Meg Langslow is back for another Christmas filled with relatives, food, celebrations, decorations, birds, a murder, and this year, a couple of biofluorescent wombats in the basement. I know what you’re thinking. All wombats are biofluorescent. Of course they all (it means their furs absorbs light and then emits it, so you can see them under certain types of light). But there are only two wombats in Meg’s basement, thanks to her cousin Kevin, who is studying them at her grandfather’s insistence.
Meg is home preparing for the family holiday while her husband Mike, their twins and a friend of theirs is off on a skiing trip. Meg was supposed to go skiing too, only she sprained her ankle, so she stayed home to nurse her injury and try to keep some order in their home. And that hasn’t been easy, as her grandfather had commissioned a painter, Roderick Castlemayne, to create images for his latest book, and that artist is currently damaging the library, despite his assistant Harris’s attempts to keep him in line.
Word got out that Castlemayne hadn’t liked the small office that had been set up for him in the zoo, and the small gossip site Caerphilly Confidential had leaked that he was working out of the Langslow’s house. That means that Meg is kept busy at the door, as there is a stream of reporters and creditors showing up, as well as an ex-wife or two. Meg doesn’t let anyone get past her at the front, but Castlemayne has a bad habit of leaving the door to the library unlocked. And as Meg has adamantly refused to let him smoke in the house, he has to go out through those doors to have a cigarette.
Equally disturbing is how Castlemayne opened the birdcages in the library, so that the mockingbirds escaped. They had been able to catch most of the birds, but there was still a mockingbird or two flying around, so all residents and guests had to wear hats to keep from getting dive bombed. Now the painter is working on blue jays, and he’s on the strictest of orders not to let them out of their cages.
Meanwhile, Meg’s mother has gotten wind of a dastardly plot. Meg’s brother Rob and his fiancée Delaney have decided to get married at midnight on New Year’s Eve, a small ceremony for only a handful of family to share with them and not the big family wedding that their mother—and Delaney’s mother—had their hearts set on.
But Castlemayne once again takes the spotlight when he gets murdered in the library, with blue jays flying loose in there, much to Meg’s chagrin. While she is juggling her sore ankle, a snowstorm that knocks out their electricity, a gossip website, birds flying free in her house, plotting mothers, visiting relatives, potluck dinners, she also has to deal with a murder investigation in the middle of it all. It will take a Christmas miracle to catch the killer, or maybe just a biofluorescent wombat or two.
The Twelve Jays of Christmas is the 30th book in Donna Andrews’ Meg Langslow Mystery Series, where each book is filled with charming (and slightly crazy) relatives, a growing family, Southern hospitality, and a bevy of birds. There is a large cast of characters in these books, and that can be a struggle to keep track of in some books, but I thought this one flowed well. It focused more on Meg (I think having Michael and the kids out of town helped keep the character count down a little, but not having them there also took away from some of the fun).
I am a huge fan of this series, and I was just thrilled to read this one. It may be one of her Christmas-themed books, and you may think it’s best when read only the last couple of months in the year, I am hear to say that any Donna Andrews cozy is a gift, no matter the theme of the book or the time of year. The thing I love most about these books is this family. It’s just all love and support, and spending time with them just makes me feel better (without having to go anywhere or actually see anyone, which for an introvert like me is, as I said before, a gift). I truly loved The Twelve Jays of Christmas, and I recommend it for anyone who loves this series or for those who are new to the series. This is an especially good introduction to this family if you don’t want to go back to the first book in the series.
