Karen Dudley (2)

This is a cozy type mystery with a dollop of environmental activism. Robyn Devara, the sleuth in this series, is a biologist working for an environmental consulting firm. Her specialty is birds, hence the title which is obviously a play on that fundamental of mysteries, the red herring. In this book Robyn is recovering from injuries sustained during a project in B.C. which was the subject of Dudley’s first book, Hoot to Kill. She has one leg and one arm in a cast so she obviously can not do any field work. The rest of the firm is working on a site assessment of an old pesticide plant that is slated to be turned into a hazardous waste disposal plant. This site is close to the fictional town of Holbrook, Alberta and the real location of Beaverhill Lake, a bird sanctuary (see this site). Holbrook is also the home town of Robyn’s friend, Megan, and Megan’s mother, June, runs a B&B which is where Robyn and all the crew are staying. Holbrook’s garden gnomes have been traveling the world, coming back with pictures of the places they have visited. So when June tells Robyn that her gnome is missing they expect it to reappear shortly with pictures of some exotic locale. June is a widow whose husband used to work at the pesticide plant and died as a result. However, recently June has been seeing an investigative reporter, Matt, who is in town to do some pieces on the proposed hazardous waste disposal plant. Megan is somewhat concerned about her mother’s new relationship and has asked Robyn to check out Matt.

Matt comes into the book quite early as Robyn and June sit talking in June’s kitchen (in fact the kitchen is sort of the focal point of the action in this book as there is a lot of discussion of food). Matt has just found June’s garden gnome back in the garden and brings in the envelope of pictures. Much to their horror, rather than some nice vacation snaps, the pictures show the gnome beside a dead body. The body is that of a man who is a friend of June’s. Both of them had been working on the committee that opposes the hazardous waste disposal plant. Even though Robyn is warned off doing any investigation into this death by the local RCMP sergeant when she, June and the rest of the crew are shot at out at the site, Robyn can not sit idly.

There are lots of details about pesticides and hazardous waste disposal and other environmental concerns. In the Author’s Note at the back Dudley says that “we’ve become rather complacent about pesticides…In 1993, 1.1 billion pounds of active pesticide ingredients were used in the United States…” I found the information interesting and I thought it was woven into the story line well. It made me think more seriously about the use of pesticides as I must admit I had become complacent.… (mere)

This is the first Robyn Devara mystery. Robyn is a field biologist specializing in birds. She works for a consulting firm in Calgary but in this first book she has been sent to Central BC to investigate a sighting of a spotted owl. Spotted owls are an endangered specie and if they are present in this area then the logging industry would be curtailed. Since the Seidlin Lumber Company is the biggest employer in town this would be a setback for a lot of townspeople. Thus Robyn is hoping to keep a low profile, do her owl survey quick and get out of town before anyone knows she was there. Unfortunately on her second outing she stumbles across the body of a murdered logger and her secret is out. The police ask her not to leave town and they are treating Robyn as a suspect. Fortunately her co-worker, and secret romantic interest, Kelt Roberson is sent to give her a hand. Although their romance doesn't progress very far they do work well together and they get some assistance from Jaime Cardinal, the local who reported the spotted owl, and some other people.

I didn't figure out the murderer until close to the end and that was really because I had read the next book in this series and had some inside knowledge. There is lots of interesting information about owls (like a group of owls is called a parliament) and logging. This book was published in 1998 and since that time the BC forest industry has had some hard times with pine beetle infestations and American tariffs.

Ms Dudley knows her biology/ornithology and writes convincingly about that. Her plot was pretty good for a first attempt and having read her next two books (Red Heron and Macaws of Death) I can say that this aspect gets better I think.… (mere)

The Robyn Devara series just gets better and better. In this installment Robyn takes a holiday in the Yukon so she can be with her main squeeze, Kelt. Kelt has gone back to school to get his Ph. D. and he is studying pikas for the summer. He's been gone from Edmonton for 3 months (except for a short sojourn) and Robyn has missed him greatly. She is just about to leave Edmonton when Kelt phones to tell her there has been a woman murdered at the resort that is the pika crew's home base. Selena Barry was studying ptarmigans and has left all her notes to Robyn. Robyn has no clue who this woman is and no idea why she would leave her all her notes. Naturally, once she gets to the resort, (well not quite the minute she gets there--it has been a long time since she saw Kelt) Robyn is immersed in trying to solve the murder. Constable Matas of the RCMP delivers the boxes of notes to her and Robyn spends some time going through 3 of the 4 boxes. Before she has time to tackle the last box they are stolen from her tent. When Robyn goes to tell Constable Matas this she meets his boss, Inspector Gaylene Chestnut, who is livid that Matas left the notes in an unsecured location. Robyn thinks that Selena must have been killed for something involving her research. When she and Kelt go out to the field camp Robyn spends some time at the site where Selena was conducting her research but she is surprised at be able to detect less than half the ptarmigans that have radio collars. When she goes up in a plane she discovers that there was another study site near an abandoned gold mine. Did someone kill Selena to hide the fact that the arsenic at the abandoned mine is leaching into the permafrost? Or did the prospector who is searching for diamonds up near the site kill her? Or did she die for more personal reasons? The tension builds and Robyn and Kelt are feeling tension in their own relationship.

I loved the setting of the book and someday I'm going to head to the land of the midnight sun. Robyn also seemed more earthy than I remember from the previous books and I liked that a lot. I figured out one of the major plot twists fairly early on but not the ultimate resolution.

Karen put in a little plug for the bookstore where I bought this book, Whodunit, but you would have to be a customer of the store to get it. The RCMP Inspector has the same name as the former owner of the store. I liked the idea of knowing something that most readers wouldn't pick up on.… (mere)

Dudley absolutely captivated me with the first in this series: Food for the Gods, and the sequel Kraken Bake follows the wit, humour, whimsy and galloping good narrative of the first.

Our hero, Pelops, celebrity chef to Athens' elite populace and pantheon of gods and demigods, finds himself in deep disfavour with Poseidon, to the point he cannot take advantage of the surfeit of kraken (thanks to the California-stylin' hero, Perseus) in which Athens finds itself awash. And it is imperative, Pelops is sure, that he overcome Poseidon's jinx in order to win the culinary competition of the century to be held in Dionysus' amphitheatre.

Filled by turns with deeds dastardly and benevolent, this is simply an intelligent, rocketing good read. Highly recommended, especially for lovers of all things culinary and mythological.

Well done, Karen Dudley! Well done!

And you will please forgive the reviewer the many puns and allusions.… (mere)