The Puffin of Death

The Puffin of Death: A Gunn Zoo Mystery By Betty Webb Poisoned Pen Press November 2015

Review by Cynthia Chow

As a zookeeper for the Gunn Zoo in Gunn Landing, California, Theodore "Teddy" Bentley knows better than to resist the orders of the zoo's imperious owner, Isola. However, even Teddy is rather alarmed to find herself booked on the next day's flight out to Iceland to spend a week there preparing the transfer of a polar bear cub back from the Reykjavik Zoo. While the unsettling warm August weather is rather surprising, far more alarming is Teddy’s discovery of the body of an American birder with very American gunshot wound. Having recently won the biggest Powerball payout in history, Simon Parr used some of his half-billion dollar winnings to take his entire Arizona birding association to Iceland. The Elvis-styled birder also used his new money to attract a virtual harem of mistresses, more than a few of whom are included among the Geronimo County Birding Association. His wife, the best-selling author of a female Indiana Jones-type series, may declare that she has a very accepting European attitude towards her open marriage, but the rejected women and their husbands may have been far less complacent.

Detective Thorvaald Haraldsson - he actually is a Thor - has very little patience with a tiny, cute American with a history of involvement in murder investigations. Although he clears her of suspicion, Thor warns her repeatedly to not stick her pretty little nose into his murder investigation. Crime may be a rarity in his country of tree hundred and fifty thousand, but he very confident that he and his department can solve this murder on their own.

Teddy is able to resist the pleas to help from the brainless birding model Dawn, but not that of Teddy's roommate and Reykjavik zookeeper Bryndis Sigurdsdottir. The Valkyrie band singer fears that her own boyfriend may be a suspect, so she demands that Teddy infiltrate the American birders and discover who brought American violence to their beautiful island.

This fourth mystery featuring the animal-loving zookeeper Teddy Bentley continues to highlight fascinating and compelling lore about animals and their care. Teddy loves her charges for their uncomplicated goals and purity; humans are far more deceptive and confusing. Along with the charming polar bear cub Magnus are two Icelandic foxes, gorgeous horses, and many, many puffins. The land is as beautiful as it is dangerous, as their very active volcanoes continue to emit "bumps;" not that the complacent Icelanders worry about anything that they can't control. Their language is as unfathomable as their cuisine - rotted shark, anyone? - but the author does an admirable job attempting to explain its origin, usage, and use in family names. In such a small country, of course they need an App to prevent inconvenient incest dating. Teddy's cynical humor with humans is never present with her animals, but fortunately she has enough numerous entertaining interactions with the Geronimo Birders to make this a delightfully funny mystery. The neighboring movie sets of a Berserker Viking film and science fiction movie only add to absurdity. The author’s mix of devotion to animals, clever dialogue, and travelogue details will have readers booking their next flight to Iceland, along with their orders of future installments of this always original and enjoyable mystery series.

Zookeeper Theodora Bentley takes the trip of a lifetime when she travels to Iceland to pick a orphaned polar bear cub she will bring back to the Gunn zoo’s new exhibit. At least some of her time is spent sightseeing, where she encounters more than she planned when she finds a dead man sprawled atop a puffin burrow. The man is on a bird watching trip to celebrate winning one of the largest powerball lotteries of all time. Needless to say, that kind of money gives a lot of people a lot of motives, including the man’s wife and the rest of his birdwatching entourage. The local police inspector allows Theo to tag along on the trip as a sort of undercover detective, but after another member of the group is killed and Theo is nearly beaned by a huge chuck of rock, he pulls her off the case. But Theo stand firm and plans to face off with a killer in one dramatic showdown.

A baby polar bear needs to be escorted from Iceland to California, where it and some puffins will fill out the new Arctic exhibit at a private zoo. Scrappy, competent, and down to earth, Teddy Bentley is just the zookeeper for the job.

She's enjoying her stay in Iceland and her new friends -- animal and human -- when she happens upon a body. This is not the first time this has happened to her, and when the tourists who were birding with the deceased realize that she might be able to help them cope with a murder investigation in a foreign country, Teddy can't help but get involved.

The dishy police detective doesn't want her involved, but the case keeps getting more and more tangled, until at last Teddy may have to solve it... or die.

This is the second adventure with Teddy Bentley, and she is still a straightforward, likeable girl surrounded by weird people and events. In this book, Iceland is also an important character in the story, and the descriptions of the terrain and the culture are as intriguing as the puzzle itself.