An Owl Too Many

Peter Shandy #8

by Charlotte MacLeod

When a nocturnal hike turns deadly, Professor Peter Shandy takes an interest in owl spotting
Emory Emmerick comes to Balaclava Agricultural University as a scout for a television station. Although the faculty and students are hardly ready for prime time, Emmerick’s interest is in environmental programming—a subject that inspires even the driest Balaclava professor to wax poetic. In his search for material, Emmerick joins Peter Shandy and a few of his colleagues on the annual owl-count. And though the television producer’s loud mouth and heavy feet make him a dismal birdwatcher, none of the academics expect him to make a fatal blunder. Chasing what appears to be a badly lost snowy owl, Emmerick stumbles into a trap that yanks him into a tree. By the time the professors reach him, he’s been stabbed to death. Discovering that the snowy owl was nothing more than a handful of feathers attached to a fishing pole, Shandy concludes that Emmerick was murdered. Plenty of people might like to kill a television producer, but which would-be killer had the gall to make the helpless Nyctea scandiaca an accomplice?

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Humor, Audiobook, Adult

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1991

About the author

Naturalized US Citizen

Also wrote as Alisa Craig

Charlotte MacLeod, born in New Brunswick, Canada, and a naturalized U.S. citizen, was the multi-award-winning author of over thirty acclaimed novels. Her series featuring detective Professor Peter Shandy, America's homegrown Hercule Poirot, delivers "generous dollops of...warmth, wit, and whimsy" (San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle). But fully a dozen novels star her popular husband-and-wife team of Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn. And her native Canada provides a backdrop for the amusing Grub-and-Stakers cozies written under the pseudonym Alisa Craig and the almost-police procedurals starring Madoc Rhys, RCMP. A cofounder and past president of the American Crime Writers League, she also edited the bestselling anthologies Mistletoe Mysteries and Christmas Stalkings.

Reviews

[Charles van Buren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing, humorous mystery

By Charles van Buren on February 27, 2018

Format: Kindle Edition

A well written, humorous mystery full of interesting, quirky characters. Mabe a bit too quirky for belief which coupled with the frequently absurd use of hypnosis in the plot makes this a not very realistic story. Even so, I enjoyed it though I usually demand more realism in the mysteries which I choose to read.

The dialogue is witty and full of 10¢ words which I suppose, because of inflation, are nowadays often called $2 words. I do not believe that Ms MacLeod was showing off but instead used those words as humor. I found the use of the words fun and challenging, though I admit that I looked up some of them.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Balaclava College’s annual owl count leads to the death of an engineer, Emory Emmerick, brought in to help build the college’s new television station. But even more shocking than Emmerick’s death in a booby trap strung up in the woods was the emergence of the fact that no one at the engineering firm had ever heard of any Emory Emmerick! So why had the man come down under false name? And what was his real purpose in asking so many questions at Balaclava College?

Sure, I really enjoyed the mystery and the humorous dialogue of An Owl Too Many, the eighth novel in Peter Shandy series. But being reunited with Professor Shandy and his eccentric family and friends, as always, remains the highlight of reading yet another of Charlotte MacLeod’s wonderful Shandy novels.

[Lyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

HILARIOUS HIJINX!!! When a book starts out with adults out tracking and counting owls at night and end up with a dead body--what else would you expect? And after all, the dead body was a person no one liked and it turns out he was an imposter--a con man. A very unlucky one, sadly.

That'll teach him.

Anyway I laughed out loud more times than I can remember. We meet the indefatigable Miss Binks, the unlikely heiress. Watch President Svenson of Balaclava Agricultural College prove he has Viking blood! And so many other characters with unlikely, hilarious names. Try Cronkite Swope, the blossoming young newspaper reporter for one.

Anyway this was one of the best of Charlotte MacLeod's Peter Shandy mysteries. OUTRAGEOUSLY FUNNY!

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant mystery... and SO much Fun!

[Susan in NC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another funny, literate and whimsical Peter Shandy mystery, this time back among the denizens of Balaclava Agricultural College in rural Massachusetts. I reread the first in the series, "Rest Ye Merry", almost every Christmas - it never fails to make me laugh! But this is the first time I've reread almost the whole series (not "The Curse of the Giant Hogweed", where she veers into sheer fairy-tale fantasy, too bizarre for me - one reading was sufficient) and I have to say I find it a bit uneven. MacLeod is always witty and charming and I never fail to learn some obscure new words (especially enjoyable to read the Kindle editions, you can define the words right away), but sometimes the whimsy veers into farcical verbal gymnastics and she loses my interest.

