Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Llama of Death: a Gunn Zoo Mystery by Betty Webb


Zookeeper Teddy Bentley is ordered by her boss to bring a llama to a local Renaissance Faire to offer rides to children. It's a fundraiser for the zoo, and the zoo is always in need of more money. Alejandro, the llama, is a sweetie to the children, but would just as soon spit at any adult that comes his way, and that includes Teddy. Forced into wearing an uncomfortable and too revealing wench's costume, Teddy is annoyed and can't wait to take the llama back to the zoo. Her annoyance changes to horror when she   discovers a dead body inside the Alejandro's pen.

Surely Alejandro didn't stomp the man to death. The corpse is discovered to be the Reverend Victor Emerson, who runs a wedding chapel, and is responsible for marrying many of the local citizens, including Teddy's socialite mother--twice. Emerson, who was portraying King Henry VIII at the Faire, had angered Teddy's mother Caro when he replaced her with a much younger Anne Boleyn.

  When the acting sheriff jails Teddy's  mother for the murder, Teddy feels she must investigate to exonerate Caro of the charge. Eventually, even Teddy's fugitive father, a white collar criminal hiding in exile in Costa Rica, flies in to held spring his ex-wife from jail.

 Animal lovers will enjoy the behind-the-scenes series action at the zoo. Third in a series.

No comments: