Books in the Meg Langslow Mysteries series

Meg is relaxing in the hammock, taste-testing Michael's latest batch of Arnold Palmers and watching the hummingbirds at their feeders when her hopes for a relaxing early summer morning are dashed.First her father recruits her to help him install a new batch of bees in the hive in her backyard. Then Mayor Shiffley recruits her to placate the NIMBYs (Not in my backyard), as she calls them - a group of newcomers to Caerphilly who have built McMansions next door to working farms and then do their best to make life miserable for the farmers. And finally Meg's grandmother, shows up, trailed by a nosy reporter who is writing a feature on her for a genteel Southern ladies' magazine.Cordelia drafts Meg to accompany her and Deacon Washington of the New Life Baptist Church - and the reporter, alas - in their search for a long-lost African-American cemetery. Unfortunately what they discover is not an ancient cemetery but a fresh corpse. Can Meg protect her grandmother - and Caerphilly - from the reporter who seems to see the worst in everything . . . and help crack the case before the killer finds another victim?

Murder never takes a holiday!''Tis the season for tree trimming, mistletoe-dangling, and a cut-throat competition that has everyone in Caerphilly on edge. Whatever happened to the simple joys and magical spirits of Christmas? Meg Langslow''s own mother is among those participating in a holiday-themed design extravaganza in which each room in an untenanted show house is decorated for the public to view. All the proceeds go to charity-so why are all the contestants fighting tooth and nail to win first prize?"Intrigue...amusement...Andrews reliably delivers. She also manages to slip in profundities and sentiments that warm the heart."-New York Journal of BooksThat is the question Meg is trying to answer after Clay Spottiswood, the most haughty and hostile of the designers, turns up dead. With tempers flaring and fears on the rise, can Meg sort through the tinsel-strewn mayhem and solve a murder...before the killer strikes again? "Andrews does a spectacular job tying up all the loose ends into a big holiday bow!"-The Criminal Element

This time, Meg has got herself into a Holy mess!"A yuletide funfest."—Richmond Times-DispatchIn Duck the Halls, the brilliantly funny Donna Andrews delivers boughs of holly and barrels of laughs with Meg''s latest adventure in her award-winning, New York Times bestselling series. A few nights before Christmas, Meg Langslow is awakened when volunteer fireman Michael is summoned to the New Life Baptist Church, where someone has rigged a cage full of skunks in the choir loft. The lengthy process of de-skunking the church requires its annual pre-Christmas concert to relocate to Trinity Episcopal, where Mother insists the show must go on, despite the budget-related protests of Mr. Vess, an elderly vestryman. Meanwhile, when Meg helps her grandfather take the skunks to the zoo, they discover that his boa has been stolen. . .only to turn up later during the concert, slithering out from the ribbon-bedecked evergreens. The next morning is Sunday, and the congregation of St. Byblig''s, the local Catholic church, arrives to find it completely filled with several hundred ducks."Extravagantly funny." —Publishers WeeklyIt''s clear that some serious holiday pranksters are on the loose, and Meg is determined to find them. But before she can, a fire breaks out at Trinity, and Mr. Vess is found dead. Who would have murdered such a harmless—if slightly cranky—old man? Who has the time, during the busy holiday season, to herd all of these animals into the town''s churches? And will Meg ever be able to finish all of her shopping, wrapping, cooking, caroling, and decorating in time for Christmas Eve?"A quirky…humorous…holiday treat." —Booklist

Meg and Michael's house is serving as the marshaling point for the annual Caerphilly Christmas parade. The theme is "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and it features twelve drummers from the school marching band, eleven bagpipers, and so on. As organizer, Meg's job is hard enough. But when her nephew Eric, wide eyed and ashen faced, whispers, "Meg, something's wrong with Santa," things take a tragic turn. The local curmudgeon, whose beard and belly made him a natural for the role, has been murdered. Now it's up to Meg and Chief Burke to tackle the two-fold mission of solving the murder and saving Christmas!This latest adventure from award-winning Donna Andrews is filled with outrageous Christmas spirit and malice.