PROBABLE CAWS

Despite its faithfully bird-themed title, blacksmith Meg Langslow’s 39th brush with murder has more to do with horses than crows. A lot more.

Now that Abel Abernathy’s 100-year-old father has finally died, his no-good brother, George, has popped up to demand half of Ezra Abernathy’s Virginia estate and, incidentally, sue Abel for devaluing the property by letting 47 Friesian horses graze there. Unable to cope with either his brother or his brother’s threats, Abel has asked locals for help. Since there are too many horses for Caroline Willner’s wildlife sanctuary or Helena Bannerman’s Hoof and Hearth rescue, they’re headed to Ragnar Ragnarsen, the heavy metal drummer who’s retired to Ragnarshjem, a farm he’s dedicated to all things goth. Managing, soothing, and caring for the herd requires the services of Marjorie Mewha, Ragnar’s stable manager; local vet Clarence Rutledge; Meg’s cousin Rose Noire; and Meg herself, whose experience with sudden death more than compensates for her lack of experience with horses after she discovers a dead body in Ragnar’s vast horse barn at the end of a long day. Sadly, the dead man isn’t George Abernathy, which would have been nice for Abel, but George’s sideman, Lefty Culverson, and George has an alibi for the time of his death. So he sticks around and serves the invaluable function of casting suspicion on Helena; on her stable manager, retired jockey Tomás Ortiz; and of course on Abel. The crows are upstaged not only by those Friesians but by the swans who attack Helena’s ne’er-do-well brother en route to a quietly satisfying denouement.

Expect to learn a lot more about living horses than murder victims.