43.
Title: [Lord of the Wings]
Author: Donna Andrews
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Medium: Ebook
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: 12 May 2016
Rating: ***1/2

Lord of the Wings takes place during another Halloween in Caerphilly, and follows Meg as her volunteer schedule leads her to manage the "Goblin Patrol" for a week-long town festival; when a series of pranks leads to the discovery of a body in the woods the town discovers that there are more sinister plans in place for the week, and work to balance the festivities with a murder investigation. As usual, Meg's primary focus is her "volunteer" work, but this book at least makes an attempt to address some of the problems of priority. Ironically, Meg laments the time her actual job would take from her family, and many of her volunteer responsibilities are given to a new city employee; here Meg tries to balance time with her twins and her time on the festival. But still I'm left to wonder - why spend all of this time volunteering and longing to go back to work? Why not, as nearly every other resident does, focus on her job? Her father works, her husband works, the librarians work, the police all work ... and Meg volunteers instead of working. Strange. An effort is made to rectify this discrepancy at the conclusion, so an even further balance may be found in the next in the series. I'm not sure I'll continue myself - I've grown bored - but more dedicated fans will likely be pleased with the new direction.