The Twelve Jays of Christmas - Cozy Mystery Review

Goodreads: The Twelve Jays of Christmas (A Meg Langslow Mystery #30) by Donna Andrews

Rating: Really Liked It!
Source:   Publisher

Description:  Meg and Michael’s annual holiday celebration is well underway, with a throng of out-of-town relatives staying at their house. Hosting these festivities is a little harder than usual—they have to relocate all the events normally held in their library, currently occupied by Roderick Castlemayne, the irascible wildlife artist who’s creating twelve paintings of birds to illustrate Meg’s grandfather’s latest nature book.

Still, the celebrations continue—and the entire family rejoices to learn that Meg’s brother Rob and his longtime fiancée Delaney have finally decided to tie the knot. Unfortunately, they decide to do this in the middle of Meg and Michael’s annual New Year’s bash, dashing their mothers’ hopes of planning the wedding to end all weddings.

Delaney’s mother sneaks into town so she and Meg’s mother can secretly plot a way to talk the happy couple into having a big bash. Hiding her only adds to Meg’s holiday stress—it’s almost a full-time job fending all the visitors who want to confront Castlemayne—reporters, bill collectors, process servers, and several ex-wives in search of unpaid alimony.

Then someone murders Castlemayne in the middle of a blizzard and sets loose the birds he was painting. Can Meg help the police crack the case before the killer strikes again? Can she keep Christmas merry in spite of the body in the library? Can she negotiate a compromise between Rob and Delaney and their disappointed mothers? And can she recapture the twelve escaped jays before they begin nesting in the Christmas tree?

This intrigue-filled Christmas mystery takes readers home to Caerphilly to join in Meg's family's holiday celebration—including, of course, another baffling mystery.

Genre: Mystery - Cozy

Why I Picked This Book:  I love this series so of course I had to pick this latest Christmas mystery up.

My Impression: I'm so so so glad that I don't live Meg Langslow's life!  After about 1/10th of all the hijinks and catastrophes that happen I would have picked up one of the Pomeranian puppies, gone to bed, pulled the covers over my head and refused to come out until everyone left.  Since I'm just reading it and not living it I found it all wildly entertaining though I did miss the presence of Meg's husband and their boys Josh and Jamie.  However, there is enough other craziness going on that I didn't feel their absence too much.  

The mystery was a fun one with lots of possible suspects and lots of motives and opportunities.  As usual there's also lots of family and town activates happening.  If you are new to the series this could be overwhelming as there are a lot of characters and they are very busy but if you have a few books under your belt it's lots of fun and great to see all the familiar characters.  I was a bit sad that Meg's grandfather didn't have much page time even though he was responsible for the wombats in the basement.  

I came later to the series and have enjoyed each book more then the next and this was no different.  This is packed full of Christmas cheer, murder, secrets, Jays and Mockingbirds on the loose, and wombats as well as a whole collection of Meg's visiting relatives.  It was fun from the first page until the last and I can't wait for my next Meg Langslow adventure.  

Would I Read More of this Series/Author? Absolutely!  I'm planning on picking up the beginning books in the series and I can't wait for the next one!

Would I Recommend this Book? I would recommend this series to all cozy mystery lovers though it might take a couple of books to really get hooked on the series.  

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *