Bad Bird

December 13, 2010
In Knopf's engaging second Hamptons mystery to feature defense attorney Jacqueline "Jackie" Swaitkowski (after 2010's Short Squeeze), Jackie witnesses the crash of a small airplane that kills pilot Eugenie Birkson, and later retrieves the camera case Eugenie tosses from the plane. It doesn't take much to pique Jackie's curiosity, and before long she's involved with tracking down information about Eugenie and the five photos on the camera's memory card. Her investigation uncovers a startling link to her own family's history as well as Eugenie's. The excellent supporting cast—Sam Acquillo, the star of the author's first four Hamptons mysteries; Jackie's boyfriend, Harry Goodlander; Southampton cop Joe Sullivan; computer guru Randall Dodge—provide valuable assistance when Jackie's efforts stir up threats. Domestic problems and Homeland Security issues enliven a plot with slick twists that should keep readers switching their bets to the very end.

The best part of BAD BIRD is the opening minutes, when the principal character, Jackie, witnesses the crash of a small plane and recovers a briefcase tossed out by the pilot. Narrator Deanna Hurst handles these first tense moments dramatically. But like the plane, the story stalls, and Hurst can't make it recover. Was the crash an accident, or was it murder? The story meanders through a subplot extensively before addressing these questions. Hurst's clear, distinct delivery works well for the narrative. But her male voices and her accents are poor. When she plays "The Great Khan," a character who is insane, her reading goes way overboard, making him a caricature one can't take seriously as a threat. A.L.H. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine