</P><I>This time, Meg has got herself into a Holy mess!</P></I><B></P>"A yuletide funfest."—<I>Richmond Times-Dispatch</P></I></P></B>A few nights before Christmas, Meg Langslow is awakened when volunteer fireman Michael is summoned to the New Life Baptist Church, where someone has rigged a cage full of skunks in the choir loft. The lengthy process of de-skunking the church requires its annual pre-Christmas concert to relocate to Trinity Episcopal, where Mother insists the show must go on, despite the budget-related protests of Mr. Vess, an elderly vestryman. Meanwhile, when Meg helps her grandfather take the skunks to the zoo, they discover that his boa has been stolen. . .only to turn up later during the concert, slithering out from the ribbon-bedecked evergreens. The next morning is Sunday, and the congregation of St. Byblig’s, the local Catholic church, arrives to find it completely filled with several hundred ducks.</P><B>"Extravagantly funny." —<I>Publishers Weekly</P></B></I></P>It’s clear that some serious holiday pranksters are on the loose, and Meg is determined to find them. But before she can, a fire breaks out at Trinity, and Mr. Vess is found dead. Who would have murdered such a harmless—if slightly cranky—old man? Who has the time, during the busy holiday season, to herd all of these animals into the town’s churches? And will Meg ever be able to finish all of her shopping, wrapping, cooking, caroling, and decorating in time for Christmas Eve?</P></P><B>"A quirky…humorous…holiday treat." —<I>Booklist</P></I></B>