Book Review: Bird Brained

Reviewed By: Dawn Dowdle

Bird Brained     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Jessica Speart
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Government Agency
Series: Rachel Porter # 3
11/00, 278 pages

Once again Rachel Porter, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Agent, has been relocated. She's always getting into situations that her superiors do not approve of and in the end she receives a new assignment. This time she's in southern Florida.

Rachel follows a hot tip and goes to the compound of Alberto Dominguez, alleged smuggler of exotic cockatoos and parrots. She finds him dead and all of his birds gone. She discovers he was also smuggling Cuban cigars.

Her Cuban boss, Carlos Cardenas, almost gives the case to her co-worker, Phil, but she does some fancy footwork so that she can continue investigating. He makes it clear that the birds are her business, not the killers.

Willy Weed worked for Dominguez smuggling birds and eggs into the U.S. Unfortunately Willy owns quite an extensive collection of snakes and is very sleazy. His ex-wife Bambi keeps telling Rachel information in the hopes of getting Willy in trouble and thus to leave her alone.

Rachel finds herself getting deeper and deeper into a smuggling ring that appears to have ties to anti-Castro terrorists. Her friend Terri comes to visit and ends up helping her get to know the right people. Terri also helps Rachel keep her mind off breaking up with Jake Santou, her lover. There are many dangers involved in her uncovering the many players in this smuggling ring. Rachel finds herself face to face with snakes and wild cats.

I always enjoy reading books in this series. Rachel is a great character. She's very strong, but yet a woman. I must say that some of the situations she gets into make my skin crawl, but that just makes me want to keep reading to find out how she gets out of the situation! I also like the different locations as I feel as if I have traveled there with her.

This is a terrific book. I highly recommend it.

Dawn Dowdle

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Dawn Dowdle

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