The Twelve Jays of Christmas: A Meg Langslow Mystery
By Donna Andrews
Minotaur
November 2021

Review by Cynthia Chow

It’s that most wonderful time of the year, when an avian-titled holiday mystery from bestselling author Donna Andrews is released into the wild! For this 30th entry into the long-running series, blacksmith Meg Langslow is unfortunately not currently on a skiing trip with her husband and twin sons. That is an indirect – and direct – result of her being forced to host wildlife artist Roderick Castlemayne and his subjects in her home. Since the temperamental artist finds the zoo too stifling but still demands to paint in front of real subjects, Meg’s famous television environmentalist grandfather Dr. J. Montgomery Blake has coerced her into housing Castlemayne and a dozen Mockingjays. It was also his insistence on painting them outside of cages that led to the attempts to retrieve them, his callous push of a ladder, and Meg’s resulting sprained ankle. Castlemayne’s insistence on smoking despite her numerous warnings is the last straw, but before Meg can have him removed someone else does it for her. Permanently.

Done in with a knife in the library, this unfortunate game of Clue has an abundance of suspects who threaten to dampen Meg’s holiday. Castlemayne had two ex-wives hunting him down demanding alimony, an assortment of pending lawsuits, and an ambitious online reporter all on his trail and wanting figurative – and maybe literal – blood. Meg would prefer that the rather put-upon police chief track down the killer, but she also wants the crime scene cleared out. This is especially crucial as her brother Rob and his fiancée Delaney are coming up from Florida to spend Christmas with the family, and their respective mothers are determined to plan their dream wedding for their children. Grandfather’s additional project of studying the biofluorescence of wombats explains why there are an assortment of them being housed in Meg’s dark basement, along with the Wombat Cams set up to monitor them. Although Meg had actually checked off most of the items listed in her notebook-that-tells-her-when-to-breathe in anticipation for her cancelled ski trip, she now has her hands full once again as she attempts to reign in her grandfather, hide the wedding-planning mothers, dog-sit a rotating number of Pomeranians, and capture the free and air-pooping Mockingjays.

This series continues to elicit laugh-out loud moments along with genuinely heartfelt sentiments. So much of the humor stems from Meg’s practicality in the face of her family’s absurdity, which from their viewpoints aren’t acting irrational at all. Longtime readers will appreciate the appearances of many of their favorite characters who pop in to spend the holidays with the Langslows, or more truthfully to help investigate yet another murder. The dialogue and banter is so sharp and witty that one never doubts that Meg will be clever enough to solve the murder, nor that she will succeed in finding the murderer before the holidays can be ruined. The love of animals, advocacy for wildlife preservation, and affection for Meg’s eccentric family always shine through in these series, and here it has the added appeal of Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. Spending the holidays with Meg, Yorkie Spike, and her chaotic family is a holiday tradition that should be shared by mystery readers as they revel in the exploits of the fictional town of Caerphilly.

THE TWELVE JAYS OF CHRISTMAS is the thirtieth book in the “Meg Langslow” cozy mystery series by Donna Andrews. I always look forward to the next book in this series because they are always amusing as well as an entertaining mystery. THE TWELVE JAYS OF CHRISTMAS does not disappoint. As expected, Meg Langslow has a few plates spinning in the air at the opening of this book. The major source of annoyance in this story is wildlife artist, and all-around jerk, Roderick Castlemayne who has taken up residence in Meg’s library. That somebody eventually murders Castlemayne is almost inevitable given his nastiness to everyone he encounters. Unfortunately for Meg and her family, he gets murdered at her house during the holidays, with relatives all over the place, along with errant jays doing random divebombs to unsuspecting visitors. Oh, and there’s briefly wombats in the basement. What fun!

Because Castlemayne is so universally despised, the suspect pool is enormous. Having so many suspects is great for mystery readers like me, because it presents a greater challenge to try and figure out who the murderer is. A big part of the feeling of unease that seeps into this tale, comes from all the different types of odd and occasionally dangerous, people who try and sneak into Meg’s home trying to get to Castlemayne. As many friends and family members floating around, somebody always manages to find a way in who shouldn’t be in. Even though this book is a cozy mystery in the best possible ways, there are moments Meg - and the reader - wonder if she’s ever totally alone, and whether the stray sounds throughout the night are innocuous or something more sinister. Fabulous stuff. As usual with a “Meg Langslow” mystery, Donna Andrews balances the danger and mystery with the delightfully absurd. With this book, the disappearing and reappearing jays with tons of attitude, the wombats, and Meg’s brother and his fiancé playing hide-and-seek with their parents provide a few chuckles for readers. Meg’s brother Rob is back in town with his fiancé. They desperately want to bypass their moms and just have a simple marriage ceremony with maybe a somewhat grander celebration in the future. The moms find this unacceptable and begin plotting. The lengths they go toward avoiding being discovered by the other side is farcical at times but fun. Although even that aspect of the story goes to a dark place at one point.

THE TWELVE JAYS OF CHRISTMAS has fabulous flights of fancy mixed in with an engrossing and chilling mystery – along with a few psychos and some holiday cheer. Although this story is set around Christmas, the holiday doesn’t overwhelm or obscure the rest of the story. The focus is mostly on the murder mystery.

This is the 30th in a cozy series that features the amusing antics of Meg Langslow and her ever growing crowd of family, friends and neighbors.

Meg is preparing to host quite a crowd of family members for the festivities, when murder enters the mix.

Of course, we know we can count on Meg to sort it out, while playing Christmas host- and catching twelve blue jays. She does, with finesse as always.

This is one of the first books that I have read by this author and I know it will not be my last. I really like Meg and her family. This is a great family. The mystery was wonderful and there were a lot of twists and turns that had me wondering who the killer was. Even though this is the 30th book in the series I was able to figure out the main characters without a problem. I received a copy of this book from Minotaur for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

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.