A flying visit to the City of Brotherly Love takes a murderous turn for Amy Simms, owner of Birds & Bees. Amy and her bird-loving crew are ducking out of Ruby Lake, North Carolina to attend the annual American Birding Expo in Philadelphia. The event will generate publicity for Birds & Bees, though assistant manager Esther is strangely reluctant to attend. Before she’s even set up their … even set up their booth, Amy manages to insult JJ Fuller, famed bird photographer and the expo’s guest of honor. An inauspicious beginning, made worse when JJ is found dead as a dodo, his head caved in by a pair of binoculars.
The police suspect Esther is mixed up in murder, and her mysterious past starts coming to light. Amy isn’t sure what to believe. JJ boasted that he would be the first to locate a near-extinct woodpecker. Did a rival decide to beat him—literally—to the punch? With a ZombieFest convention taking place in the exhibit hall next door, there’s all kinds of creepiness to contend with. And somewhere among the birders and the walking dead there’s a killer hoping to fly the coop before justice is served . . .
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A Birder’s Guide to Murder, the eighth book in JR Ripley’s Bird Lover Mysteries, takes Amy Simms, owner of the Birds & Bees shop in Ruby Lake, NC, her boyfriend, attorney Derek Harlan, her tenant and part owner in the shop, septuagenarian Esther Pilaster, and local retired friends Floyd Withers and Karl Vogel, to the American Birding Expo in Philadelphia. Road trip!
At almost the last minute, Amy receives a message from Phoebe Gates, who was in charge of this year’s ABE, offering a booth at the Expo that had been forfeited and telling Amy that there were rooms reserved at the Eagle Inn that were nonrefundable which her group was welcome to use. The only thing that struck Amy as a bit odd was Phoebe’s insistence that Esther Pilaster, septuagenarian, tenant, and Birds & Bees investor, accompany the group. At first, Esther isn’t interested, but when she learns there is an option for gambling, she is reluctantly in.
It seems they have been oversold. The hotel and reservations aren’t as expected, the booth is small. And the set up day at the Expo draws Amy and Esther into the murder of ornithologist JJ Fuller, keynote speaker of the Expo.
And thus the mystery begins, drawing the group in to decades old espionage in the guise of today’s murders. Crossing paths with double agents and faked dead men, Amy is introduced to an Esther she had not known existed as well as a world of people who are not what they seemed. Risking herself to help Esther, Amy escapes any number of dangers to end up pretty much unharmed while their friend Floyd ends up hospitalized for a gunshot wound to his leg.
In a twisty-turny tale of murder and revenge, Amy and her crew come out head side up and on just barely the right side of the law. This tale is very well written and has more switchbacks than a mountain road. Well done, Mr. Ridley! I did enjoy this book and do recommend it!
I liked learning more about Esther. Hopefully, her past will come into play more in future books. The story was engaging and different from other’s in the series.
One thing that irked me: Amy is short on money. The hotel was supposed to have been paid for yet she doesn’t follow up on it, instead spends a lot of funds on several rooms and parking and doesn’t bring it up to the woman running the expo who invited her. When the woman actually brings it up later on, Amy doesn’t follow up on it. Amy can hunt down murders, but can’t take care of this issue which she really can’t afford? My common sense and business savvy really chafed at that inconsistency.
I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. 3.5/5
Bird Lover’s Cozy Mystery
This is a cozy mystery involving bird watchers at an exposition. This is the 8th in a series, but the first one that I’ve read. It stands alone quite well. There are some very cute parts such as naming the crew from Back to Nature Tours with the last names of the 1960’s band, The Monkees (Tork, Dolenz, Jones and Nesmith). There are too many parts that are so inane! It is like listening to ‘Who’s on First’ 10 times in the book. As a bird watcher, I was expecting something entirely different and did not enjoy the book on that level. As a lover of cozy mysteries, it was okay. I received this book for free and this is my honest review.