New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews takes us home to Caerphilly for the holidays in her new hilarious Christmas mystery How the Finch Stole Christmas!

Meg's husband has decided to escalate his one-man show of Dickens' A Christmas Carol into a full-scale production with a large cast including their sons Jamie and Josh as Tiny Tim and young Scrooge and Meg helping as stage manager.

The show must go on, even if the famous—though slightly over-the-hill—actor who's come to town to play the starring role of Scrooge has brought a sleigh-load of baggage and enemies with him. And why is Caerphilly suddenly overrun with a surplus of beautiful caged finches?

How the Finch Stole Christmas! is guaranteed to put the "ho ho hos" into the holidays of cozy lovers everywhere with its gut-bustingly funny mystery.

It is Christmas in Caerphilly and that can only mean one thing - the Christmas festivities will be interspersed with murder. This year Michael is directing A Christmas Carol instead of doing a one-man-show and the college has decided to bring in a “name actor” to play Scrooge. Problem is the actor, Malcolm Haver, is pretty much a washed up has-been and even if he wasn’t he is a drunk and a monumental jerk. But with a close to ironclad contract it is up to Meg, Michael and Meg’s mother to ride herd on Malcolm  to keep him sober and at rehearsals on time. As if that wasn’t enough trouble while tailing Haver to see where he is getting his liquor, Meg stumbles across a crime scene and then a body.

The Christmas entries are always fun and the Langslow clan is as eccentric and charming as usual. There were a couple of errors in the book or maybe just oversights like a gun that disappeared and reappeared with no explanation that I could find as to how it happened or who did it. I will say the murderer was not evident until just before they revealed themselves. We have the usual happy ending with matters resolved and people turning over a new leaf, all in all a great Christmas in Caerphilly with the Langslows. The whole series is highly recommended. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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