I got this slightly-battered hardcover from the charity-sale shelves in a local Hannaford supermarket. I enjoyed the book when I first read it, and was pleased to have another release copy.

I first discovered Andrews' "Meg Langslow" books via the hilarious We'll Always Have Parrots, which is actually the fifth in the series. I've been catching up on the rest of the series since then, and have been enjoying the books very much; they can stand alone, but as the events of each book seem to feed into the next one it adds some fun (and prevents some spoilers) if you read them in order.

This one's set at Christmas time (duh!), and Meg and Michael have agreed to let their house be the gathering point for the town Christmas parade. [For a small town they really do things to extremes; this parade sounds like something that wouldn't disappoint in New York City, and includes bands, floats, camels for the Three Wise Men...]

Anyway, as so often happens in mystery series, somebody winds up dead - in this case, the local curmudgeon, who was slated to be Santa Claus. Everyone seems almost as worried about finding a suitable replacement for Santa as they do about finding out who committed the crime, but then considering how often this happens, they must be used to sudden deaths by now {wry grin}. It was great to get to meet all the characters again (and nearly all of the characters from previous books do show up here), and the plot had some unexpected twists.

[There's a brief but amusing TV Tropes page for the series.]

I plan to leave this book on one of the rocking chairs on the porch of Cracker Barrel at around 2 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released for the 2014 You're Such an Animal release challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2014 September Sapphire release challenge, for the blue cover. ***