Murder by Death

I've been saving this one to read for Halloween, and I cracked it open Saturday hoping it would get me in a Halloween frame of mind (harder to do when it's springtime).

It worked - the whole book is soaked in halloween fun as Caerphilly is putting on a Halloween festival that's really two festivals in one:  a "day side" for family friendly events and a "night side" when the older people come out to celebrate the slightly scarier side of the holiday.  This has Meg doing quite a bit of running around town as the head of the volunteer security force, the "goblin patrol".

Ms. Andrews attention to detail is really quite stunning; I would travel to a festival as well thought out and planned as this one was, but I'll admit this book wasn't the best in the series.  I still thoroughly enjoyed every page (because the characters are brilliant), but the mystery itself didn't have a lot of my attention (although I love the scavenger hunt premise).

All of the book titles have so far tied directly to a bird that features prominently in the story; this one is probably the weakest linked book: the ravens have very little page time and don't get to play any significant role in the book, although I sorta kinda want to train a neighborhood raven to say "Nevermore".

"Die Like an Eagle" is the next book - the title alone makes me giggle, and I'm looking forward to its release.