Donna Andrews. Rockin’ Around the Chickadee. Minotaur, 2024.

Rockin’ Around the Chickadee is the latest in the author’s Meg Langslow mystery series. This resembles Owl Be Home for Christmas in many ways. It takes place at the Caerphilly Inn and Convention Center in the Virginia foothills. The murder victim is attending a convention there and no one likes his offensive personality, so potentially some 200 suspects could need to be investigated.

This time the convention less than a week before Christmas is the Presumed Innocent convention: a meeting for people who have been or claim to have been wrongly convicted of crimes along with lawyers and other activists seeking to exonerate them. We meet a number of different people including the recently-freed Ezekiel, a man incarcerated for nearly fifty years when DNA evidence absolves him; Amber, a woman who admits she killed her abusive husband in self-defense but an enthusiastic prosecutor threw the book at her; an aunt and niece trying to get their sister and mother free from what they say is an unjust murder rap; and two high school friends who are trying to exonerate a third friend who has been in prison for a number of years.

This reviewer remembers hearing a testimony of a man who was imprisoned for over seventeen years for a murder he did not commit. Now free, he admits that he had committed some crimes and was at the crime scene because he was selling drugs, something he did not want to admit in court. He would say that he probably deserved imprisonment, just not for the crime he was accused of. Ezekiel in this story says something similar. He has reformed and is ready to begin a new life with whatever time he has left.

Also attending the convention are a few hard-core law-and-order types including people whose online names are Godfrey Nelson and Scooperino. Their web sites attack people, including some at the convention, who they believe got away with murder or other serious crimes. Nelson, a.k.a. the Gadfly, alienates just about everyone at the convention including Ezekiel’s service dog, Ruth. It is no surprise to the reader that Nelson ends up murdered about a third of the way through the book.

What complicates things is that the Gadfly’s body is discovered on Meg’s property. Her cousin Festus is a lawyer who specializes in defense of those accused of serious crimes and is leading one of the seminars at the convention. Her scientist grandfather operates a DNA lab, and her father is a coroner. Both also are participating in the convention. It seems as though someone may be trying to make them look guilty since the Gadfly opposes what they have been doing.

While he is there, Ezekiel gets recruited for a choir that will be singing Christmas songs at the convention. And Kevin, a Langslow cousin who is the computer guru, has not only been recruited to analyze security videos at the inn and in the Langslow neighborhood but has developed a crush on Amber.

There is lot of action as the police chief and various Langslow relatives help out in the investigation. Even her teenage twin sons contribute in a way that they get excited about. Unlike Owl Be Home for Christmas, there is no blizzard, just a routine snowfall that typifies so many tales that take place at Christmastime. Like most of the Donna Andrews mysteries, the story is told with a sense of humor and enthusiasm.

Chickadees do appear in the story but are not terribly significant other than the fact that the person who discovers the body has gone out to refill a bird feeder that attracts chickadees. In that sense the tale is more like Lark! The Herald Angels Sing rather than Terns of Endearment. There are no actual larks in the former, just a person who may be named Lark, while in the latter there is a tern that does contribute to the plot. As usual, what little this story says about birds is accurate. Ms. Andrews knows her ornithology.

One minor caveat: Some readers may be bothered by a minor character who is involved in the occult. This person does not really contribute much to the story but her behavior could be considered disturbing. The tale may not be for everyone.