A Rant of Ravens by Christine Goff. First published 2000. As reviewed and pictured: softcover, 207 pages.
The last time I tried reading a birder-themed mystery novel, I was sorely disappointed. With that in mind, I honestly didn't expect too much out of Christine Goff's A Rant of Ravens, the first in a series of Birdwatcher's Mystery novels. So I was more than pleasantly surprised to find this debut novel well-written, fast-paced, entertaining, and engaging.
A Rant of Ravens follows heroine Rachel Stanhope, a big-city woman going through a personal and professional crisis, as she takes a break from her life and travels to see her eccentric aunt in the mountains of Colorado. At her aunt's ranch, dubbed Bird Haven, Rachel encounters various people whose characters are briefly but effectively introduced to the reader. A murder mystery develops after one of Rachel's more recent acquaintances is found dead.
This is a quick-read murder-mystery with a satisfying amount of character development told at an exciting pace.
I give A Rant of Ravens 3 Goldfinches out of 5.
How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes. First published 2005. Look out the window. See a bird. Enjoy it. CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a bad birdwatcher. Throughout How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher, Simon Barnes shares his premise that birdwatching should simply be done for the joy...
Birds of the Middle East by Richard Porter & Simon Aspinall. Second edition published 2010. As reviewed and pictured: Softcover, 384 pages. This new title from Princeton Field Guides covers over 800 species found in the Middle East (defined for this book as the Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon,...
The Feather Quest: A North American Birder's Year by Pete Dunne. First published 1992. As reviewed and pictured: softcover, 355 pages. What birder hasn't dreamed of having a big year? Sure, as a newbie to the hobby, one's first reaction might be that big year birding is slightly,...
The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik. First published in 2004. I joined PaperBackSwap a few months ago. Having been a huge fan in a former lifetime, I had a very large collection of X-files-related books in which I was no longer...