I think I also lose interest when she wanders too far afield from Balaclava (as in the last outing, "Vane Pursuit") and the quirky characters that made "Rest Ye Merry" so much fun. In that book the reader follows Peter Shandy as he combs through the motives, jealousies, and gossipy back-biting among his fellow faculty, staff, their families and students to find the murderer of his nosy neighbor whose body was left in his living room. It was a great way to introduce Shandy and the rest of Balaclava, and MacLeod didn't spare the snark in dealing with the back-stabbing, adultery and general shenanigans behind the faculty facade; it is a hoot, and a hard act to follow. I would still recommend the series to fans of funny, literate, cozy (but not nauseatingly sweet by any means) mysteries.

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

2023 bk 29. Another delightful mystery from Charlotte MacLeod. During the annual Balaclava owl count, murder happens and to the team consisting of Professor Shandy, the college President, Ms Binks, Professor Stotts and an interloper. From the beginning, the Professor is drawn into this mystery that seems to be related to Balaclava's own multi-millionaire heiress. A con man, hypnotist, swindler, and seemingly earth goddess meet their match for when the Balaclava crew draws together to protect someone, by golly, she stays protected. Except when she isn't. A fun look at the dark side of the health food industry and the greed of humans.

[Karen Plummer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really a continuation of the story from Vane Pursuit, focusing on Winifred Binks. Miss Binks who helped Peter Shandy and Cronkite Swope in their hours of need in the previous novel, is now the acknowledged heiress of the Binks fortune. She has taken up a position at Balaclava Agricultural College, putting her money to good use by funding a field station for the College, and investigating good environmentally friendly causes into which she can invest her millions. But, weird things are happening around her.

During the College's annual owl count, a somewhat obnoxious man is killed. The man was someone working for the field station's construction company and he barged in to accompany Miss Binks and her party on the owl count. It makes no sense to Peter or the other members of the group. Was this man the target or was it someone else? Then the secretary at the field station is kidnapped. Peter and President Svenson soon rescue her. Miss Binks is also having trouble getting through to her trust agent and to her partners in business. There's definitely a conspiracy going on but can Peter resolve it?

Another fun read...I'm just so sad that there are only two more in the series.

[Teri-K · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good entry in the series. Professor Shandy is on an owl count when someone is murdered, and of course he has to solve the crime. There are lots of mistaken identities and a wild night riding out a flood on a tugboat with Balaclava college President Thorkjeld Svenson at the helm.

It feels to me like this series should be set in Minnesota, so it always surprises me to see references to Massachusetts instead. This book follows pretty hard on the heels of the previous one, so it might be better to read that one first. And, though it's good it's not one of the best in the series, so don't start with this one. Save it until you've developed a fondness for the wacky people at Balaclava.

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 2 out of 5]

And that second star was mostly just because of Macleod's award winning career because this one was a giant misfire. Mom read most of Macleod's work back in the 80s and I read some (more of the Kelling & Bittershon series than Shandy's). After 30 years she decided to clear them off the shelves and I took them before they hit the donation box. To be fair this book is the second to last Peter Shandy book and written very late in her career which in many ways are strikes against it because I've noticed once you get a good mystery series going, win awards and suddenly the editors stop editing and let you do what you want. It definitely felt that way in this one.

It doesn't make a lot of sense. I've seen better, more believable Murder, She Wrote episodes (not knocking it, I loved that show). Sheriff Tupper looks like a rocket scientist compared to the cops in this one. Fair warning this one is going to be more spoilery of a review than normal because things need to be talked about (and it IS 25 years old at this point)

Professor Peter Shandy along with Professor Winifred Binks and President Thorjeld Svensson (all recurring characters and this must be the month for me to read about characters with Thor in their names) are out owl spotting along with a newcomer Emory Emmitt site engineer for the new field station Binks, new heiress, is building. I didn't realize this was supposed to be humorous until I saw some of the pro review blurbs (what was funny? the fat shaming? the mocking of someone they didn't think was as smart as them? I couldn't tell).

Emmitt exists mostly so the three recurring characters could act pedantic and mock the newbie owl hunter who quickly ends up dead in a net with his throat cut after following a 'snowy owl.' Yes, this is pre-CSI forensic craze era. In 1991 when this was printed DNA was only in use in the courtroom for 2 years but really? These three faculty members do the ENTIRE investigation. The cops show up and more or less just haul the dude off. Chief Ottermole doesn't do much of anything except seem surprised Binks and SHandy went up in the tree to investigate how Emmitt had been hauled up and dropped, something that is repeated in 2 chapters as if it were the first time Ottermole hears this (see what I mean about the editing).

