Let it crow! Let it crow! Let it crow!

After initially refusing a spot as a contestant on the new bladesmithing reality show Blades of Glory, blacksmith Meg Langslow agrees to enter the contest when her mentor, Faulk, is attacked, his injuries leaving him unable to compete. The contest is being held at the farm of Ragnar, a well-known, former heavy metal drummer, and Meg and her family stay there along with the cast and crew of the show. With some of the contestants being less than welcoming to Meg--and someone sabotaging the contestants' work--the show's troubles continue when one of the more unpleasant contestants is murdered. While her investigation time is limited due to her taking part in the show, Meg still manages to help Chief Burke by sharing her impressions of the suspects and doing a bit of eavesdropping, leading to her being confronted by the killer. Fans will relish this entry in this humorous, long-running cozy series, framed by its cheery Christmastime setting on Ragnar's most unusual farm, populated by many familiar, quirky characters--including the crows.

Fans who think that Virginia blacksmith Meg Langslow has forgotten her vocation because of all her amateur detective work will be delighted to hear that her latest adventure features no fewer than eight blacksmiths. Alec Franzetti, an old acquaintance but never exactly a friend of Meg's even though they were both trained in the craft by William Faulkner Cates, has brainstormed Blades of Glory, a new reality TV series set in retired drummer Ragnar Ragnarson's castle/farmhouse in which six blacksmiths--or, more precisely, bladesmiths--compete to forge the best weapons and win cash and eternal glory. Meg's attempt to stay clear of the whole enterprise fails when someone mugs Faulk, breaking his arm, removing him from competition and leading him to entreat Meg to take his place in order to safeguard the unwise loan he and his husband made to Alec to underwrite the series. Three of the smiths Meg joins, Victor Noone, Andy Kim, and John Dunigan, are fine with that arrangement, but the other two, Duncan Jackson and Brody McIlvaney, whine about their number including Victor, a Black smith; Andy, a Korean American; and Meg, a woman. When somebody starts messing with Meg's and Andy's forges, it's pretty obvious who the guilty party is, and soon after Meg confronts the saboteur with evidence against him, he's found dead in Ragnar's cow pasture--unavailable, as the producers fret, for any retakes. The limited cast focuses the mystery more sharply than the extended-family reunions that some of Meg's recent Christmas-adjacent tales have more closely resembled, and those crows turn out to have an important, though highly improbable, role to play. More than ever, Meg strikes while the iron is hot. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.