FOR DUCK’S SAKE (Meg Langslow #37) by Donna Andrews will be released on August 5, 2025, by Minotaur Books.
Avoiding her own home as it is the staging site for Caerphilly's first Mutt March parade, Meg Langslow is supervising the digging of a duck pond in her brother’s backyard. The pond is put on hold when the bulldozer uncovers skeletal remains and a hidden bomb shelter. Meg volunteers to help identify the dead person. She questions some of Caerphilly's oldest residents and digging through the newspaper archives to put together a list of young men who disappeared from the area and were never heard from again. Meg is also helping with the search to find Iris Rafferty—the former owner of Meg’s brother’s home. Iris went missing the day after the bones were discovered in her former backyard, and Meg thinks Iris might know something about the body or the bomb shelter that she is reluctant to share with the local authorities.
FOR DUCK’S SAKE was a solid addition to the Meg Langslow series, but it did not rate among my favorites. The main mysteries of the novel are determining the identity of the dead person and locating the elderly woman who has gone missing. Figuring out the killer’s identity was more of an afterthought. I was excited when Forensic Genetic Genealogy was mentioned as a way to determine the identity of the victim, but it wound up not actually being used. While a fun idea, the Mutt March also took up a lot of space in the novel. It added a secondary storyline and another (possible) crime when Meg hears a rumor that people who have an illegal dog fighting ring are scoping out the parade for bait dogs. The three storylines (murder victim, missing elderly lady, and the Mutt March) competed for the spotlight and made it hard to focus.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.