The Boreal Owl Murder: A Bob White Birder Murder Mystery

A pedestrian plot and a garrulous narrator given to less than compelling interior monologues mar Dunlap’s debut. One chilly night in the woods north of Duluth, Minn., avid birder Bob White stumbles on a dead body while stalking a rare Boreal Owl. Then Stan Miller, a rival birder who may be “just plain nuts,” almost hits White while shooting at a bear near the body. How Stan did so accurately while holding a crossbow in his other arm may puzzle some readers. Dunlap’s lengthy set-piece flashbacks about youthful birding trips and environmental causes slow the narrative, which is full of improbable coincidences, like suspect Bradley Ellis popping up just when White happens to be poking around Ellis’s college office. For those enamored of avian mating habits or North Woods scenery, this slight effort might suffice for a long winter’s night, but mystery buffs will likely find it strictly for the birds. (Sept. )