It’s been a rough year for Meg Langslow and her family. After a disastrous summer cruise (told in great detail in Terns of Endearment, the 25th book in Donna Andrews bestselling mystery series), now Meg is helping run her grandfather’s Owl Festival at Christmas time. And as if that’s not enough, there’s the giant blizzard that has everyone, festival attendees and not, stuck at the Caerphilly Inn for an indefinite amount of time.

The good news is that most of her family is also at the Inn, either assisting Meg with the festival (that would be her cousin Rose Noire, who has caught the eye of one of the ornithologists), or helping decorate the inn for the holidays (that would be her mother), or adding some entertainment for the academic conference by finding a group of people crazy enough to dress like owls and sing modified Christmas carols (that would be her father). And with her husband and their twin sons in a nearby cottage, Meg can breathe easy that her family is safe and together.

The bad news is that the group of ornithologists who came to the festival to share opinions and scientific findings about their favorite owls have trouble keeping the decibels down in the best of times. This blizzard is not the best of times. With the temperatures so low as to threaten frostbite within 30 minutes, the local snowplows trapped in snow drifts, cell phone service down, and no end in sight to the flakes falling from the sky, Meg and Ekaterina, the manager of the inn, are concerned about supplies, keeping the peace, and now, investigating a suspicious death.

At the festival banquet, constant complainer Dr. Frogmore suddenly turned bright red and dropped to the floor. Meg’s father was close by, and as a medical doctor, he knew what to do immediately to try to save the man’s life. However, it was too late, and Dr. Langslow’s instincts (and his avid reading of murder mysteries) made him wonder if there was something in what the ornithologist had been eating or drinking that could have caused such a reaction. With the help of cousin Horace, a local EMT and crime scene investigator, he starts immediately ti investigate as if a crime had been committed.

As Meg tries to put people’s minds at ease, she also grans tidbits of intel on the other guests at the inn. Some gossip about a colleague here, some drama from a graduate student there, and soon Meg is putting together the pieces of the puzzle herself. But will she be able to figure out what happened in time to save Christmas for her family, as well as herself?

Donna Andrews’ 26th book in the popular Meg Langslow series, Owl Be Home for Christmas, is just as entertaining as her first. Or her 8th (which is still my favorite, after all these years). I love that Donna Andrews can continually come up with a fresh take on the cozy mystery, with tight plotting and innovative settings, but more than anything I adore Meg and the whole zany Langslow clan. Every time I read one of these books, I want them to adopt me, even though it means being around the no-longer-living (spending time with Meg and her family means the chances of someone ending up murdered is just slightly less than if you go to a dinner party with Jessica Fletcher). So I can’t stop reading these. Give me more birds, more Meg, and more Langslows, and owl’s right with the world!

Galleys for Owl Be Home for Christmas were provided by St. Martin’s Press (Minotaur) through NetGalley, with many, many thanks.