| Penzler Pick， August2001: J.F. Freedman is a wonderful storyteller whose six previous novelshave been nothing less than compulsive page-turners. This， his latest， is nodifferent.Meet Fritz Tullis， lovable failure. He should be on top of the world. He comesfrom one of the most prestigious families in Maryland and， until recently，taught at the University of Texas. That all ended when he was discovered havingan affair with the wife of one of the university s most generous donors. Nowhe s back on his mother s land living in a little shack， drinking too much， andindulging in the local women.But Fritz is also an enthusiastic photographer who spends his early morninghours trying to get rid of a hangover. He takes a small boat to the marshy areasnear Chesapeake Bay where he has been watching migrating birds， especiallyOllie， a whooping crane (an endangered species) who seems to have lost his wayand ended up with a group of sandhill cranes in the marshes of Maryland. Fritzknows that he should be informing a wildlife preservation group about this lostbird， but then the place would be overrun by activists， and there would go hisprivacy.One morning as Fritz is watching Ollie he hears a small plane approaching therunway just across the creek. The land belongs to his mother， so Fritz turns hiszoom lens towards the plane--and witnesses a murder. That night at his mother shouse， Fritz is introduced to the new owner of that piece of property， JamesRoach， assistant secretary of state. From the moment he meets Roach， Fritz slife is in turmoil. He also meets Maureen O Hara， the ornithologist from Harvardwith the seductive name who just complicates his life further as he tries tokeep Ollie s presence a secret. But in Bird s-Eye View nobody is quitewho they seem to be， and the reader is kept in suspense until the very lastpage. --Otto Penzler |
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