And this is about the only thing Ottermole does the entire book other than get hypnotized in his own jail and lets one of the bad guys go. The cops in this are SO bad there is a point where one character is kidnapped, one is tied to a tree and another has his head bashed in (all in the same scene) and no cops show up. They're at dinner and will be by later. Okay, really? Does NO ONE say this is utterly unbelievable at any point during the editing process?

Shandy accompanies Binks (for some reason and the only one I can think of is Macleod was a young woman in the 30s and 40s and even though she tries to make Binks an independant woman she misses the mark entirely because Binks takes Shandy everywhere with her) to see her lawyer and financial officer where in she wants to dump her stock in Lackovite's all natural food (think the beginnings of the organic movement) because it uses crappy products (really? you have a sham healthy food company and you name it basically lack of vitamins?) and put all her stocks from them into the older, more respected mom and pop organic store, Golden Apples run by the Compotes (seriously, the punny names in this were more distracting than funny). Turns out she already more or less owns Golden Apples via her grandfather's inheritance. Sopwith, her advisor doesn't want to do this since Lackovite is a much bigger company (boring? yes but it's a key plot point. IN fact it's the ONLY plot point).

QUickly they learn Emmitt wasn't the site engineer and the other man they had been talking to about Emmitt, Farnsworth, is also a fake and a hypnotist and he escapes Ottermole (see above) after Shandy and Binks make a noose and tie him up. Yes you read that right, two college professors jump a total stranger because they think he's up to something (he is) and hog tie him and drag him to the cops.

Soon enough there is even more trouble with Binks two graduate workers, Viola Buddingly (the fat woman they like to pick on) and Knapweed Calthrop (yeah an environmentalist named Knapwee). There is a strange he said/she said where they both claim the other tried to force themselves on the other which goes nowhere. Even 25 years ago that kind of stuff might have been looked into by the college administration. Viola is then kidnapped and found by Svensson and Shandy (let me just say this is the most on-campus and free and well loved college president ever). And oddly enough a day or two later Viola is kidnapped and tied to a tree again, Binks is taken away and Knapweed gets his skull fractured.

At some point in this Shandy takes the time to actually be snide about Viola's hair because that's what we worry about in a kidnap victim. This is also the point where the cops refuse to leave dinner including Ottermole so Shandy and Svensson (since their wives aren't home which apparently had something to do with them being free to hang out together) get the call to the station where the kidnapping happened and they're the ones waiting for the kidnappers to call (because like I said, no cops bother)

Once they get the call and Binks manages to pass Shandy some clues he and Svensson go to rescue her which they do but manage to get set adrift in a tugboat in a storm which is fine because the blood of Vikings runs in Svensson's veins. He even manages to keep going even after the dam breaks while Shandy contradicts himself paragraph to paragraph (such as he doesn't want to start the oven for fear of fire then does so without any thought a page later). WHen they finally reach land the next day where people are sandbagging against the dam burst they get out but leave Svensson sleep on the boat because he had exhausted himself. Uh huh there's a high river, flooding etc but let's leave him sleep on the battered boat.

Do they go to the cops? No. Do they even call the cops? No. Why not? Because they learn they're in the town that's home to Golden Apples and she wants to see why they've been dodging her calls. And that's what they do because that's what all kidnapped heiresses in two day old clothing soaked by a storm do.

After that the thing wraps up in an equally ridiculous way. There is only one motive for this thing. Obviously Lackovite doesn't want her to withdraw her shares and wants to take over GOlden Apple. There is no other motive so the players (except one) are obvious since the beginning and how does Binks react when she learns her financial advisor was purposely working against her and is actually part of the conspiracy that leaves one man dead and another hospitalized? She keeps him on because he was so bad at cheating her he wouldn't try it again. Head meet desk (let's not forget that this dude will be going to jail but no one seems to recognize this).

The actual mastermind was a bit of a surprise because there was no build up to it. Oh Shandy knew from the beginning. He tells us so. Does he tell Binks? Svensson (who he has a better bromance going with than he does his wife)? Helen (his wife)? Ottermole? No, he never says a word (and he won't use a simple one when a huge one will do). And I'm still not entirely sure why Emmitt was killed or how he fell into a trap he helped set up. I assume he died because he was a moron.

