Rockin’ Around the Chickadee is #36 of the Meg Langslow books, a series I dip in and out of. I think that’s part of my problem with it. Andrews does a good job with the characters growing and changing, but I only catch bits of it. But it’s way too long a series for me to go back to the beginning.

Meg is a blacksmith, wife of professor/ actor Michael, mother of twin boys, assistant to the mayor, and a member of the quirky Hollingsworth family, and, of course, our amateur sleuth. She wears a lot of hats and in each book one or the other seems to be at the forefront. This time, being a member of the Hollingsworth family is at the top of the list. Her grandmother is hosting a conference highlighting the Presumed Innocent organization and several of the family members are helping by being on panels or making sure it all runs smoothly. While most attendees are either true crime buffs or hoping for help proving someone innocent, there is one man who is against the purpose of the conference and makes his opinions well-known. It’s no surprise he ends up dead, but it is unfortunate that his body is found in Meg’s backyard.

The conference gives us plenty of suspects in the murder. The mystery unfolds at a good pace even in the midst of all the family activities, with Meg gathering clues and even getting her boys to help out a bit. The identity of the killer is not a surprise, but at least one of the characters didn’t see it coming.

Overall, it was a fun book. I listened to the audio version and the narrator did a good job keeping all the characters straight and the tone, even while discussing serious topics, light.