Sick as a Parrot by
Liz EvansGrace is hired to overturn a twenty-year old murder verdict. Hannah Conti, adopted as a baby, has decided to trace her birth mother and discovers that she, Hannah, is the daughter of a convicted murderer - at the age of 16 Alison Wynne-Ellis was found guilty of the brutal slaying of her teacher. To prove Alison's innocence after all this time is a challenging enough task, but fans of Grace Smith will suspect that even this is far too simple. And they would be right – enter the eponymous parrot. Tallulah is an African Grey with serious personality disorders – she is alcoholic, cannot bear to be left alone, and her speech was learned from Hollywood musicals laced with triple-X rated videos.
The usual cast of characters is here to support Grace: colleague Annie is away on holiday
in sunny climes but keeps in touch by e-mail, Jan the bored receptionist proves an unlikely
ally in caring for Tallulah, and repellent police officer Terry Roscoe makes an unwelcome
appearance as a houseguest. Business as usual then – well no, not quite. Enter attractive,
enigmatic O'Hara to help Grace with her investigation into the events of 20 years ago. He
turns out to be not quite who or what he seems and may even be responsible for the scare
tactics somebody is using in an attempt to deter Grace from following the case.
As in all Liz Evans' novels, much of the enjoyment rests in the odd characters, even odder
situations and Grace's laconic comments on the whole: the situations involving the parrot,
for example, are pretty surreal (not to say ludicrous) but they still make a very jolly romp.
The well-crafted plot and intriguing mystery are bonuses in this highly entertaining book.
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