There are better Macleod's out there. Even by late 80s/early 90s cozy standards this is sub par. Shandy and the rest read so stiff and ridiculous (Svensson's wife is railing against modes of dress common on campuses in 1991. I should know I was on one. You'd think it was 1943 the way she acted) that it was impossible to engage with them. For those old enough to remember Frasier when he was on Cheers, the way they talk made him sound like Sam and Woody. I don't mind looking up words (though I knew most of the big ones) I don't see three people all talking this way and using the same soft swears (By Scott!) or things like M'yes. IT was like a three headed person with no personality. I finished this because I needed an O for my alphabet challenge and it was under 200 pages mercifully.

[Kyrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had this one figured out very early, but MacLeod made it so twistedly amusing that it was fun to just watch it unravel. Loved the word play, loved the bizarre twists.
It's not deep, but it's comfortable, and a little old fashioned. Sort of like stepping into a different era.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's the night of the annual owl count at Balaclava college, but unfortunately the construction engineer for the new television station tags along with Peter Shandy's group. When the man is murdered, Shandy and the college president are shocked to learn that the construction company claims never to have heard of the dead man. Then the man who claims to be his supervisor for the same company escapes the police by hypnotizing them. Who are all these strange people, and why are they interested in Winifred Binks, unexpected heiress and college benefactor? It's up to Peter to find out.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an entertaining series featuring a professor in a too-good-to-be-true small university. However the characters are delightful and the plot is sufficiently peopled with suspects that the end has an element of surprise.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I hoped, Winifred Binks is back. This is a lovely story that continues after Winifred has inherited her grandfather's millions and removed herself from living with nature to a small home. The TV station mentioned in the last book is being built when all the "fun" starts. Peter and President Svenson on the "tugboat" will long live in my memory. Sieglinde, as always, is amazing, although she and Helen only get a small part in this book.

[Jessica Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Peter Shandy Mysteries

I think the setting of an agricultural college to be unique. A agricultural professor and his librarian wife are unusual heroes. In short, it's a grand mystery. Start with the first book in the series (Rest You Merry) and enjoy!

[Whistler's Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Shandy (Balaclava Agricultural College professor of horticulture and amateur detective) isn't really a bird-twitcher, but every year he loyally participates in the annual owl count. It consists of mapping the wooded campus into grids with a team of 4-5 watchers assigned to each grid to record the species of owls spotted and the number of each. Naturally, it happens at night. They don't call them "night owls" for nothing.

Things are humming at Belaclava. President Svenson is back from his trip to Sweden and I'm glad to see him. He's no diplomat, but he's a great man in a fight or any other emergency. Plus I love his habit (acquired from his Swedish wife) of turning j's into y's. Very useful in this book since the first victim is a real yackass.

Winifred Binks has inherited her grandpa's millions and become a college benefactor as well as a faculty member. Her goal is to spread the word about natural foods and the dangers of over-processed foods. Inheriting money is a fine thing, but there are always people trying to take it away from you. Some of them can get really nasty about it. Winifred seems like a natural victim, but she has strong opinions and she can stand up for herself when she has to.

Peter's owl-hunting group consists of himself, President Svenson, Professor Stott, newly appointed Associate Professor Winifred Binks and a wild card. The company hired to build the natural foods center that Winifred is funding has sent a young site engineer and he's obnoxious. He invites himself to the Annual Owl Count, then seems determined to sabotage it. As the President says, he's a yackass.

Still, no one expects him to be caught up in a huge net, pulled up into a giant oak tree, and returned to the ground in much worse shape than he was before. In fact, he's dead due to a knife stuck in his neck. This is NO way to run an owl count.

The next morning, his "boss" shows up, but he's a strange one, too. And Winifred meets with her investment advisors and gets some advice she doesn't like at all. They've gotten used to handling things their own way and aren't about to let a little lady interfere, even if it is her money.

If you've read other books in this series, you know that the action just keeps getting wilder and wilder. A young woman is kidnapped and tied to a tree (twice!) Police Chief Fred Ottermole, the state police, and Peter Shandy try to figure out where the dead guy came from and what he wanted. They arrest the "boss" but he doesn't stay arrested long. He's a career chameleon and a talented one, too.

Meanwhile Winifred's battle with her financial gurus rages on and it's becoming apparent that at least some of them are crooked as a dog's hind leg. Can she trust any of them and how much damage have they done already?

