I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read the book. An interesting mystery that is easy to follow.

I love the Meg Langslow series. Her crazy family always delights me. I really like that the characters (especially the twins) grow and evolve. I wish I were half as organized as Meg with her notebook that tells her when to breathe! Ms. Andrews always finds new and interesting projects for Meg to organize and mysteries to solve. If you want a fun, interesting book…look no further!

I don't know why it has taken me so long to get to reading this book because I devoured it in no time once I did. Such a great plot and I love the characters surrounding Meg. I love Christmas reads and this one was definitely one that you could get lost in.

Meg is a very organized person and everyone knows that. When the churches in the area start a helping hands organization this year, Meg is the first one to pitch in and help. The big project that they take on is helping Harvey the Hoarder clean up his home and fix things up so that he is not evicted. Things go well the first day and when Meg goes back the second day and is surprised to find Harvey in a pool of blood. What has happened?

I love the way that Donna Andrews uses Meg's family to break up the whole mystery of who committed the murder. Rumors are that there is a treasure that was in Harvey's house and that is why he was killed. WIll they find out who was after the supposed treasure and if there really was one? You will want to read this one to find out what happens in this small town. A very good read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all opinions are my own. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a copy of this book. Sorry it took me so long to read and review this one.

Thank you so much to NetGalley an St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for my copy of The Gift of the Magpie by Donna Andrews in exchange for an honest review. It published October 20, 2020.
Oh my goodness, I found my next cozy mystery author to binge read! I adored this book, this community, and the bird-theme! I am absolutely hooked and plan to read every book in this series, and I am definitely going to be getting my mom and grandma to read them too!

Brought to you by jerjen

Meg Langslow is busy this holiday season, helping the Helping Hands program. The idea is to help anyone that asks for help. Whatever they may need. They will find quilters to finish a project and they will find fresh organic manure for rose bushes. They will even help a hoarder try to clear things up and get organized. This project is a lot harder than most but they will give it their best shot.

With the help of her friends and family, they will start cleaning up Harvey’s house. While her grandmother, Cordelia and her cousin, Rose Noire, work with Harvey to begin clearing out the debris, she has volunteers begin packing all of his stuff to an old warehouse where he can begin to look through it. Stuff that he has accumulated have sentimental value so they cannot just throw it away. There are also repairmen waiting to come in and work, whenever they get the go ahead. But just as things look promising, Harvey is found lying in the garage, a pool of blood around his head. Now, instead of decluttering, Meg has to look for a killer. Instead of Helping Hands, she will need Sleuthing Eyes.

The characters are well rounded and well developed. The characters are quirky but loving, unorthodox but caring, and offbeat but close-knit. The characters we were supposed to like were warmhearted and warm. Those that we were supposed to dislike were disagreeable and unpleasant. The writing style flows smoothly and the book is an easy read. The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and these descriptions pulled me into the story from the very beginning. The mystery was real plotted and there were enough clues to sift through and suspects to consider. There were a lot of red herrings and the ending will surprise you.

I would recommend this book to all those who enjoy a well crafted cozy mystery. This book has great characters, an intriguing mystery and lots of holiday cheer.

I loved this. A new Donna Andrews is always a treat. I talked about this one at our cozy mystery group that was focused on Donna Andrews.

It's hard to believe this is book 28 in the Meg Lanslow series. It can be read as a stand alone. Meg's grandfather is in a snit because his precious magpies are missing from the zoo. Everyone is busy with Christmas and the Helping Hands for the Holidays program to worry about the birds. Meg is helping Harvey the Hoarder clean out his house and store all his "treasures" at the empty furniture store downtown. With his shady relatives watching every move and his 2 neighbors watching with interest it's a surprise when nobody saw Harvey get killed in his garage. Legend has it that Harvey's family has a hoard of gold when a bank failed in the 20's. A good story with updates from all the family. I received a copy of this ARC in exhange for a fair and honest review.

*3.5 stars. Another amusing cozy mystery set at Christmas time; these books are fun, relaxing reads, perfect for the busy holiday season.

If you know Meg Langslow at all from this series, you know she's terribly organized and keeps a little notebook of jobs she has to tackle. This year she is involved with a church group called Helping Hands for the Holidays which is taking on projects for the needy in the community. They have a big job on their hands though when they begin tackling a hoarder's house. The man, Harvey Dunlop, has agreed to let them box up his 'stuff' and move it out so workers can make repairs on his ramshackle house.

Even Harvey seems cheerful when they drop him back at his house at the end of a long day of packing and moving. But when the volunteers return the next morning, they find him with his head bashed in. Who would want to harm the man?

