THE GIFT OF THE MAGPIE is the 28th book in this long-running popular series featuring Meg Langslow.  It is filled with holiday cheer and good deeds, but in all the revelry, a murderer lurks in the background waiting for the chance to reclaim something hidden in a cluttered dilapidated house.

Meg is spending the holiday season organizing various projects for the Helping Hands for the Holidays program in her community.  The program does good deeds for neighbors who are no longer able to physically or financially do the deeds themselves.  One of the projects is decluttering and repairing Harvey Dunlop’s house.  Harvey is a hoarder and he is in danger of losing his house.  Meg and her group of volunteers step in to help move Harvey’s items out of the house while repairs are being done.  But after a day of work and a night of Christmas cheer, someone bludgeons Harvey in the head with a brass spittoon in his garage.  It appears Harvey’s three greedy cousins, a nosy neighbor, and Harvey’s online love interest all want to get inside Harvey’s house by any means possible, even murder.  What’s hidden in the piles of junk in Harvey’s house?  As Meg sifts through the junk and the clues, she starts to uncover Harvey’s family history and the rumors that might have got him killed.  Can Meg catch a killer and save the holiday season?

THE GIFT OF THE MAGPIE is a well-written cozy mystery featuring a very capable sleuth who juggles a lot of different roles.  Meg follows the clues logically and the secondary characters are all well-developed and lend a hand in solving the mystery.  There is a sense of continuity in the storytelling and there is a little twist at the end that works out nicely and keeps the holiday cheer intact.   I am a new reader of this series and although I don’t know all of Meg’s backstory, I found this mystery enjoyable and entertaining.   Perfect for the holidays!