Then a college employee is attacked and left with brain injuries. The young woman who keeps getting tied to trees gets tied to another tree. And Winifred is missing. Shandy and Svenson take off in hot pursuit. Or should I say "in wet pursuit"? The storm of the century has caused a dam to break and the local river has morphed into a wild ride. Always good to have a Viking around when you need one.

I'm coming to the end of this series. Only two more to go after this one. Still, I can't complain. I stumbled into it and have loved all but one of the series. They're unconventional mysteries, but witty and well-written. Educational, really, since the author had an extensive vocabulary. I pride myself that I do, too, but "retarius", "Heliantha", and "palter" had me hitting the dictionary.

I love this series.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read, like most of MacLeod's books. I've read my paperback copy a couple times, but couldn't resist getting an e-copy as well when it turned up. When an annoying man is murdered during an owl-counting expedition by the college, Peter gets involved. His friend, the wealthy Winifred Binks, has recently devoted a share of her inherited wealth to creating a field station, including a TV station, where she spends most of her time, along with her two employees, Viola and Knapweed, and the murdered man was supposedly an engineer involved with setting up the TV station. As Peter continues detecting, people are abducted and/or injured, and things culminate in a wild ride down a flooded river with President Svenson at the helm. Thorkjeld Svenson, the college president, is my favorite character in the Peter Shandy books! I guess this could be read as a stand-alone, but it is difficult for me to judge, having read all the other books, not necessarily in order, but enough to know who's who and how they got there. So if you are a completist, it might help to read them more or less in order. They are all fun books!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before there was Donna Anderson's quirky Caerphilly County, there was Charlotte MacLeod's quirky Balaclava County, Massachusetts. Peter Shandy teaches at Balaclava Agricultural College, ruled by its Viking berserker of a president, Thorkjeld Svenson. When several faculty members, including newly-discovered heiress and wilderness survivor extraordinaire Winifred Binks, are on a nightly owl count, it ends in murder. Emory Emerick (?) is supposedly a representative of the construction company building a college TV station, but he didn't act like one, and he's the one who gets netted and stabbed. Soon thereafter, Winifred is kidnapped, and Peter and the president take up the hunt. Prepare for hypnotists, con artists, disguises, hurricanes, tugboats, and so much more!

I loved this series many years ago, and it holds up well. You're never really concerned that anything truly dreadful will happen, and if the adventures are absurd and not too believable, well, what else are you here for? The main characters are still sympathetic and fun to be around, if you can put up with endless Norse stereotypes played for laughs as well as genuine affection.

[George]

#8 in the Peter Shandy professor at Balacava College in a rural small Massachusetts farming community mystery series. More mystery on the light side with a lot of tongue in cheek story line and characters.

It is October and the annual owl count is under way and Peter is a member of one of the group. Also in the group is the engineer who reported early to oversee the construction of a new campus building. He is a bit of a nuisance and is murdered on the count night. It is quickly discovered that he isn’t who he was supposed to be and Shandy is again faced with solving this murder which quickly becomes more complicated as he is running a step behind a clever group of operatives with a scheme that is slowly appearing. Just another normal situation for Shandy featuring his usual generations of many possible explanations and possible suspects along the way before working everything out.

[Jim Mann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun romp with the Balaclava College group. During the annual owl counting event, someone is murdered. And from there, things get complicated, as the victim turns out not to be the representative of the construction company who he claimed to be. And more complications follow, as Miss Binks, now a millionaire, is kidnapped and needs to be rescued by Peter Shandy and President Svenson.

An Owl Too Many has a number of fun and exciting moments, including a trip on a runaway boat down a flooded river. And of course we have the usual mix of characters, both old and new, as well as the usual mix of mystery and comedy.

The books biggest flaw -- and why I rated it a bit lower than others in the series -- is the silly use of hypnotism in several places. One character uses it to escape from the police. And in the end the mystery is tied up when Peter uses hypnotism to get to captured villains to explain what they did, which felt like an easy out for the author.

[Elaine Bidstrup · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Owl Too Many is one of several books whose protagonist is Peter Shandy, a professor at Balaclava Agricultural College in Balaclava, Massachusetts. While this is a mystery, it is also laugh out loud funny. Peter Shandy has the most ordinary name; the college president is Thorjold and his wife Sieglinde, another professor is Winifred Binks, the "bad guys" are Emory Emmerick and Frank Franshaw, and another couple is named Compote. The novel opens when the college is on its annual "owl count" in late October. Peter and Thorjold are on the team with Winifred and Emory. Emory doesn't follow protocol and barges ahead, is trapped in a net, hauled up in a tree, and murdered. While the novel does search for his killer, most of it is centered around Winifred and the fortune she inherited from her uncle; some of the stocks are performing badly and she wants to know why.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

AS always, several things are going on at once. And is there anything Peter isn't good at? To his list of accomplishments, this book adds ornithology, and owling at that. As it turns out, it is a fake, not a real snowy owl, but it accomplished its purpose of being distracting.

