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.

While covering for Trinity Episcopal Church’s minister Robyn who is out on maternity leave Meg discovers several niches in the columbarium behind the church have been pried open, urns opened with ashes spilled, a large ruby ring in the ashes,  and, of course, a fresh dead body.  As Meg helps Robyn contact next of kin of the disturbed niches she finds out a lot about the secrets and scandals in Caerphilly. Add in a toucan who seems to have become a target of the murderer and Meg’s dad’s determination to reenact the 30-year-old jewel robbery and we have the scene set for the usual Langslow mayhem.

This was an enjoyable read as are all the entries in this series. The Langslow clan is the family many of us wish we had in real life - close, caring, supportive and delightfully eccentric.  The mystery was two-fold, who committed the jewel robbery so many years ago, who murdered the elderly parishioner and are the two event linked. The murderer was not obvious until, well really, at the same point Meg was figuring it out though the jewel robbery culprits were exactly who everyone in town suspected. I am seriously enjoying rereading this series as I wait for the newest entries to come out later this year. Highly recommended. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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