Sometimes the best way to know a person is by asking questions, so let’s meet Meg.

What is your name?
Meg Langslow.

How old are you?
A few years younger than my forty-something husband.

What is your profession?
Blacksmith. And I’m an ornamental blacksmith, not a farrier–I don’t shoe horses. Not actually a swordsmith, although I’ve made swords.

These days I also work part-time as special assistant to Randall Shiffley, mayor of the town of Caerphilly and city manager of the county of Caerphilly. Special assistant means pretty much taking charge of whatever Randall wants done or wants done faster or better or more to his liking. I spend a lot of my time on the various festivals and holidays Randall has arranged to increase Caerphilly’s appeal as a tourist destination, like Christmas in Caerphilly, Halloween in Caerphilly, Caerphilly Days (a summer craft festival), and the Un-Fair (a festival focusing on heritage animal breeds and heirloom crops).

I’m also on the board of directors of Mutant Wizards, my brother’s computer game company, and hold various volunteer posts, including president of the local Summerball (youth baseball) league and one of Trinity Episcopal’s Keyholders, which is a fancy name for the person who hangs around until all the meetings and services and choir practices are over and then turns off all the lights and locks up.

Do you have a significant other? What is his name and profession?
Michael Waterston. He’s a tenured professor and vice chairman of the Drama Department at Caerphilly College. Took a while for the college to overlook his early career as an actor, including his stint on a steamy soap opera and his role as Mephisto, the dashing though slightly evil wizard on the cult TV show Porfiria, Queen of the Jungle. Actually, it not only took a while, it also took me finding a few skeletons in some of the stuffier faculty members’ closets and threatening blackmail if they denied him tenure, but don’t tell him that.

Any children?
Twins, Joshua Blake Waterston and James Langslow Waterston, aka Josh and Jamie. Who at twelve are not quite teenagers, but very definitely on the brink and working on their moves. They have the long-suffering eye roll down pat.

Do you have any sibling(s)?
Two. My sister Pam–Pamela Langslow McReady–married an Australian architect with an international practice, who hops back and forth between here and Australia, depending on where his latest projects are. She has six children, the youngest of whom, Eric, has such profound motion-sickness that he stays with my parents or with Michael and me when his family goes overseas so we’ve seen a lot more of him.

And there’s also Rob, my brother, who after getting a law degree from our shared alma mater, the University of Virginia, ended up founding a computer game company that has made him rich–thanks in no small part to his ability to hire capable people to do the actual work of running the company and then stay out of the way. At the moment he lives in one of our many spare rooms, but that could change if things work out with his current girlfriend.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
Way too many. We have Spike, the Small Evil One, an eight-and-a-half pound furball who started out as Michael’s mother’s dog. She claimed to have developed an allergy and foisted them off on us. He has been known to bite the hand that feeds him, quite literally as we’re putting down his feed bowl, but since he has become the boys’ fierce and undaunted protector, we put up with it.

The other dog in the household, Tinkerbell, who is large even for an Irish wolfhound, technically belongs to Rob. Two barn cats, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, who if they could talk would vehemently deny being anyone’s pets. Five llamas: Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo. I’m using the fact that there were only five Marx Brothers to keep the llama herd at five in spite of Michael’s ambitions.

We also have an indeterminate number of heritage breed chickens. The heritage breed ducks are technically my dad’s, even though the pond is on our side of the fence. The cow belongs to my cousin Rose Noire, who lives in another of our spare rooms, and wanted a reliable source of fresh organic milk. Any sheep spotted on the premises belong not to us but to Seth Early, our across-the-road neighbor, who seems to have both unusually adventurous sheep and annoying porous pasture fences. If you see any pigs, give us heads up–Dad keeps threatening to surprise us with one for Christmas.

What town do you live in?
Caerphilly, Virginia, the county seat and only town in Caerphilly County. It’s south of DC, north of Richmond, west of Tappahannock, and I’d be more precise but we already have too many visiting relatives showing up to use our guest rooms.

House or building complex? Own or Rent?
House, on about three acres of land, which in the Caerphilly countryside is considered a small yard. We are surrounded on three sides by the farm Mother and Dad bought, most of which they’re leasing to a local organic farmer, and across the road is Seth Early, of the sociable sheep.

What is your favorite spot in your house?
The library. The original owner of the house had serious social ambitions, so the plan included a two story-high ballroom. We’ve converted that into a library and I don’t get to spend nearly as much time there as I’d like.

Who is your best friend?
Michael.

