The Twelve Jays of Christmasby Donna Andrews
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9781250760180
Series: Meg Langslow #30
Publication Date: October 12, 2021
Pages: 320
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Another successful Christmas instalment of the Meg Langslow series. Finishing this, I’m now officially ready for the Christmas season.
In the last book, Murder Most Fowl, one of my complaints were that there was very little in the way of birds in the background – or really, any of the delightful menagerie of animals that have made appearances throughout the series. Andrews made up for it in spades with this book as we not only get 2 mockingbirds and 12 bluejays, but 2 wombats as well!
Meg’s family was back in force too, although it seems gone are the days when we could delight in the same level of eccentricities that were so amusing in earlier books. Still it’s always fun to read about the seemingly endless family and their ability to organise themselves and create massive buffet meals at the drop of a hat.
The murder mystery was mostly average; even thought the focus of the book was whodunnit, I imagine most readers will be more caught up in the holiday cheer and family togetherness that’s surrounding the murder. While it wasn’t a badly crafted murder plot, I think the narrow suspect pool just made it difficult to be really stumped, and if I wasn’t willing to commit 100% to who the murderer was, I was absolutely certain about the plot twist. Well, the second one anyway – I didn’t see the first one coming at all and I thought it was a very nice touch.
While I would never want Andrews to be the kind of author that phones it in for the sake of production, I have come to see these Christmas mysteries as an integral part of my personal season tradition, so as long as she has it in her to write them, I’ll continue to look forward to them.