Readers will flock to New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews's next installment in the award-winning Meg Langslow series.

Meg has finally found time to get some blacksmithing done when a call from her dad interrupts her--can she come out to Ragnar’s right away to help with the horses? Their friend Ragnar Ragnarsen, who is gradually turning the enormous house on his nearby estate into an authentic moated castle, has agreed to shelter nearly fifty horses for Hoof and Hearth, an equine rescue organization that has lost access to the farm where the horses have been living. The owner of the farm recently died without leaving a will, and while his older son Abel would be happy to let the horses stay, younger brother George wants to sell to a developer . . . and is suspected of sending a thug to harm the horses as part of his efforts to evict Hoof and Hearth.

That night, while Meg and her family are camping at one of Ragnar’s barns, to keep an eye on the horses, they discover that the thug has been murdered. George is alibied . . . but his horse-loving brother Abel is not. Neither are the hot-tempered founder of Hoof and Hearth or the passionately protective ex-jockey who serves as its stablemaster. Meg juggles helping keep the horses safe and doing what she can to help the chief solve the thug’s murder . . . all the while hoping that the killer won’t turn out to be one of the dedicated horse rescuers she has come to like and respect.

Meg answers a call for help from Dad who is helping an animal rescue relocate all fifty of  their rescue horses due to a dispute over who inherits the farm they were living on. As Meg and other family members join the other volunteers in settling the horses in at family friend Ragnar’s large estate, the chaos of helping so many horses is interrupted by the discovery of a dead man who may have been trespassing on the estate to abuse the horses.

This is such an enjoyable series. Meg’s family, after thirty-nine books, are all old and familiar friends and each book is a chance to catch up with them.  These are quick reads, I finished in one sitting, as the action naturally flows and Meg’s sleuthing seamlessly fits in to whatever the current unusual situation may be. I was pretty sure how the inheritance situation would finally play out and who the bad guy was but the culprit in the death was both logical and a bit surprising until about the same time as Meg figured it out.  I really look forward to both annual entries in this series and will soon be diving into Jay To The World, the Christmas entry coming out in October.  Highly recommended. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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