Owl Be Home For Christmas by Donna Andrews

In this latest Meg Langslow mystery its Christmas time and the family is snowed in at the Inn where Meg is managing the Owl Conference her grandfather is hosting.  With everyone snowbound and unable to leave the Inn, tensions are running high and people are arguing more than usual, especially over the debate between the barred owl and the spotted owl and how the barred owl was taking over the spotted owl's territory and the spotted owl was endangered. This is just one of the many fevered arguments taking place at the conference.  Meg is forced to referee and separate people and deal with people who have guns.

The worst of the bunch is Dr. Frogmore who comes from a college in Oregan that finds a way to not accept women or minorities.  Its faculty is nearly all-white males and Grandfather can't stand Dr. Frogmore and would have seen if he could have found a way to keep him from the conference if he could have.  He and his long-suffering flunky Dr. Czerny.

At the fancy dinner one night, Frogmore complains loudly while the speaker is speaking.   Meg is close to doing something about him when suddenly he falls over dead.   Everyone is in shock for a few minutes until it sets in. But the only one upset about his death is Dr. Czerny.  Who will hire him now? His life is over.  \

Meg comes up with some suspects for the police.  Dr. Green who argued with him and was on the side of the spotted owls.  Dr. Lindquist who was on the same side as Dr. Frogmore but Frogmore he believed was taking money from the lumber industry to sabotage the debate and create chaos.  Dr. Crane whose career Frogmore torpedoed so she couldn't work at his college.  Melissa McKendrick who was kept from going to Frogmore's college by him because she was a woman and African American.  Also, the three students who sat at his table because there was nowhere else to sit.  And there's also Dr. Czerny for whatever reason he might have. 

Luckily Meg's cousin Horace who is a deputy who does the forensics for the sheriff's department got stranded at the hotel and is able to work the case.   The sheriff is at the baptist church and will be over by snowmobile the next day to take over.  Meanwhile, he is conducting interviews via satellite phone.  The suspects look pretty guilty as no one liked Frogmore and they each had extra motives to kill him, but you don't want them to be guilty as you really like them.

This was a fabulous book as only Andrews can deliver.  But this book was better than her usual books in that the characters were truly likable and the murder victim was truly despicable.  True to form she throws you off the scent in more than one way and leaves you complacent when Boom! the action really starts up.  I love Andrews's books and her Christmas books are always a special treat.  This one was a real delight to read and I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

He sighed heavily. For any other scientist at the conference, I might have relented and run the copies. Not for a man I’d overheard agreeing to enthusiastically when, right in the middle of a presentation by one of the female scientists, Dr. Frogmore had said, very audibly, “But what can you expect? Women have no head for statistics.”

-Donna Andrews (Owl Be Home For Christmas p 13-14)

“But he’s nota misogynist—just an all=purpose misanthrope.” “About the only thing, he’s prejudiced against is stupidity.”

-Donna Andrews (Owl Be Home For Christmas p 43)

She enjoyed explaining things to people—especially explaining technical things to men.

-Donna Andrews (Owl Be Home For Christmas p 140)

He looked annoyed, but then he always did. It occurred to me that “resting owl face” would make a nice gender-neutral replacement for “resting bitch face.”

-Donna Andrews (Owl Be Home For Christmas p 213)


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