Beware the Tufted Duck: A Lucy Wayles Mystery - Softcover

Lydia Adamson is the pen name for a noted mystery writer. In addition to the Alice Nestleton series, she is the author of the Deirdre Quinn Nightingale and Lucy Wayles series. She lives in New York City.

Retired senior citizen Dr. Marcus Bloch loves transplanted Southern belle, Lucy Wayles, a retired museum archivist. The besotted Marcus follows Lucy around like a lost puppy, adopting her passions as his own. One of Lucy's favorite interests is bird watching. Her hobby borders on the obsessive especially when Lucy blocks traffic at a key bridge while protesting the treatment of the tufted duck. That incident gets Lucy kicked out of the bird watching group. A non-perturbed Lucy forms her own group, the Olmstead Irregulars. She recruits from her former association. All seems well until a member of her original group is found dead in Central Park. The police write it off as the latest mugging victim, but Lucy thinks it was premeditated murder. Though the police and Marcus do not place much credence in Lucy's theory, she still concocts a plan to flush out the killers. She uses an unsuspecting Marcus as her stooge, almost getting him killed in the process. Told from the point of view of the unrequited lover, readers never have a chance to get a first hand look inside Lucy's head. Thus many of her plans, schemes, and actions remain incomprehensible. Bird watchers (of the feathered variety) might enjoy this pseudo-mystery couched in bird lore, but other mystery aficionados should Beware The Tufted Duck. -- Midwest Book Review