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From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Two of Meg Langslow’s distant cousins are getting married. Unfortunately, the two are feuding, holding competing weddings in Caerphilly, Virginia, on the Saturday before Christmas, and upsetting everyone around them, from Meg to Meg’s mother to the manager of the local venue, with their rudeness and entitled demands. Moreover, Meg is hosting one of the cousins and her bridal party at her home, causing further problems. When Meg finds the body of the wedding photographer in the churchyard, her problems worsen, as she must identify a killer (and find another wedding photographer) before the weddings as well as relocate three ambassador eagles and find some stolen angels. Murder suspects include the photographer’s disgruntled customers, his downtrodden assistant, and possibly even the brides and grooms or members of their wedding parties. The lovingly described holiday frame, well-known, quirky Caerphilly friends and family, tidbits of animal lore, and humor add up to a charming Christmas entry in the popular, long-running series (after For Duck's Sake, 2025).

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Meg Langslow’s 38th recorded case harks back to her very first, in which she served as a bridesmaid in a cluster of three weddings, by challenging her ability to cope with two competing Bridezillas. Despite being frequently mistaken for each other, Alexis Turner and Emily Winningham, second cousins once removed of Meg and first cousins of each other, have never gotten along. Even so, their furious rivalry has never before reached the fever pitch that led them to book the same venues, Trinity Episcopal Church and the Caerphilly Inn, for weddings only two hours apart on the same Saturday before Christmas. While Meg watches in dismay as the cousins fight over everything from whether they can share a room to store their wedding gifts to Emily’s choice of Jenna McCracken as one of her bridesmaids despite Jenna’s previous affair with Blaine, Lexy’s bridegroom, adrenaline-fueled fans of the series may feel almost sorry that their bickering will have to be interrupted by murder. Rules are rules, however, and soon enough, Austin Luckett, the wedding photographer hired by both cousins, is found shot to death in a nearby graveyard. Since Austin, who’s already taken several phone calls from a disgruntled past client, had somehow managed to act as obnoxious and offensive as both his current clients, the list of potential suspects is relatively long—though they’re still outnumbered by Meg’s friends and relations, none of whom could possibly be guilty, right? In a signature parting gesture, the whodunit is wound up economically, leaving only the conflicts between Lexy and Emily and the coming of Christmas, which will require many more pages. The impressively well-wrought mystery still can’t compete with two hostile brides. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.