Late one evening, Meg Langslow is at Trinity Episcopal Church filling in at church events for Rev. Robyn Smith, who is on bed rest for her pregnancy. Of course she investigates strange sounds in the columbarium and finds a murder victim, who just happens to be one of the least like members of teh parish. But why was he in the columbarium and why were a number of niches smashed open? Can this have something to do with the decades old jewelry heist? The quirky characters keep the reader engaged and amused throughout. Toucan Keep a Secret is twenty-third in the Meg Langslow mystery series by Donna Andrews and is as hysterically funny as the first.

In the latest installment of Meg Lanslow's crazy family antics, a church Vestry member is found dead in the crypt, err.. Columbarium. Was he stealing his wife's ashes or looking for treasure? And why does everyone think that a toucan is a parrot? Then Meg's father decides to recreate a decades-old jewelry theft. This series is always enjoyable, despite the almost constant chaos.

Meg Langslow is closing up Trinity Episcopal church when she sees a light and hears hammering in the columbarium. Upon investigation, she finds the dead (murdered) body of one of the vestry members but also a royal pain in the butt. Several of the urns and remains of the dead are disturbed and it is when Meg is contacting the relatives to find out their wishes for the remains that she learns some unknown history of Caerphilly that definitely has a connection with the murder. Meg continues to be a great character, although I miss her blacksmithing. Earlier books have had more humor but this one still retains great charm.

One of my favorite series and this was another great book. I always love the seeing the way that Ms. Andrews is always able to include a bird in a very clever title. This was another great mystery but a little disappointing that we didn't get to 'see' more of Mom and Dad and her other quirky family members. The twins are growing fast and Michael is always doing his best to allow Meg to take care of everyone else.

The mystery was interesting and although I was sure that I knew the killer's identity, I had to keep reading. This one kept me up really late reading!

This is the newest installment in the Donna Andrews "Bird" series. If you are familiar with this series you know the birds are secondary at best. This one has a toucan as the bird of choice. One thing that was repeated over and over in the story was that everyone that it was a parrot and thought it could talk. Toucans do not talk. In this story Meg is filling in and helping out at her church because their Priest, Robyn, is on bedrest. Someone breaks into their columbarium or crypt as we might call it, killed one of the church board members and destroyed several of the urns. Also an unsolved mystery from the 90's is at the center of the murder. Meg pulls in all the usual suspects, her parents, grandfather, husband and a cast of cousins to help her solve the mystery. I was a little disappointed that some of the usual cast of characters did not play as big a role in this book. But it was still an entertaining story and continues the series.

In Toucan Keep a Secret, #23 in the Meg Langslow mysteries, Meg finds herself yet again investigating another murder after she finds a body in the church crypt while helping out during the reverend’s maternity leave. She also finds a crowbar and a ring with a stone that looks suspiciously like a large ruby. With it, she also investigates claims of a long-ago robbery. Add in our favorite characters including her twins and husband Michael, as well as new characters (a toucan named Nimitz) and you just never know where the book will lead.

I am a huge fan of Donna Andrews, though I have noticed in this book and another that it had a hard time keeping my interest. I feel like the focus is so much on revisiting our favorite town members and family, along with long stretches of dialog, that the mystery kind of gets lost. I continue to love Donna Andrews, but this is certainly not my favorite in the series. I received thsi book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Another hit about Meg and her relatives. Finding a dead body at the churchyard, and going from place to place trying to help solve the mystery was a fun read. If you've read any in the series you will know most of the characters here, and even Spike makes a showing at the end. I like how the twins are getting more and more personable as they age, and expect soon they will be helping Meg more instead of always being with Michael. Would highly recommend this book and author.

Another solid entry in the Meg Langslow series with a twist. They mystery is unusual for this series and is nicely complicated. It also gives us the opportunity to know more about the local church and Meg and family's activities within it.

While Andrews has almost all of the usual Langslow sidekicks and bird du jour make a brief (really brief in some cases) appearance, this story really focuses just on Meg. Michael was used to better effect this time, actively assisting in a way than just doing his job as usual at the college. But even he gets barely any actual page space. I sort of missed some of them, but since the story kept me engaged, I really didn't miss them.

There were a couple of details that were mentioned more than once which irked me just a tad. I thought the editor should have caught that.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Meg Langslow is locking up the chuch after the vestry meeting late one evening when she hears a loud noise from the columbarium (aka the crypt, where cremated ashes are kept). After calling the police, she investigates and finds that six of the niches have been opened and their urns broken. Oh, yes, and there's a murder victim, a heartily disliked member of the vestry. One niche contained the victim's wife's ashes; the other five are all related to a decades-old unsolved jewel robbery.

Meg has enough sense to leave the major investigating to the police, but she can't help poking around a little herself, particularly since she has been tasked with asking the families what they want done with disturbed ashes.

As always, good characterizations, smooth writing, quirky people and situations, and a nicely twisty mystery. Not a major entry in the series, but far from the worst.

I feel like I waited a long time for this book, and it was worth the wait. I love the characters Donna Andrews comes up with. Even though they seem pretty farfetched, she makes them seem like people you know. The story is good, and it's so easy to visualize what's happening even though she doesn't bog down the story with descriptions.