FIVE GOLDEN WINGS

Meg Langslow’s 38th recorded case harks back to her very first, in which she served as a bridesmaid in a cluster of three weddings, by challenging her ability to cope with two competing Bridezillas.

Despite being frequently mistaken for each other, Alexis Turner and Emily Winningham, second cousins once removed of Meg and first cousins of each other, have never gotten along. Even so, their furious rivalry has never before reached the fever pitch that led them to book the same venues, Trinity Episcopal Church and the Caerphilly Inn, for weddings only two hours apart on the same Saturday before Christmas. While Meg watches in dismay as the cousins fight over everything from whether they can share a room to store their wedding gifts to Emily’s choice of Jenna McCracken as one of her bridesmaids despite Jenna’s previous affair with Blaine, Lexy’s bridegroom, adrenaline-fueled fans of the series may feel almost sorry that their bickering will have to be interrupted by murder. Rules are rules, however, and soon enough, Austin Luckett, the wedding photographer hired by both cousins, is found shot to death in a nearby graveyard. Since Austin, who’s already taken several phone calls from a disgruntled past client, had somehow managed to act as obnoxious and offensive as both his current clients, the list of potential suspects is relatively long—though they’re still outnumbered by Meg’s friends and relations, none of whom could possibly be guilty, right? In a signature parting gesture, the whodunit is wound up economically, leaving only the conflicts between Lexy and Emily and the coming of Christmas, which will require many more pages.

The impressively well-wrought mystery still can’t compete with two hostile brides.