“Christmas in Caerphilly is wonderful! Unless you’re a Canadian whose inconsiderate boss is forcing you to spend the holiday there, far from family and friends, with only a slim chance of a white Christmas.

When the inconsiderate boss is found murdered, there are too many suspects. Even before their Christmas in exile, his own employees had plenty of motives, and the growing number of people suing the company for faulty DNA analysis and invasion of their genetic privacy include at least one notorious murderer. Can Meg crack the case in time to keep the Yuletide bright?”

Straight off, I’ll say this – this is the THIRTY SECOND book in this series, and I have read exactly one of them. This one. The THIRTY SECOND one. 3.123% of the available.

So, this book is not entirely to blame for my literary apathy. There were just too many characters I should have known, but didn’t. Too many places to which I should have already been, that I hadn’t. Too much backstory of which I should have been aware, which I wasn’t.

That’s on me.

Having said that, I’m also not in a hurry to catch up on the backlist. The characters weren’t fleshed out enough, the story bumped along, almost accidentally, and the Canadian characters were cliched.

Polite, but dull-witted poutine-lovers, ffs.

5.5/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC.

Meg and Michael are housing a group of Canadian Programmers whose rude boss is making them spend the Christmas Holiday away from their families working on a new project with Meg's brother's software company. The employee clearly dislike their boss, but when he turns up dead and foul play is suggested, they have no idea who to blame. There are lots of people who are upset with the company and have motive, but will they be able to figure out the right person?

I thought it was overall cute, but the mystery did not start till later in the book. I wish it had started sooner.

Dashing Through the Snowbirds by Donna Andrew
Meg Langslow Series book 32
Narrator Bernadette Dunne
Wow! Book 32 and I’m pretty sure I have read all of these books unless I missed one early on. I have stuck with this series through thick and thin. Some have been better than others and this was one of the best lately. I always love the Xmas books and often re-listen to them during December and will certainly add this one to my list.
I do have to say that what happened to Meg at the end of the book puts her on her dad’s TSTL list but that’s ok because I liked how it ended.
Also noticed there was very little of her husband and boys in this one and thankfully nothing about Michael’s one man performance of A Christmas Carol.
As always, Bernadette Dunne was excellent.

My Christmas season (or lead up to, anyway) would not be complete without Meg Langslow and her amazing family. I am always guaranteed a great read with a sold mystery, humorous scenes with her extended family and guests, and a few new animals added to their menagerie. This mystery was particularly interesting because of the genealogy angle. I’m sad that I read my Christmas book early this year but I’ll just have to read it again closer to the date. This is in my top 5 favorite series so I’m glad, despite the length of the series, that each mystery is fresh and new.