Saturday, June 6, 2015

The Rhyme of the Magpie: A Birds of a Feather Mystery by Marty Wingate

When her father marries a long time friend shortly after her mother died, she moves out and finds a new job.  He can do what he wants but she doesn't have to like it.  She'll do tourist management instead.

Alibi and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It's the beginning of new series for the author and it was published June 2nd.  You can find a copy now at your local bookstore.

I've read Ms. Wingate's series about gardening mysteries (and I like that one) so I was interested in seeing how she did when talking about birding.  She builds a good story around that, too.  I'm very pleased with this first novel.

Julia hasn't had a lot of tourism experience but she has done a lot of planning and knows how to organize events.  This shouldn't be too hard to do if the owner will support her.  They can do castle tours, have special dinners on the streets with vendors participating, do a Farmer's Market, have special events and more.  

Her problems begin with a missing father (right after she's had a big fight with him) and a developer trying to sway her boss.  She thinks her father can take care of himself, but when she thinks she knows where he is and finds a dead man instead it shakes her up.  Might that happen to her father next?  Was he the one who killed the man?

Ms. Wingate's words flow well and her stories make sense.  They are bit whimsical but it's a pleasant touch with all the passion and politics going on.  Julia learns to accept her father's new marriage, finds herself a man (there's misunderstanding there too), and helps put the bad guys away.  The ending is dramatic and I wasn't sure who was going to win there for a few minutes but the suspense and the finale were worth it.

Give this one a try.  I'm already a birdwatcher, so I had fun with the bird identifications as well as the mystery.  I might even like this storyline better than the gardening one, but I've got another one of those to read as well.  It's such a chore when you have two books by the same author and they're both good reads, isn't it?

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