What a relief! This one is far better than the first two (peacocks and puffins). I was sure I remembered that from having read it some time ago, but it was worth the rereading to verify my memory which, as we all know, is faulty at best.
Andrews managed that satisfying feat - neither the murderer nor the murdered is anyone we mind seeing either dead with a knife in his back or carted away by the constabulary in handcuffs. My current thinking is that this may be one of the defining elements of the cozy mystery (I'm trying to write that without quotation marks, but it is difficult - it is just such a precious little phrase).
Flamingos flaunts all the silliness of the earlier two, but somehow doesn't quite sink to the level of utter ridiculous stupidity. Tall, dark and handsome Michael's mother has returned; she managed to be absent for the first two books, and she is an absolute monster. She is shaping up into the mother-in-law from hell - a reliable source has informed me that he and Meg actually marry and commit parenthood in future volumes. The reader should not be surprised by Michael's mother's monsterness since we all know that dogs grow to resemble their owners (or vice versa - dogs in personality and owners in appearance, maybe) and we know that she is the owner of the dog from hell. Yes, the infamous Spike of the earlier books is fully present in this one.
The setting is a craft fair and revolutionary war battle re-enactment chaired by Michael's mother, to the disgust of all and sundry since she is a newcomer to the area. I won't even attempt to explain how the flamingos figure into that.
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