Lots of players in the cast, and the bad guys are not always obvious. Nor is their purpose easily discernable At least not until we get on board a tugboat in a storm, the bad guys escape, and Peter and Torkild and Winnifred Binks are left to weather a flood on the river when the dam breaks, but never fear, President Svenson calls upon his Viking heritage to rescue them.

As always, everything comes together at the end and all is right with the world. In a perfect world, it would satisfy me if Winnifred would show up in yet another mystery.

[PR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well crafted. Great Main Characters. Love her sense of humor...hahaha...

A bit confusing in slots...so sad she is no longer here to ask about some of her finer points!!!
Anyway, love her sense of humor, her choice or fabricated names, her sense of the ridiculous and the absurd, her Feisty and intelligent Main Characters and her silly and
Yet, somehow, compelling plots...
Recommend these books to those who wish to expand their vocabulary, learn more about authors and poets one may or may not recognize, expand ones knowledge of flora and fauna, have an appreciation for true imagination when it comes to names, and those who enjoy a cozy, sometimes silly, fast read.
I wish she had been able to write more!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy mysteries that take place on college campuses, because I see so many familiar people. Others may think the college staff is portrayed over the top, unrealistically, but I actually know some of these characters! I particularly love the language. Professor Stott is a delight. So is President Swenson.

I also love it when I catch a reference I didn’t know. I had to look up Carruthers and Memmert, which leads me to another book to check out. I read these for the setting and characters as much as the mystery. I had it mostly figured out, but that doesn’t take away the fun. Trying now to catch up on the books I have missed.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly amusing at times, but it's got two issues that became distracting. 1) It's riddled with comma splices. One reviewer suggested that because MacLeod was a veteran writer and award-winner at this point, the publisher may have deemed it unnecessary to edit her books before sending them to print. Whatever the explanation, some of the writing here is not good. 2) The setting is 1991 Massachusetts, yet multiple characters sound (and sometimes act) like British caricatures. Unless they're time-traveling UK transplants or Anglophiles who have watched too many mystery shows on PBS, all the "By George!", "Great Scott!", and "bully for you!" exclamations don't make sense.

[Marci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another in the amusing series featuring professor Peter Shandy and various characters of Balaclava Agricultural College, somewhere in New England. In this one, a very obnoxious outsider pushes his way into being included in the annual owl count, and not only does he ruin the count, but he gets himself murdered. The hunt for the killer and the solution are wrapped in a farcical story with incredibly funny dialog, literate and with the most obscure words possible. I wonder if the author reads dictionaries for fun???

[Rhane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skulduggery in the heartland

How I love the doings of Prof. Peter Shandy and the stalwarts of Balaclava College! It is amazing how much mischief people can get up to in small towns where everyone is known...or are they? Charlotte MacLeod has a way with a story. Each character becomes an old friend. Each mystery is handled with aplomb. What a shame she is no longer with us to continue the fun!

[Kit Hansen · Rating 1 out of 5]

It bothers me that, having read so many outstanding books that deserve review, I am instead reviewing this one. It is such an awful book that I could not bear to continue reading it. Sloppy, sloppy writing, poor character development, unbelievable interactions - I am crossing this author off my list permanently.

[Angie Boyter · Rating 3 out of 5]

At its best this is just what I wanted, a fun , humorous, warm-hearted diversion. Unfortunately, it is not at its best often enough.
It gets silly and not credible too often, in a jber of ways. To take one small example but one that is not too much of a spoiler, how can someone make up a totally false name and get into grad school?

[Janet Farnham · Rating 4 out of 5]

How thrilling to have book #8 in this series return to the delightful antics so enjoyable in the first 4 iterations! The author must have been forced to consume hallucinogenics while writing the dreadful number 5 and the sixth, while good was not quite back up to snuff. I am a full fan again and so happy to be back in the wild and crazy world of Professor Shandy and friends...

[Jeannine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Peter Shandy series is one of my favorites and comfort reads. Humorous dialogue and situations combined with lovely odd characters (making Peter and his wife, Helen, seem that much more "normal") and clever plotting. This one is just as good as the rest.