Parrots Prove Deadly

February 25, 2013
A parrot proves a key murder witness in Simon’s clever third mystery featuring Pru Marlowe, a latter-day Doctor Dolittle, who practices in the Berkshire town of Beauville (after 2012’s Cats Can’t Shoot). When 84-year-old Polly Larkin, who lives in a room with her parrot, Randolph Jones, in a retirement complex, dies abruptly, Pru investigates. Pru determines that someone attempted to poison Randolph Jones, presumably to cover his or her tracks. Suspects include Polly’s two grown children; resident gerontologist Dr. Wachtell; Polly’s blind friend, Rose Danziger; and Rose’s aide, Genie. Pru meticulously pieces the clues together with psychic advice from a fuzzy crew of confidantes: her tabby, Wallis; Rose’s seeing-eye dog, Buster; Frank the ferret; and the neighbor’s bichon, Growler. Det. Jim Creighton, her on-again, off-again boyfriend, lends human assistance. Simon’s pithy dialogue and distinctive characterizations more than compensate for the predictable plot.

February 1, 2013
The constant chatter of animals can be both annoying and enlightening. While she's working toward her certification as an animal behaviorist, Berkshire-based Pru Marlowe is making some money as a dog walker and trainer. Her latest client is an African gray parrot whose owner has just died in an upscale nursing home. The client's daughter can't keep the foulmouthed Randolph, and her brother doesn't want him around his children, so Pru is asked to retrain him to help find him a new home. Since Pru can hear what animals are thinking, she realizes that Randolph, while he doesn't always think very clearly, is hinting that all is not well with his owner's death. In addition, she's helping a friend at the shelter deal with a young raccoon that keeps getting into a new, shoddily constructed condo unit. The condo manager, someone Pru has disliked since her high school days, would rather see the raccoon dead than rehabilitated. When the scared animal bites Pru, she has to worry about rabies. Every animal, from her own cat to Frank the ferret, seems to be giving her advice about the nursing home and the condo development. After a second nursing home patient almost succumbs to a drug overdose and she finds a connection to the undersold condo units, Pru realizes that she'd better listen to her animal friends, and her police officer boyfriend, before she becomes the next victim. Although Randolph is a hoot, Pru's third (Dogs Don't Lie, 2011, etc.) is an average mystery that may be too cutesy for all but the most dedicated animal lovers.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2013
Pru Marlowe, hired to retrain a parrot after its owner's death, becomes intrigued when the bird keeps repeating statements suggesting that the owner did not die a natural death. The owner's children place no credence in the bird's utterances and seem more concerned with the distribution of their father's money. Interviews with a caretaker and an eccentric neighbor across the hall sharpen Pru's feeling that something is wrong. When the neighbor is attacked, Pru uses her ability to communicate with animals to learn more about what the humans are up to. Meanwhile, while trying to save other endangered animals, she runs afoul of a shady land development company. Simon's use of Pru's animal whispering will be an entertaining twist to some readers, but others may find that it muddies the plot. A good choice for fans of Susan Wittig Albert's Beatrix Potter series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)