Synopsis

Rachel Stanhope, escaping from a failing marriage, seeks solace at her aunt’s ranch. There she is thrust into the colorful world of birdwatching. With a murder, lies, and secrets haunting her every move, she sets off to solve the mystery and clear her aunt’s good name.

In an attempt to escape hellish matrimony, Rachel Stanhope sojourns to her Aunt Miriam’s ranch in Colorado in search of some peace and quiet. As a favor to her aunt, a bird enthusiast, Rachel agrees to host meetings of the local bird watching society. On her first expedition, however, instead of finding a LeConte’s sparrow, she makes a much more disturbing discovery—a dead body. Identified as a reporter for Birds of a Feather magazine, this man was trying to dig up troubling information on Miriam’s deceased husband and a bird trafficking scheme. Now sweet Aunt Miriam is the prime suspect in this fowl play.

Review

This is a slightly older mystery being reissued (circa 1998 or so) and you can tell by some of the terminology in the book (telecommuting via modem and the computer discs). Despite that, the book was enjoyable and the author did a good job of not letting on who the killer was and why. I was truly surprised at that revelation but it made sense once you knew the whole story.

I did wonder how Rachel was able to leave her job to help her aunt in another state, but was glad to see that was explained a little bit into the book. I don’t know a lot about birds so it was interesting to hear some of the descriptions and learn about birds and what is on the endangered list and such.

We give this 3 1/2 paws up.

About the Author

Christine Goff is the award-winning author of the bestselling “Birdwatcher’s Mystery” series. A former Colorado journalist, Goff is a Willa Literary and Colorado Authors’ League Fiction Award finalist. Named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ 2002 Writer of the Year, her most recent work is a thriller set in Israel.

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