There's a lot going on in the Langslow family, including a house full of visiting relatives, but somehow Meg seems able to keep it all running smoothly while still finding time to sort through Harvey's stuff AND investigate this crime. It all comes together nicely with an exciting conclusion. The focus on hoarding is cringe-worthy, sure to make the reader want to tackle their own messy basement. HA!

I received an arc of this cozy holiday mystery from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks for the opportunity.

The latest in the Meg Langslow mystery series is a winner. I really enjoyed this novel. Lots of family, mischief, community and Christmas. I love how this author always bring you back to what is important in life.

If you are a fan of Meg Langslow, then you are in for a treat.
Meg is in charge of Caerphilly’s Helping Hands for the Holidays project. Neighbors join forces to help each other with chores they either can’t do or can’t afford. While helping "Harvey the Hoarder" declutter his junk, he is murdered. Rumors of a valuable treasure in his junk may be the reason. Will the magpie hold (or bring) the clue to this mystery?

Donna Andrews immerses Meg Langslow in the fate of Harvey, a hoarder, whose house may be condemned just before Christmas. Then Harvey is attacked and dies. Meg's grandfather is trying to recover his research magpies, her children are figuring out Christmas gifts and Meg is seeking who would attack Harvey. Excellent holiday cozy.

This is the 28th book of the series and we start off with Meg in charge of Helping Hands, A holiday project where neighbors help each other with projects that they either can't do or can't afford to do. It has gone from a simple project to a huge undertaking turning the holiday season from peaceful to busy with no free time insight. She has been asked to help out a local hoarder in hopes of appeasing his neighbors who have started to openly complain. Harvey isn't a bad !am he just has a hard time letting go of things. Meg is determined to help the man and make his Christmas a joyous one. When Meg finds Harvey in his garage she immediately calls the cops. Harvey is pronounced dead and Meg upset over his death decides to look into things. Some of his family are definitely on the list to be looked at along with several neighbors. Meanwhile her father is trying to catch some Magpie's who have gotten out of his zoo. THe missing birds seem to be congregating in Megs yard but he is having a hard time capturing them. One of the birds keeps leaving gifts, could any of these be clues to who hurt Harvey, jump in and find out?

This holiday join Meg and her family and friends as they working on community projects. Their new project is helping a hoarder declutter and help him get active in town. When Harvey is found dead one morning, it is up to Meg to determine if any his possessions are the reason he died. A quick cozy mystery.

A great little cozy mystery to get you in the mood for the season. This is book 28 in the series but I thought it could be read as a stand alone. A small town full of quirky characters, a curmudgeon who needs some help and a mystery that needs to be solved. The team of Helpings Hands volunteers come to the rescue. Lots of adventures ensue! Murder, burglary, greed, missing magpies, and spunky guard dogs keep the pace quick in this holiday mystery. Recommend to: cozy mystery lovers, Christmas lovers and even a Grinch's heart might melt. Thank you to Minotaur and NetGalley for the complimentary digital ARC.

It's Christmas in Caerphilly again and that means that Meg Langslow is up to her neck in Christmas-related tasks plus a little mystery in Donna Andrews's new book, The Gift of the Magpie. This year Meg is busy with the Helping Hands for the Holidays project where neighbors help each other with projects they either can't or can't afford to do themselves.

Meg's latest task is helping Harvey the hoarder whose house needs to be decluttered in order for necessary home repairs to be done before the building inspector condemns it. Making the task harder is Harvey's nosy neighbors and a handful of disagreeable cousins who appear to have their eyes on Harvey's things. A murder right in the middle of the project complicates her efforts and sets her on the trail of figuring out who might want Harvey dead.

Meg has the assistance as always of her extraordinarily talented and helpful family and the many friends and denizens of Caerphilly. Meg and her recruited volunteers must juggle helping the police sort through endless boxes of records that might give a clue to the motive for the murder, assist with the many remaining helping hands projects, prepare for the Christmas festivities, and negotiate between her grandfather and her cousin Rose Noire over the fate of some escaped magpies. All of this as well as making sure a murderer faces justice.

Donna Andrews has an unparalleled ability to juggle an enormous cast of characters without making the story seem overpopulated or underdeveloped. She also manages to squeeze in tidbits about the banking crisis during the great depression as well as the care and habits of magpies.

The Gift of the Magpie is the perfect tonic for 2020. Caerphilly is a Norman Rockwell painting come to life. The warmth of the characters seeps out of the pages and into your home. This story is perfect to disappear into and forget about the real world for a few hours. It's impossible to read this book without a smile on your face from beginning to end. This book is a perfect gift to give either to someone else or to yourself.

