Funny and fun to solve mystery in this great series

Farewell, My Cuckoo: A Birds of a Feather Mystery

By: Marty Wingate

Rating: 5 of 5

This is another fun entry in the A Birds of a Feather Mystery series. I’ve enjoyed all of the books in this series though I thought the last entry (prior to this one) was a little off course. With “Farewell My Cuckoo”, Marty Wingate has brought out, what I feel, is the best of the series thus far.

Julia Lanchester is the manager of the TIC, Tourist Information Center, at Fotheringham Estate. She and her boyfriend Michael have just attended a dear friend’s wedding. Julia has the distinct feeling that marriage (or at least a proposal) may be in her immediate future, too. However, when she and Michael return home from the wedding, Michael’s sister Pammy has shown up to stay overnight (camped out on the sofa.) When overnight turns to two days and then a week and then Pammy starts buying groceries and doing chores around the house, Julia is concerned that Pammy has moved in for good.

Then Willow, one of Julia’s dear friends, stumbles (literally) over a corpse. Julia is determined to stay out of the investigation of the murder of That Poor Man (what she calls him as no one knows who he is) but she is pulled in almost against her will.

I have enjoyed both of Ms Wingate’s series but this one is definitely my favorite. I love the humor that the author expresses through characters and find that the mysteries are fun to solve along with Julia. There is always a bird theme involved as Julia’s father is a famous ornithologist and Julia is heavily into the hobby of bird-watching as well.

While I think this book could be read standalone, I highly recommend reading the books in order. The characters and their relationships have evolved over the course of the past books.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.