Amateur sleuth or professional?
Not even an amateur. Okay, I admit I sometimes get little nosy and snoop around when something unfortunate happens in Caerphilly, but any information I find I take straight to Chief Burke. Dad’s the one you want to watch–he reads a grocery bag full of mystery books every week and fancies himself a brilliant detective. He also seems to think I’m Caerphilly’s answer to Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, and Nancy Drew, all rolled into one. So far I haven’t been able to disabuse him of this notion.

Whom do you work with when sleuthing?
Again, I do not sleuth–if I happen to come across a clue to a crime, I will take it to Chief Burke, or one of his deputies, call Dad’s attention to it–he’s the local medical examiner–or point it out to my cousin Horace, the crime scene technician.

Favorite meal?
Pretty much anything I don’t have to cook myself. If you’re volunteering and want a few menu suggestions–steak, baked potato and Caesar salad, maybe? Although a bacon, sausage and pepperoni with hand-tossed crust from Luigi’s, the local pizzeria, would also be a nice hostess gift.

Favorite dessert?
In the summer, fresh locally grown watermelon. In the winter it’s a tossup between chocolate mousse and creme brulee

Favorite hobby?
Not sure I have time for hobbies. Breathing, maybe.

Favorite vacation spot?
I’m rather fond of staycationing here in Caerphilly, or going back to Mother and Dad’s main house in Yorktown so the boys can go crabbing and explore the battlefields. And visiting my grandmother’s craft class center in the Blue Ridge is also nice.

Favorite color?
Blue. Either teal blue or Majorelle blue.

Favorite author?
I’m not sure I could narrow it down to one. And most of the reading I’ve done in the last few years seems to have been with or to Josh and Jamie. So–J.K. Rowling, E.B. White, Mary Norton (the Borrowers) , Edward Eager, Betty MacDonald (Mrs. Piggle Wiggle), Walter Brooks (the Freddie series), A.A. Milne, Munro Leaf (The Story of Ferdinand), Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, Beatrix Potter, Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, Frank Baum, Chris Grabenstein, E.L. Konigsburg, Neil Gaiman, Lemony Snicket, Sandra Boynton, Rick Riordan, Maurice Sendak, James Ponti, Susan Vaught, Lloyd Alexander, Tom Angleberger, Daniel Pinkwater, Norman Dale, Alan Garner, John Bellairs, Jane Langton, Madeleine L’Engle, Phillip Pullman, Diana Wynne Jones, P.L,Travers, E. Nesbit, Kenneth Grahame, Susan Cooper, Peter Beagle, Brian Jacques, Terry Pratchett, Kwame Alexander, and–you get the picture.

There are worse things to do than spend a few years trying to keep up with two avid junior readers–especially junior readers whose doting grandfather has made it one of his missions in life to ensure that their library is stocked with every book that ever won the Newberry or Caldecott awards or the Edgar or Agatha awards for juvenile mysteries, or any other major children’s book award, along with anything that ever popped up on a “what to read when you’ve finished Harry Potter” list.

Favorite sports team?
The Caerphilly Eagles, my sons’ youth baseball team.

Movies or Broadway?
If we were closer, it would be Broadway. Since Caerphilly doesn’t even have a movie theater these days, most of the time it’s movies on DVD or Netflix. But we do go to every single show the college drama department puts on, even the experimental student workshops.

Are you a morning or a night person?
I am naturally a night person. I can do a good imitation of a morning person when the boys need to be taken to school. Actually, what I am most of the time these days is merely sleep-deprived.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
I get up, open my notebook-that-tells-me-when-to-breathe (as I call my giant to-do list) and make a start on the first project of the day, and then all hell breaks loose and at the end of the day I have a hard time remembering everything that happened. What is this typical day thing you’re talking about?

Giveaway: What is your favorite Donna Andrews book title? Leave a comment below for your chance to win a print copy of Toucan Keep A Secret. U.S. entries only, please. The giveaway ends August 18, 2018. Good luck everyone!

You can read about Meg in Toucan Keep A Secret, the 23rd book in the “Meg Langslow” mystery series. The first book in the series is Murder With Peacocks.

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.

Purchase Link
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About the author
Donna Andrews was born in Yorktown, Virginia, the setting of Murder with Peacocks and Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos, and now lives and works in Reston, Virginia. When not writing fiction, Andrews is a self-confessed nerd, rarely found away from her computer, unless she’s messing in the garden. Donna is a winner of the Agatha, Anthony, and Barry Awards, a Romantic Times Award for best first novel, and four Lefty and two Toby Bromberg awards for funniest mystery. She is a member of MWA, Sisters in Crime, and the Private Investigators and Security Association. Visit Donna at donnaandrews.com and on Facebook.

All comments are welcomed.