Customer Reviews

Beware the Laughing Gull

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The reviewer from California is way off base. Lydia Adamson is the pseudonym of Franklin B. (Frank) King, so I would say that HE is well-qualified to write as a male character in the first person.

Beware the Laughing Gull by Lydia Adamson

I've rather enjoyed the Alice Nestleton books by this author, but more for the theater background than the cats. Heresy, I know. I tried one of the Dr. Nightingale books, and found it so hard going, there was no inclination to try any of the later ones about this erstwhile female veterinarian. Somehow, I missed the first two books in this new series about bird-watchers in New York--Central Park, to be exact. On further thought, I don't think I did miss much that I'd care to replace.

Subtitled "A Lucy Wayles Mystery" I found her to be a rather obnoxious and uninteresting character, once I'd gotten over the surprise of discovering that the first-person narrator wasn't Lucy. Rather, it is a male retired doctor, Markus Bloch, who is at least one sandwich short of a picnic, although long on patience. Lucy and Markus are the eldest of the six-member group of bird-watchers centering the story. Markus is totally in love with Lucy, who either uses or ignores him. Or talks in riddles over, behind and around him.

If you like puzzles in which most of the important clues are missing; if you like being part of what seems like several conversations going on at the same time, although it's usually only the same two folks talking--Lucy and Markus--then you might like this enigmatic book which is over-loaded with non sequitors. I can promise that the solution will come as a major surprise to the reader, as there was not one clue anywhere until about 30 pages from the end of the book. Sorry, but I find no reason to recommend this book, and probably not any of the others in the series, either, if they're all like this one. I haven't the patience that Markus has, to begin with.

Enjoy all the series this author puts out under the Adamson name. These books are great to read and move along enough to keep interest up. I have never been to Central Park but writer makes me feel right there with his words. But please mister author give your male lead a small backbone transplant. I know he is lovesick for Lucy ( and wish someone was that way with me) but I feel so sorry for him that even in his own home he is afraid of his roommate. The man needs a quite, safe place to go to after a day with Lucy. This "roommate" needs to sniff out a clue once in a while to earn his keep so to speak. Anyway, the male lead telling the story spins a good tale in an way that makes me look forward to the next book. Would like to see some more snippets of birding facts scattered about. It is nice to be entertained and educated at the same time without really knowing it.

I am an avid mystery reader and bird watcher. This book satisfied neither in me. First of all, the author is a woman but she writes in the first person singular as a male. That male is not her detective, but an older gentleman smitten with love for a older, yet attractive, female sleuth (how many older men do you know who are hot for an older woman who scorns him She must be nuts, right?). Not only does the female sleuth solve the mystery but she seems to tantalize the poor, hapless, narrator in a manner in which only a female author could imagine. What great mystery writer who is female writes in the first person as a male? Agatha Cristie has her Poirot; Dorothy Sayers has her Lord Peter; Ngaio Marsh has her Roderick Alleyn. These great mystery writers knew enough to not write as if they were the male hero in the first person. There nothing to make this book memorable for a bird watcher either. There also was no way for the reader to figure out "who dunnit and why." There were no clues, except for the enigmatic Lucy saying, "Hmmm" to her poor, hapless narrator that is in love with her - Gosh! what is his name? Give us a break Ms. Admason and get a clue!