Beware the Tufted Duck

SWAN SONG FOR A BIRDER

Birding enthusiast and transplanted Southerner Lucy Wayles is eagle-eyed when it comes to spotting clues, swift at deductions, and wise as an owl about the ways and means of murder. She is also ready to save a bird in need, such as the tufted duck she rescues from Manhattan's 59th Street Bridge. Unfortunately, her arrest for blocking traffic ruffles some feathers among the Central Park Bird-watchers and gets her ousted from the club's presidency.

Undaunted, Lucy has formed a new group, Olmsted's Irregulars. But does bad blood between the clubs lead to the slashing death of Abraham Lescalles, a rotund bird-watcher who meets his maker while looking for an eastern phoebe in Central Park? Abraham's money is gone, but so are his old birding shoes. Overlooking this crucial piece of evidence, the police can't see the forest for the trees, and Lucy feels obligated to step in. But the killer's chilling motive can cook her goose...if she forgets that fowl play may be deadly.