As I am having a go at writing a cozy mystery, I thought it wise that I read as many as I can just to get a feel for the genre. But I didn’t know where to start, so I went to my trusty Libby app and searched for cozies. It had been my intent to read an ebook, but I searched for both ebooks and audiobooks, and just read some descriptions until I came across one that sounded interesting: The Gift of the Magpie, by Donna Andrews. This is book #28 in the Meg Langslow series.

First, though it is part of a series, the book stands on its own. I didn’t need to have to have read the previous 27 for this one to make sense. There may have been some Easter eggs from previous books I missed, but they certainly didn’t stop me from following the plot or understanding the characters. As with any series, I imagine that, should I choose to go back and read from the beginning, I’ll have a more nuanced understanding of the characters, especially the narrator, though I’m not sure to what degree that would be true given what I know of cozy mysteries. I don’t believe the intent is to create a larger story arc, as in shorter series with more depth of drama and human suffering. Instead, I am of the impression that readers of cozy mysteries are looking for familiarity in their characters and in the storylines. As such, major crises and life-altering events are probably not what I would expect if I read this series. And I’m okay with that.

In the book, Meg Langslow, our narrator, is a special assistant to the mayor of Caerphilly, Virginia. One of her main tasks as the mayor’s right hand is to administer the city’s Helping Hands for the Holidays program. Of the many projects Meg is overseeing, the one that promises to be the most daunting is to encourage Harvey Dunlop, aka Harvey the Hoarder, to let them help get his house cleaned up and repaired before the city condemns it and before his cousins can have him committed. Things are going surprisingly well, and we begin to wonder if Harvey is a true hoarder in the traditional sense, when the unthinkable happens. Meg and her crew arrive for day two of cleaning, only to find Harvey has been brained by an antique brass spittoon in his garage. As Meg’s father, a local doctor and the town medical examiner, tries to save Harvey’s life, Meg helps the police try to find out who wants him dead. Is it his weird cousins, who remind Meg of praying mantises and who really want to get into Harvey’s house? Or could it be one or both of his next-door neighbors, who would give anything to see him gone and his property cleaned up? Possibly, it’s Harvey’s friend from the hoarder’s support group who claims to have been his girlfriend, despite never having actually met him. As the investigation proceeds, the suspect pool broadens considerably when it’s discovered that Harvey’s family had owned a bank that closed down during the depression, leaving many of the local townsfolk destitute, and it seems some of the locals have a long memory.

In keeping with every good mystery, the reader is guessing clear to the end, convinced in turn it’s every possible suspect before the culprit is revealed. And the trip from whodunnit to capturing the bad guy is quite fun in this case, with lots of laughs along the way. Meg and her giant extended family are all nice folks, as, it seems, are most of the town folk of Caerphilly. And I genuinely felt bad for Harvey, who seems to be a tough, unfriendly character at the beginning, but who turns out to be a much more sympathetic victim than I expected.

I enjoyed this book. It was a quick, fun read. My only real criticism is of the recording. The narrator makes a few mistakes, such as a scene in which a dog is said to be named after the giant four legged transports in Star Wars movies, which are known as AT-ATs. But instead of calling them what they are called, she spelled out the letters, calling them A-T-A-Ts, which is technically accurate since it’s an acronym, but as a nerd, this grated. And she didn’t seem to be able to decide whether Harvey’s last name was Dunlop or Dunlap. But those things didn’t change the fact that this was a shining example of a cozy mystery. I definitely recommend it.