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Parrot-owning Journalist Hunts for Murder Under the Christmas Trees |
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Reviewed: Hard Christmas By Barbara D'Amato Berkley Publishing Group, 1996, 288 pp, ISBN: 0425154653, Cdn $7.99, paperback This
book has very little to do with parrots. It is a mystery story and a parrot is
included in the story – but the story does not revolve around the parrot. However,
because the protagonist – Cat Marsala – is a freelance journalist (like me)
and she has an African grey parrot (like me) named L.J. (short for Long John
Silver), I had to include this in my book review section, particularly since it
is that time of year (this review While
the book’s title is Hard Christmas, this book is actually one of those rare
mysteries that could be classified as a “Thanksgiving mystery” since most of
the action takes place over the Thanksgiving weekend, with the exception of the
first and last chapters, the latter fast forwarding to Christmas Eve. (I’m
referring to American Thanksgiving, celebrated the last Thursday of November,
not the Canadian Thanksgiving, which is the Monday following the second full
weekend of October). Chicago
journalist Cat and her parrot L.J. show up Thanksgiving Day at a family
Christmas tree operation, as she is working on a feature story about the
Christmas tree industry. The foreman of the operation turns up dead – fed
through the tree baler – the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Cat finds herself
pulled into a family feud of murderous proportions. It’s
a good pre-Christmas/pre-Thanksgiving murder mystery, a cross in styles between the cozy
and soft-boiled style. It’s similar to classics like And Then There Were
None, Murder on the Orient Express and The Mousetrap, in that the
murder takes place in a confined locale (in this case, the family farm) where
only a few people could, or would have reason to, commit murder, although the
reasons are often hidden and the murderer often the last person you’d suspect.
Of course, the sleuth – in this case, Cat – has a very limited time frame in
which to solve the case. It’s
well written from the standpoint that a good case can be made for any of several
suspects being the actual murderer. However, there is one little bit of
information left out that has a bearing on discovering the murderer’s motive
revealed only at the end, which I think is a bit of a cheat in this kind of
story. Although we are allowed to see the inner thoughts of the third-person
narrator (Cat), some thoughts she reveals at the end were not supplied to us –
even though we know she observed certain facts that could lead to those
thoughts, we are never given access to those thoughts until she tells all at the
end. For shame, Barbara D’Amato! Parrot
lovers will certainly relate to the few scenes involving interactions between
Cat and L.J. … For example, the passage, “Long John Silver was ecstatic to
be home, but he expressed it with his usual ill temper at having had to put up
with adversity. He bit my ear lobe and then flew up and sat all night on the
curtain rod, where I can’t reach him without getting on a chair. And if I get
up on the chair, he always flies to
the other curtain rod. I know better than to get involved in his games.” I
certainly disagree with her description of African greys, however: “ … like all
African grays (sp) he is an ugly gunmetal color … ” Its
flaws aside, it’s still an enjoyable read if you like mysteries, especially
“holiday mysteries” and even more so if you, like me, are always on the
lookout for mystery stories with parrots in them. -
Reviewed by John Geary "Sometimes the damn bird acts like he's a whiz at making friends. Other times, he bites." - Cat Marsala, in Hard Christmas Want to read a parrot's version of "The Night Before Christmas?" Go to my special holiday page, A Visit from St. Nikki Bird. |
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General Information About African Greys Fiction
Non-Fiction
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went up Nov. 25, 2003).