Review: Toucan Keep A Secret by: Donna Andrews

Title: Toucan Keep A Secret
Author: Donna Andrews
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Series: Meg Langslow #23
Pages: 294
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Description:

A new side-splitting Meg Langslow mystery from award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Gone Gull.

Meg Langslow is at Trinity Episcopal locking up after an event and checking on the toucan Meg's friend Rev. Robyn Smith is fostering in her office. After hearing a hammering in the columbarium (the small building where cremated remains are held), Meg finds an elderly parishioner lying dead on the floor of the crypt. 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 the Chief Burke investigates the murder, Robyn recruits Meg to contact the families of the people whose ashes were disturbed. During this task, 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. 

My Thoughts: 

Meg is watching over the church while the pregnant pastor Robyn suffers at home on bedrest.  When Meg discovers someone is the columbarium when she investigates she finds a dead body.  Robyn asks Meg to make the arrangements for the disturbed crypts to be reburied.  The victim being investigated for his death leads to a long ago burglary.  As Meg investigates the heat seems to be on her by people wanting her out of the way!  Will she figure it out or get herself knocked out!

I love Meg and her family and friends.  We also get to follow Meg as she investigates the crypts that were disturbed which coincide with the robbery! It was a mystery inside a mystery one of the greatest ones there are!  Can't wait to see what is next for Meg and her family and friends!

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Review: Killer in The Kitchen by: Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain

Title: Killer in the Kitchen
Author: Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Series: Murder She Wrote #43
Pages: 266
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description:

In the latest in the "USA Today" bestselling series, someone writes a recipe for murder.

Jessica loves the Leg & Claw restaurant, owned by young couple Brad and Marcie. And the restaurant is the couple s dream come true. But when famed chef Gerard Pepe Lebeouf decides to open an eatery right next to theirs, tensions rise fast and hot and lead to a nasty confrontation between Lebeouf and Brad. So when Lebeouf is found dead with a knife planted in his chest, Brad becomes suspect number one. But plenty of others had a motive to kill Pepe, and it s up to Jessica to uncover who really added murder to the menu."

My Thoughts:

Jessica is invited to Brad & Marcie's grand opening of their restaurant and while there with Seth witnesses an altercation between Brad and Gerard Lebeouf whose in the process of opening his own restaurant and dismissing anyone else who runs a restaurant.

When Gerard ends up dead Brad ends up in the hot seat as the town knows about the altercation and Brad's whereabouts for that night are sketchy at best!  Jessica feels determined to find out what happened and who killed Gerard in hopes of freeing Brad from the noose!

I love this series such fun like being back in Cabot Cove it feels like your reading the show that brought many into their living rooms when it aired.  You get the pleasure of Seth and Mort in all their glory.  And of course Jessica at her finest solving another crime!  Can't wait to see what is next in this series!

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Review: Harvest of Secrets by: Ellen Crosby

Title: Harvest of Secrets
Author: Ellen Crosby
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Series: Wine Country Mysteries #9
Pages: 352
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Description:

The search for the killer of an aristocratic French winemaker who was Lucie Montgomery's first crush and the discovery of dark family secrets put Lucie on a collision course with a murderer.

It's harvest season at Montgomery Estate Vineyard--the busiest time of year for winemakers in Atoka, Virginia. A skull is unearthed near Lucie Montgomery's family cemetery, and the discovery of the bones coincides with the arrival of handsome, wealthy aristocrat Jean-Claude de Marignac. He's come to be the head winemaker at neighboring La Vigne Cellars, but he's no stranger to Lucie--he was her first crush twenty years ago when she spent a summer in France.

Not long after his arrival, Jean-Claude is found dead, and while there is no shortage of suspects who are angry or jealous of his ego and overbearing ways, suspicion falls on Miguel Otero, an immigrant worker at La Vigne, who recently quarreled with Jean-Claude. When Miguel disappears, Lucie receives an ultimatum from her own employees: prove Miguel's innocence or none of the immigrant community will work for her during the harvest. As Lucie hunts for Jean-Claude's killer and continues to search for the identity of the skeleton abandoned in the cemetery, she is blindsided by a decades-old secret that shatters everything she thought she knew about her family. Now facing a wrenching emotional choice, Lucie must decide whether it's finally time to tell the truth and hurt those she loves the most, or keep silent and let past secrets remain dead and buried.

My Thoughts:

This book follows Lucie Montgomery and her friends and family as they are getting ready for storm approaching when an old crush of Lucie's comes back into town working at another vineyard.  Jean-Claude approaches Lucie about someone out to kill him.  Lucie dismisses the drama as she has more to deal with the impending storm than the drama of Jean-Claude.  When he ends up dead and the heat is on Lucie's cousin she knows she has to get to the bottom of it.  Add that murder to a skeleton showing up on Lucie's property and a family secret come to light.  With so much going on will Lucie figure it out or will she wind up the next victim?

I love this series.  The writing pulls you in and won't let you go wondering how Lucie will piece it all together in time or won't she?  I especially like when a crime from the past is involved to because you are more determined to piece it all together and learn more about the Montgomery's. Can't wait to see what is next for Lucie and her friends and family!

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Review: Lark! The Herald Angels Sing by: Donna Andrews

Title: Lark! The Herald Angels Sing
Author: Donna Andrews
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Series: Meg Langslow #24
Pages: 279
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description:

Away in a manger, asleep on the hay, Meg Langslow finds a little gift.

For four previous Christmases, New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews has delighted readers with holiday mysteries, full of Christmas cheer and starring her quirky characters. Now she gives us another hilarious new adventure in her award-winning Meg Langslow series with Lark! The Herald Angels Sing.

It’s Christmastime in Caerphilly and Meg, full of holiday spirit, is helping out with the town's festivities. While directing a nativity pageant and herding the children participating in it, she finds a surprise in the manger: a live baby.

A note from the mother, attached to the baby girl’s clothes, says that it’s time for her father to take care of her―and implicates Meg’s brother, Rob, as the father. And while a DNA test can reveal whether there's any truth to the accusation, Rob's afraid the mere suspicion could derail his plan to propose to the woman he loves. Meg quickly realizes it's up to her to find the baby's real identity.

She soon discovers that the baby―named Lark according to the fateful note―may be connected to something much bigger. Something that eventually puts a growing number of Meg’s friends and family in danger. And before long, Meg realizes she can’t fix things single-handedly. Meanwhile, a war is brewing between Caerphilly and its arch-rival Clay County―and it's not a snowball fight. Can Meg bring everyone together in time for the holidays?

My Thoughts: 

In this book Meg is working with the kids in town on a Christmas pageant when they discover a baby girl left at the church with a note implying Meg's brother Rob is the father.  Did Rob really have a baby with someone other than his current girlfriend?  

Something fishy is going on in Clay County and the baby's family needs the help of all the residents in town to save one family so they get to have a Merry Christmas.  When the men in town get themselves in legal trouble it's up to the women to straighten things out but will it work in time?

I love this series and the things they go through some of it is just way lol moments.  They pull you in for a totally dysfunctional bumpy ride that won't let go until the story is told!  I will definitely be checking out other books in this series as they are a recipe for complete success!

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