Book Review: Toucan Keep a Secret by Donna Andrews

Toucan Keep a Secret
by Donna Andrews

I had already been a fan of Donna Andrews’ “Turing Hopper” series (4 volumes 2002-2005), but had never sampled her “Meg Langslow” series before the libraries’ Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group selected a quartet of the Langslow volumes for their June 2019 discussion meeting. The Langslow series has reached 25 volumes (with a 26th due before Christmas) as of 2019, and Toucan Keep a Secret is #23.

In much the same way that Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum mysteries are filled with quirky, colorful, bigger-than-life family members, so are the Meg Langslow books. Toucan Keep a Secret is an enjoyable, competently written mystery — I’ll admit I hadn’t tumbled to who the killer was before that was revealed. But it also feels like a recent entry in a long-running series, featuring so many relatives and friends of Langslow, each of whom has an extreme personality, that I felt like I was joining a story part-way through. In this entry, Meg is one of the evening caretakers of the church she belongs to, while the female pastor is on forced medical leave (she’s pregnant). One night, Meg sees someone with a flashlight in the locked columbarium, where the ashes of cremated church members are stored in personal niches. When she investigates, she finds the body of a troublesome older man who was on the church’s governing board, and evidence that he, or someone else, had been opening multiple niches with a crowbar. Digging into the history of all the individuals whose burial niches were disturbed ends up stirring up some bad blood and makes somebody nervous enough to take a pot shot at Meg.

Learning about the ins-and-outs of how her church handles its behind-the-scenes business was interesting, and Andrews does a good job making Meg a likeable character, but there seemed to be way too many subplots going, and some of the outrageous supporting characters were not really believable. On the other hand, I enjoyed this one enough to follow the recommendations of several Just Desserts members that I should go back and read the earliest few entries in the Meg Langslow series — so I’ve already got a copy of Murder With Peacocks, the very first Langslow book, and I’m eager to see how the series started.

[Special Note: I was informed by a friend that her parents made a guest appearance in 9th Meg Langslow entry, Cockatiels at Seven. If you’re at all familiar with retired Nebraska Wesleyan University theater professor Henry Blanke, and his wife NWU Costume Librarian Phyllis Blanke, check out that entry in the series! They do make an appearance, through altered slightly to be natives of Meg Langslow town and not Lincoln, NE..

[ official Donna Andrews web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Don't miss the July 2019 Just Desserts mystery book discussion group's meeting -- tonight! -- where the group will be discussing Tana French's stand-alone novel The Witch Elm. Guests are always welcome. Just Desserts meets in the 4th floor auditorium of the downtown Bennett Martin Public Library on the last Thursday of each month, 6:30-7:45. Attendees are encouraged to bring a dessert to share with fellow mystery fans. Coffee and juice are provided.