Audiobook Review: Swan for the Money by Donna Andrews

Swan for the Money
Author: Donna Andrews
Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
Series: Meg Langslow Mysteries (Book 11)
Publication: Dreamscape Media (February 8, 2018)
Length: 7 hours and 56 minutes

Description: Meg Langslow's eccentric parents have a new hobby: growing roses and entering them in highly competitive shows. Dad's gardening skill and Mother's gift for selecting and arranging the blossoms should make them an unbeatable team - and Meg is relieved they've taken up such a safe, gentle hobby. She even volunteers to help when the Caerphilly Garden Club sponsors its first annual rose show.

But after a few hours of dealing with her parents' competitors, Meg sees trouble...Rose growers are so cutthroat that they will do nearly anything to win the Black Swan trophy - making them all prime suspects when Meg discovers that someone is attempting to kill the wealthy woman on whose estate the competition is being held.

Meg tries to leave the detecting to the local police and focus on the competition, but she just can't help getting her hands dirty when lives are at stake....

My Thoughts: Meg Langslow is busy organizing the first ever rose show the local garden club is doing. The show is being held on the estate of an eccentric older woman. Everything, including the animals on the estate, is either black or white and only the perfect specimens are kept.

There's dognapping when the owner's famous Maltese goes missing. There's the mystery of what is happening to the less than perfect cows and goats. There is the chicanery around trying to produce a black rose. There are very territorial swans. And there is a murder and an attempted murder. 

All Meg wants to do is bring off the show without a hitch - and somehow ask Michael, who is traveling to New York to see a production of Millard Fillmore the Musical produced by one of his former students, to buy her a pregnancy test. But she finds herself involved in all aspects of the investigation despite her determination to let the police handle things. 

This was another engaging episode of a long-running series of cozy mysteries. I really like the way Meg takes her parents' eccentricities in stride. 

I bought this one on sale at Chirp May 10, 2022. You can buy your copy here.