Duck the Halls

Meg and Michael's twins, Jamie and Josh, are four years old now, so it's no suprise that Meg's mother's age is left vaguely in her sixties and Grandfather Montgomery Blake's age is also left vague -- in his nineties. Spike, the Small Evil One, is still with them. I enjoyed his reaction to the dog

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cusions Mrs. Langslow bought for Meg's living room. Good thing that Tinkerbell, the Irish Wolfhound belonging to Meg's brother, Rob, is so sweet. Yes, Rob and cousin Rose Noire are still living on the third floor of Meg and Michael's Victorian farmhouse.

It's Christmas time again and the town parade that was the big problem in Six Geese a-Slaying is safely past. This year someone is playing pranks on Caerphilly's houses of worship, one involving a theft from Dr. Blake's zoo. Two of the pranks are bad enough to temporarily close their respective churches. This forces those churches to relocate their pre-Christmas events. Guess who gets stuck with the job of juggling the various schedules as the local Jewish temple and Christian churches rally to help out the victims?

There's a very nasty-tempered choir director and a penny-pinching vestry member to make pests of themselves. I didn't read about them for long before hoping that one or both of them would be this book's murder victim. There's also a church secretary who is almost as bad. When it looks as if the living nativity will be minus its animals, she naturally dumps the problem in Meg's lap. (Loved Dr. Blake's personal choice for the nativity scene, as well as his reason why it would be appropriate.)

There are plenty of references to earlier books. Meg learns what cousin Sylvia does to retaliate if she finds out that her handmade hideous Christmas sweaters aren't appreciated. We get to see that the time Judge Jane Shiffley had to hold court in her barn has had a permanent effect on her. Meg looking at photos in her Christmas cards gives us many of the updates on lesser-used characters (see chapter 28). Perhaps it was mentioned and I missed it, but I can't help wondering why older sister Pam and her family didn't come to Caerphilly for Christmas since the rest of the family is there. Meg and Michael's mothers are even holding competing dinners at the Langslow's farmhouse and the Waterston-Langslow Victorian. (As in my family, the mother's mom is 'Grandma' well, 'Gamma,' for the twins, while the father's mom is 'Granny'.)

I loved this entry! I've read the last chapter three times in less than a week and I've been dipping into favorite scenes!.

By the way, there really was a St. Byblig. He was a 5th century Welshman also known as known as 'Biblig,' 'Peblig,' 'Peglig,' 'Piblig,' and 'Publicius'. (I think Ms. Andrews picked the best spelling.)

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Another, amusing addition to the Meg Langlow mystery series. Despite strong clues to the motivations for murder halfway through the book, it is still an enjoyable read right through to the gut-busting end. Very light and funny read. Donna Andrews has strong insight into the nature of humankind -

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good, bad and the ugly. I highly recommend this series.

Synopsis:
A few nights before Christmas, Meg is awakened when Michael is summoned to the New Life Baptist Church, where someone has rigged a cage full of skunks in the choir loft. The lengthy process of de-skunking the church requires its annual pre-Christmas concert to relocate to Trinity Episcopal, where Mother insists the show must go on, despite the budget-related protests of Mr. Otis, an elderly vestryman. Meanwhile, when Meg helps her grandfather take the skunks to the zoo, they discover that his boa has been stolen—only to turn up later during the concert slithering out from the ribbon-bedecked evergreens.

It’s clear that some serious holiday pranksters are on the loose, and Meg is determined to find them. But before she can, a fire breaks out at Trinity, and Mr. Otis is discovered dead. Could this be a bit of nasty revenge from the now deposed Pruitt family? Or harassment from the Evil Lender? As Meg searches for answers she also races to finish all of her Christmas shopping, wrapping, cooking, caroling, and decorating in time to make the season jolly for Michael and the twins.

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I fell in love with Meg Langslow and her family of whack-jobs when I first picked up Murder with Peacocks lo those many years ago. This is one of those series I went out of my way to 'upgrade' to a complete hardcover collection. They're light, funny, really well-written and almost always well

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plotted. Even if one of the plots isn't completely up to snuff, I'm having so much fun with the characters, I find myself not caring.

I've been saving Duck the Halls to read during the Christmas season, since I have been really struggling to feel the season since moving to the Southern Hemisphere. I didn't quite realise how much my Christmas cheer was tied to shorter, colder days (even in Florida - it's all relative). Here, I'm just getting stuck into Spring, gardening, long, warm days and then someone comes up and says "so, what are you guys doing for Christmas next week?" and I suddenly feel like Schrödinger's Cat - except it's summer and winter (holidays) at the same time.

So this year I've been saving up my Christmas books to read the two weeks before the holiday. I'm not sure if it's working, but I've read some great books and this one is the very best one! I can't recommend it enough and if I could give it the sixth star, I would. This book made me nostalgic for church!!!

It all begins with a surfeit of skunks released in the Baptist Church 4 days before Christmas. Meg is roped into rearranging the schedules of all the churches and the synagogue to make room for all the events the Baptist Church can't have because of the need to de-skunk. This becomes a sisyphean task as more pranks are played on neighbouring churches, culminating in a dead body.

The mystery isn't the hardest or most surprising, but well done just the same. Quite a few suspects, some false leads, a red herring or two.

But the best part of this book wasn't the mystery, it was the characters and the holiday. Donna Andrews does a fantastic job of showing what religion should be about. People pulling together and working together. Plus, the fantabulous animal pranks and how animals play a large part to the story. I loved the ending of this book. There's a scene towards the end that involves a living nativity that had me simultaneously wanting to giggle and get weepy at the same time - the imagery was vivid and touching, while at the same time being a bit absurd. Pure Gold.

I'll end this review by coming back around to what else I struggle with during the Southern Hemisphere Holiday Season. By virtue of it being summer, the traditional Christmas dinner here is not my idea of a traditional dinner. Not bad, just different. There was a great parallel to this in the book and I love the way Meg and Michael resolve it. It brings the book to a perfect, Christmas, wrapped-in-a-bow ending. Perfect.

Thank you to Donna Andrews for giving me some Christmas Spirit.

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cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth, women-sleuths, Christmas

It's all about the characters who truly are!
There's Meg and Mike along with their young twins, their parents, cousins, her brother, Grandfather, and most of the townsfolk, especially the assorted congregations affected by some hijinks. It's

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not very nice and Meg is called upon to organize some sense into the potential disasters the week before Christmas. And then they find the body.
Another excellent cozy mystery from the work of Donna Andrews!

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Probably my favorite of her Christmas books. The cast of characters continues to grow, and their antics are delightful.