Five Golden Wings by Donna Andrews

Not only is it Christmas again in Caerphilly, but this time Meg Langslow's got a house full of guests for TWO family weddings the weekend before the holiday. Caerphilly is normally such a joyous place around Christmastime, but the presence of two feuding bridezillas is dampening the fun. Two mothers of the brides, who do nothing to be helpful, mean all of the stress is falling on Meg's poor mother, with Meg trying to help lighten her load. 

Meg's duties include dealing with a real jerk of a wedding photographer, Austin Luckett. Austin has at least one very angry former client hounding him, an assistant he regularly drives to tears, and a lot of accusations of creeping on past wedding party members. When Meg heads over to Trinity Church to meet the photographer and scout out shots for the wedding, she instead finds him dead in the church's graveyard. 

Now Meg's duties include helping the police round up suspects to interview, many of whom are her own relatives who are either part of the wedding or in town for it. She also has to help her mother solve problems that are cropping up with the weddings, not the least of which is that they are now short one wedding photographer. Meg's large family and the ever-helpful locals all pitch in to help out, but these brides are testing the good nature of Meg's usually unflappable family, including the patient Rose Noire! Can Meg pull it off again without interrupting the weddings and/or finding herself staring down a killer? It will take a Christmas miracle!

Donna Andrews does a wonderful job of making Caerphilly feel like such a complete, lived-in location. From the town, to the buildings, and all its many citizens, they all feel real and like family. Half the fun is just spending time with these wonderful characters, and the other half is from unraveling this cleverly layered mystery. The thoroughly disliked murder victim leaves no shortage of suspects and plenty of trails to follow. Even following these false trails leads to some amusing and surprising revelations. It's a complex and entertaining jumble and leads to a satisfying conclusion. Another winner in this always entertaining series.

The narration by Bernadette Dunne captures the spirit and liveliness of the story. She also conveys the light-hearted tone, even in the presence of a murder. Where the narration doesn't work for me is that the characters don't sound like I picture them, both in age and tone. Others' mileage and opinion on that are certain to vary.

This is the perfect book to pick up for the holiday season, or anytime you need to unplug and escape into a different, kinder world for a few hours.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.