Betty Webb

First Line: Intrigued by the commotion underneath the banana palm, Lucy curled her four-inch claws under her leathery pads and moved forward on her knuckles to investigate.

If Lucy, the pregnant Giant Anteater at the Gunn Zoo in central California, didn't kill the man found dead in her enclosure, who did? It's up to her keeper, Teddy Bentley, to find out before the anteater is shipped to another zoo in disgrace.

Before Teddy can really get started, another human bites the dust, the monkeys show more have a hissy fit, the wolves are in a tizzy, and the rich Harbor folks are trying to evict Teddy from her houseboat. Has Teddy got what it takes to save Lucy-- and herself?

I have long been a fan of Webb's series set right here in the Phoenix metropolitan area which feature P.I. Lena Jones. I also know that Webb can do humor after reading her blog entry about being left at a truck stop while on a book tour. When I learned that she was starting a new-- and cozier-- series featuring a zookeeper, I was eager to try it out.

Although The Anteater of Death features one of those characters I want to slap-- the Annoying Mother-- I really enjoyed the book. Teddy has a good sense of humor that made me laugh out loud more than once, she truly cares for animals, she deals as best she can with The Mother, and she has good instincts on how to conduct an investigation:

"Since I couldn't seem to find any actual clues, the solution to the mystery might be found in behavior. For all their purported brainpower, people are still animals. Deny them food, exercise, or sex, and they get cranky. Threaten them and they become downright dangerous."

Although the Bad Guy should've been obvious to me, the reveal came as a surprise-- mostly because the book was filled with attention grabbers, both two- and four-legged. This isn't called a "Gunn Zoo mystery" for nothing. Animals do play significant roles in the book, so if you're allergic, this may not be the book-- or the series-- for you. I loved the plot, the setting, most of the characters, and all the animals. show less

When DESERT WIVES opens Lena Jones, a female private detective, is in the final stages of rescuing 13 year-old Rebecca Corbett from the polygamist’s compound her father took her to so she could marry the compound’s spiritual leader. But as the pair are leaving the desert compound, which straddles the Arizona and Utah borders, they stumble across the body of the very man Rebecca was to marry. They make their escape anyway and Rebecca is soon reunited with her mother Esther but not for show more long. Police in both states quickly focus their attention on Esther as Prophet Solomon’s killer and when they take her into custody Lena and her partner in the detective agency have to hide Rebecca and Lena, believing that no one in authority is looking for Salomon’s real killer, takes it upon herself to infiltrate the compound to find out who else had the means and motive for killing the man.

I think like most regular readers of the gritty end of the crime fiction spectrum I’m hard to shock but I have to say this book managed to (figuratively) shock the pants off me. Although fictional it is clear – both from the content of the story and the author’s after word – that its depiction of the practice of polygamy in these types of compounds is heavily based on real life cases and events. We learn about the way that the women in these compounds are cut off entirely from any outside influences and are trapped there by ignorance of any other life, especially when they start having the many children they are expected to produce. But there is much worse for us all to uncover: large-scale welfare fraud, forced marriages, violence against and sexual abuse of women and young girls, a dire lack of basic medical care and knowledge leading to unnecessary deaths and appalling and unnecessary birth defects. And perhaps most shameful of all there is the fact that much of this is known by the authorities and is allowed to continue virtually unchecked.

As a social commentary this book does clearly have an agenda which is something I am normally wary of. However by using Lena to lead us through the revelations of the goings on in Purity (the name of the compound) Webb manages to avoid proselytising for the most part. And you’d be hard pressed to find a way to provide a balanced view of the disturbing, stomach-churning behaviour of the men in Purity. It seems to be my week for reading pleasant-looking books that hide an unexpectedly dark heart. Here, once again, there are injustices being committed against the most vulnerable people in our collective midsts and, yet again, those same people are let down by the very systems which are meant to protect them.

As a mystery novel I have to admit DESERT WIVES does not work as well. Lena, perhaps not unreasonably given the horrors she is uncovering, often seems to forget what he is meant to be investigating while she is in Purity and the crime-solving element of the book is perfunctory at best. It didn’t really bother me as I was so compelled by the rest of the drama unfolding but if you are looking for a top-notch whodunnit this is not the book for you.

In some ways the best ‘characters’ in the novel are the places. Both harsh and beautiful elements of the desert location are depicted in such a way as to make the reader feel transported there. And Purity as a place is also fabulously brought to life: the sheer numbers of people, the production-line quality of the many births that take place every week, the austerity of conditions for the many (while the chosen few live in luxury) (go figure) are all present as images in my mind an none of it looks much like Big Love.

While not a book for those focused on mystery for its own sake DESERT WIVES is a compelling read for those who are willing to let crime solving take a back seat to the depiction of wholesale injustice. This part of the storytelling is done well, with Webb building to a dramatic conclusion at a brisk pace and with just the right amount of character development along the way. If, by chance, the book doesn’t make you angry on behalf of its victims I really don’t want to know you. show less

This cozy mystery begins with Lucy the Giant Anteater from Belize narrating. She smells a human interloper in her pen at the Gunn Landing Zoo and discovers him covered with hundreds of delicious ants. The victim of the zoo turns out to be Grayson Harrill, an employee and husband of the wealthy Gunn family who sponsor the zoo. The narration is then picked up by Theodora “Teddy” Bentley, another zoo employee.

Teddy knows that Lucy didn't kill Grayson which immediately puts her on the show more opposite side of boss and most of the community. Eventually Teddy expands her investigation and ends up being shot at, slugged on the head in a swirling fog, and eventually becomes a suspect in another murder. She also ignores any advice of her over-protective mother, her fugitive father, and her ex-boyfriend who just happens to be the sheriff.

What a delightfully fresh and funny mystery this turned out to be. It's filled with humor and some real laugh at loud moments. The atmosphere of the zoo is very realistic. In addition to a well thought out mystery plot we also learn a lot about monkeys, wolves and giant anteaters, as well as individual animals like Makeba, a giraffe who gis expecting a baby; Cisco, the alpha male wolf; and Carlos, the magpie jay who wants Teddy for his avian mate. I absolutely loved it and plan on reading the rest of the series. show less

Given that the market has been glutted with WWII fiction, including mystery novels, I've been keeping and eye out for titles set in WWI and its immediate aftermath. The Clock Struck Murder, however, didn't deliver what I was hoping for. The bottom line is that it's just too "cozy" for my tastes. The central character makes the kinds of mistakes that central characters do in cozy mysteries—the kind of mistakes that never let me forget that what I'm reading is 100% fiction. If you are a cozy show more fan, you should definitely check this title out. It's a good fit with the genre. If you're ambivalent about cozies the way I am, you'll want to keep looking for something else.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. show less