I look forward each year to the titles that Andrews comes up with for her books, and how she works that into the story.
This year, Meg Langslow and her extended family are all involved in the town’s “Helping Hands for the Holidays” project. Neighbors help others with things they can’t do, or can’t afford to have done.
One of the biggest projects of the season is helping Harvey, who has a reputation as a hoarder, clean out his clutter. Meg discovers that much of that clutter was put there by Harvey’s father, and helping Harvey isn’t turning out to be as difficult as she thought. But, they do have to get it done in order to keep his cousins from trying to get the town to force him out.
Why are they so concerned? Rumor has it that there might be money hidden there, left by Harvey’s grandfather and father.
The magpie comes in via Meg’s grandfather, a local veterinarian. I’ll just leave his part for you to discover!

What can I say? I love Meg, Michael, and her large cast of family and friends. I have not read the entire series, but have dipped into it here and there over years. This was a fun holiday mystery. Her family was wonderful as always and I really love that the characters age, change, and grow over the length of the series. We have one cute holiday mystery, two cute dogs, and lots of family. Four paws up!!


Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Gift of the Magpie: A Meg Langslow Mystery
By Donna Andrews
Minotaur
November 2020

It wouldn’t be Christmas if blacksmith Meg Langslow didn’t have a hundred things to do and no time to do them. This year has amped up and extended her List-that-tells-her-to-breath as a result of the well-intentioned Ladies’ Interfaith Council’s Helping Hands for the Holidays. Something of a Make-A-Wish program for adults (but without the accompanying terminal illness), Helping Hands assigns volunteers to do good deeds repairing homes, running errands, and completing major projects. It has fallen to Meg to tackle the hoarding home of Harvey the Hoarder, whose relatives are threatening to call Adult Protective Services. Harvey Dunlop’s neighbors are none too pleased either with the state of his property-value-lowering house, but it’s apparently a random spittoon that falls and leads to his fatal head injury.

As Meg juggles the growing list of Helping Hands tasks, she also has the Christmas Carnival and her husband’s one-man staged production of A Christmas Carol to attend. As Harvey’s avaricious relatives descend on the property demanding entry and carting off his belongings, Meg is enlisted by the police to again use her natural investigative skills to navigate through the motives and shenanigans of these infiltrators.

After 27 previous entries in this delightful series, readers should be prepared for the usual dozen tasks Meg must handle in order to keep her family and the town of Caerphilly running. Grandfather is currently obsessed with the return of the magpies he’s been studying, Corvidae avians he believes have been unjustly lured away by cousin Rose Noire. Meg’s uber-organized mother is one of the leaders helping to sort through Harvey’s deluge of belongings, while Meg’s twin sons are on a mission to find everyone the perfect present. These are characters whom readers have grown to love and just love spending time with as they engage in hilarious antics and normal chaos. This has always been one of my favorite mystery series at the top of my To-Read list, and every installment never fails to entertain with its unique plots and usual pandemonium.

Meg is running Caerphilly’s Helping Hands for the Holidays Project, and coordinating volunteers to help people with projects they can’t do themselves (either physically or financially). I won’t spoil the story, but there are several mysteries that present themselves and are in need of solving.

There is a lot of detail about the various projects the Helping Hands crew are working on, some of which I didn’t think was 100% necessary or relevant to the story. It wasn’t until close to the halfway point when the main mystery really surfaced.

Despite being number 28 I thought the Gift of the Magpie worked pretty well as a stand-alone book. However, I do think I’d have had a better sense of the town, and the characters if I had read the other books first. I liked the characters well enough but I didn’t really feel like I knew them through this book alone. For example, it wasn’t entirely clear to me who Meg really was, what she did, and why she was so involved in solving mysteries, instead of leaving it to the police. I wanted a more plausible excuse for her to be doing what she was doing.

There are certainly a lot of different storylines to keep you guessing though, and it had the feeling of an Agatha Christie mystery in a lot of ways.

When looking up the other books in the series I couldn’t help but chuckle at some of the names. I’m a sucker for a good pun or any wordplay really, and a few of my favorites included Six Geese A-Slaying, The Hen of the Baskervilles, Duck the Halls, Lord of the Wings, and The Nightingale Before Christmas.

Gift of the Magpie (28th in this engaging cozy series) is a Christmas adventure, centered on Caerphilly's Helping Hands for the Holidays project (which I hope exists somewhere beyond fiction).

Meg is asked to help Harvey the Hoarder, whose 'relatives are threatening to sic Adult Protective Services on him.'
There are break-ins and violence escalates in parallel with festive preparations.

Of course, Meg figures it all out, as we expect, and helps Grandfather sort out his missing magpies as an aside.