Revenge of The Wrought-Iron Flamingos - Donna Andrews

Yesterday I finished another cozy mystery for the monthly discussion at the cozy group. I’m sad to say that for the first time I didn’t much enjoy the book chosen.

A reenactment of the siege of Yorktown features a crafts fair, so ornamental blacksmith Meg Langslow dresses in costume and peddles her wares. An entrepreneur working with Meg's brother comes to near-blows with several craftspeople--including Meg, who has hidden a dozen modern pink flamingos under her counter. When the man is killed by one of Meg's birds, Meg is determined to find the culprit.

I think my main problem was the type of humour that I didn’t find humorous in the least. Like when Meg finds the body and her first thought is “Well at least he’s in period!”. I’m afraid this doesn’t sound funny to me. And most of the characters seemed like some sort of caricature of real people, talk about extended families with weird members.

From my point of view the first half of the book suffers from too much dialogue, too many characters introduced... it ruined the suspense as the villain, victim is immediately set apart and then it takes forever for the murder to happen. After the murder I think we spend too much time with Meg's crazy relatives and after a while the action just couldn't hold my interest anymore.

I had thought this theme would be just my thing with reenactment of an historical battle and a craft fair but the truth is that it didn't work for me. A C.