The Kiskadee of Death

Dunlap’s less than riveting seventh mystery featuring birder Bob White (after 2014’s Swift Justice) takes the Minnesota school counselor and his chef wife, Luce, to the World Birding Center in Texas’s Lower Rio Grande Valley, where Bob spies a number of rare birds—and a dead body. The victim is Birdy Johnson, one of a flock of local senior citizen birders called the MOB (McAllen Older Birders). Birdy’s best birding buddy, former astronaut Buzz Davis, and other MOBsters are strongly opposed to a planned spaceport Birdy was involved with that poses a threat to migratory birds. Could one of the MOBsters be the culprit? Or a drug runner along the nearby Mexican border? What about undocumented immigrants? Bob’s eagle eyes are some help to the police chief, but his extraneous (albeit noble) musings on the future of birds, the environment, and the immigration dilemma make the plot, such as it is, secondary. Devoted bird watchers will be most satisfied. [em](Sept.) [/em]