The Bird Found the Body (2023) by Bailey Booth

🦜 As I love birds, naturally I was drawn to read a cozy mystery where the bird has significant role in the investigation. Moreover, I have read Bailey Booth's cat-themed novella a few years ago. It was okay, a promising debut, at least. And I was curious whether her writing would be improved in this new series. Well, it is not, significantly. I found it just another okay, but a very cute story if you are a bird lover.

🦜 Keela arrived at a tropical island of Half Moon Cross with her cockatiel, Chicken. She was summoned by her Aunt Astrid, to take over her business, a bird-pirate-themed tour company called Parrots of the Caribbean. However, just on her first day of leading a tour, Chicken, her cockatiel - dressed in cute pirate costume, no less - led the group into finding a dead body. It belonged to a former employee of Parrots of the Caribbean too. It was a terrible way to start a new job. Worse still, the police suspected Aunt Astrid to have committed the murder, since the deceased had been seen quarreling with her before she left the company. Keela couldn't let that happen. First of all, Aunt Astrid is a kind, compassionate person, and secondly, if her aunt went to prison, what would happen to Parrots of the Caribbean, and where she would stay, considering that she has just left her former painful life behind?

🦜 But who had the motive and opportunity to murder Vanessa, the former employee? Keela is a newcomer, and she needs more time to know everyone. Especially Ruby, the scarlet macaw belongs to Aunt Astrid, who is the mascot of Parrots of the Caribbean. It is more attached to another employee, whose ambition makes him one of Keela's suspects. The other is the owner of Parrots of Caribbean's competitor. But not only them, Keela even, at one point, had a little apprehension whether her new friend - also employee to the company - might have done it. The same applies to a handsome bartender and ex-police who has a crush on her. 

🦜 All in all, it's a cozy mystery which is too cozy for my taste. The premise is cute and refreshing - the birds, the sanctuary, even the pirates-themed tour, but I couldn't get my myself absorbed into the mystery. It's entertaining enough, but not a cozy mystery series I'm going to follow closely.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2