in a recent Krentz paranormal romance trilogy. My review will be posted on July 30.
• Probable Caws by Donna Andrews (Review, August 4) -- 39th Meg Langslow mystery centers around a horse rescue organization. My review will be posted on July 28.

DNF

• Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard (Review, July 28) -- I read 20%. I didn't like the writing style or the characters.

Currently

• A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett (Review, August 4)
• Vendetta in Death by J. D. Robb (Audiobook reread)

Next Week

• Death on the Books by Victoria Gilbert (Review, August 4)
• Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty (Review, August 4)
• (Mostly) Human Resources by Grace Viall (Review, August 4)

• Murder in Blackfriars by Jennifer Ashley (Review, August 11)
• Death at a Scottish Halloween by Lucy Connelly (Review, August 11)
• The Matchmaker's Cottage by Kat Sloane (Review, August 11)

Reviews Posted

• Death by Irish Whiskey by Catie Murphy (Audiobook)
• Dead Men Don't Play Fetch by David Rosenfelt (Review copy)
• Murder on the Clock by Lucy Connelly (Audiobook)

• The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance by Chiara Bullen (Review copy)
• Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox (Review copy)
• See How They Hide by Allison Brennan (Audiobook)

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

Review:

• The Velvet Knife by Maureen Johnson (September 29)

Bought:

• The Fey Duology by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (Kindle)
• Bad Scene by Max Tomlinson (Audiobook, $4.50)

What was your week like?