Toucan Keep a Secret: A Meg Langslow Mystery

by Donna Andrews

Overview

Toucan keep a secret, if one of them is dead.

Meg Langslow is at Trinity Episcopal Church locking up after an event and checking on the toucan her friend Rev. Robyn Smith is fostering in her office. When she investigates the sound of hammering in the columbarium (the underground crypt where cremated remains are buried), Meg finds the murdered body of an elderly parishioner. Several niches have been chiseled open; several urns knocked out; and amid the spilled ashes is a gold ring with a huge red stone.

The curmudgeonly victim had become disgruntled with the church and ranted all over town about taking back his wife's ashes. Did someone who had it in for him follow him to the columbarium? Or was the motive grave robbery? Or did he see someone breaking in and investigate? Why was the ruby left behind?

While Chief Burke investigates the murder, Robyn recruits Meg to contact the families of the people whose ashes were disturbed. While doing so, Meg learns many secrets about Caerphilly's history—and finds that the toucan may play a role in unmasking the killer. Clues and events indicate that a thief broke into the church to steal the toucan the night of the murder, so Meg decides to set a trap for the would-be toucan thief—who might also be the killer.

Toucan Keep a Secret is the twenty-third book in New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews' hilarious Mag Langslow mystery series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250391872
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/30/2019
Series:	Meg Langslow Series , #23
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	4.12(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

DONNA ANDREWS has won the Agatha, Anthony, and Barry Awards, an RT Book Reviews Award for best first novel, and four Lefty and two Toby Bromberg Awards for funniest mystery. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and Novelists, Inc. Andrews lives in Reston, Virginia. She has written over 30 books in the Meg Langslow mystery series.

Editorial Reviews

"This long-running cozy series shows no signs of losing its freshness." —Publishers Weekly on Toucan Keep a Secret

"Witty prose and distinctive characters set this long-running series above the cozy pack." —Publishers Weekly on Gone Gull

"Fans will find all the beloved hallmarks of this award-winning series: fresh characters, an engaging puzzle, and delightful humor.” —Library Journal on Gone Gull

"If you long for more fun mysteries, a la Janet Evanovich, you'll love Donna Andrews's Meg Langslow series." —Charlotte Observer

"A long-running series that gets better all the time. A fine blend of academic satire, screwball comedy, and murder." —Booklist on Lord of the Wings

"With its well-spun plots and distinctive characters, Andrews’s amusing avian-named series shows no signs of growing stale." —PW on Die Like an Eagle

"As always, Andrews laces this entertaining whodunit with wit, a fine storyline and characters we've come to know and love." —Richmond Times-Dispatch on The Real Macaw

"With colorful characters, a solid mystery and laugh-out-loud moments . . . readers will have a rollicking good time." —RT Book Reviews (4 stars) on Swan for the Money

“With its well-spun plots and distinctive characters, Andrews’s amusing avian-named series shows no signs of growing stale.” —Publishers Weekly on Die Like an Eagle

“Meg grows more endearing with each book.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch on Stork Raving Mad

“Few writers are as adept as Andrews at affectionately managing a large and varied cast of eccentric characters and concealing the murderer among them until the very end of the book.” —Denver Post on Six Geese A-Slaying

From the Publisher

2018-05-15
A murder in the crypt—no, make that the columbarium—of Caerphilly, Virginia's Trinity Episcopal kicks off Meg Langslow's 23rd case.Naturally, Meg discovers the body, and naturally, she's not supposed to be there. But after she sees signs of an intruder while she's working late at the church as pregnant Rev. Robyn Smith frets through the bed rest she's been ordered, Meg investigates further during her phone call to the Caerphilly police and discovers the body of Junius Hagley, one of the Mumbling Misogynsts who've done everything they can to undermine their female rector. Just as distressing as Hagley's murder by crowbar is the sight of six desecrated memorial niches, some of whose urns have been knocked over and spilled out what are now irretrievably commingled ashes. The urns contain the mortal remains of Hagley's wife, Dolores, wealthy Beatrice Helen Falkenhausen van der Lynden, her handyman, J.A. Washington, former frat boy P. Jefferson Blair, Lacey Shiffley of Caerphilly's endless Shiffley family, and a John Doe who's never been identified. Why would Hagley or anyone else have taken the trouble to pry them open in the dead of night? A bejeweled ring found at the scene suggests that it might be the site of a treasure hunt, but Meg's more interested in what the six post-mortem victims have in common: All of them, even the John Doe, are linked to a burglary 30 years ago at the van der Lynden mansion, now rechristened as Ragnarsheim, the home of semiretired heavy metal drummer Ragnar Ragnarsen. So she works to figure out exactly what went down during that ancient robbery and how it's connected to the latest outrage in the town's extensive criminal annals (How the Finch Stole Christmas!, 2017, etc.).The setup is a lot stronger than the follow-up, which requires reams of backstory, an elaborate restaging of the original robbery, a culprit plucked from nowhere, and a lot fewer laughs than fans of this generally riotous franchise have a right to expect.

Kirkus Reviews