Book Review: Death of a Songbird

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Death of a Songbird     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Christine Goff
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Amateur Sleuth
Berkley, Jul 2001, $5.99, 224 pp.

The good news is that every room in the Elk Park, Colorado Drummond Hotel is filled due to the Migration Alliance hosting a convention here. The bad news is that two maids are ailing with the flu. The ugly news is that for some unexplained reason silent partner Esther Mills canceled the coffee shipment from their distributor, Chipe Coffee Company. The visible partner Lark Drummond cannot learn why her partner committed such a dramatic, seemingly criminal act of leaving the hotel nearing caffeine withdrawal syndrome and hurting their investment in the coffee distributing firm. Lark meets Rachel Stanhope at a nearby restaurant where they observe a nasty public incident involving Esther. Lark and Rachel go birdwatching together, but instead of spotting a rare aviary, Lark observes someone murdering Esther. Proving birds of a feather stick together, Lark and several birdwatchers begin making their own inquiries, but soon uncover a plethora of viable suspects who had the motives to murder Esther. DEATH OF A SONGBIRD is an entertaining amateur sleuth(s) tale that contains a story line that smoothly sings a bird song. The tale is fun because the key character Lark seems so real. Besides the lack of coffee causing many readers to think this is a horror story (required reading at night), Esther comes across as too mean for someone who apparently was held in such high esteem for more than just her business acumen. Still, readers will enjoy observing this book while using field binoculars to locate the first tale in this soaring series, A RANT OF RAVENS.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner