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Veterinarian Austin McKenzie needs the money and has to work during his retirement. But since there are many such clinics in his area he wasn't making a lot of money, so he decided that he would open up a detective agency. After all, after his last great adventure when he solved a murder case for the police, he found he was pretty good at investigating – and he liked doing it a lot. He names his agency, Case Closed Inc., and he figures he'll get his license to make it legal, sooner or later. In his town there are many friendly and likable people. And then there is turkey farmer Lewis O'Leary. O'Leary keeps his farm and his family completely under his thumb. O'Leary's turkey farm is very successful, mainly because he pushes people around and gets discounts by claiming that the local grain dealers have cheated him. Everyone knows he's a liar, but in order to keep his very profitable business most of the folks he deals with gives him a discount. That makes Lewis happy, but all the people he does business with hates him all the more. So when O'Leary's lifeless body is found dead in a dumpster outside the local diner, no one is weeping. There's plenty of folks who might have done the deed, including his three sons and their wives, the local environmentalist fanatic, and every local businessman who has been cheated by O'Leary in the past. Gil Finnegan, the salesman for Green Seal Feed, had the latest public fight with O'Leary, and when some circumstantial clues are found he's arrested for the murder. Gil, thinking that Doc wouldn't charge to work as an investigator, asks him to take on his case. Though he's not thrilled to hear that Gil doesn't think he charges for his services, Doc is thrilled to have been asked and agrees! Doc McKenzie is the lead character in this book and quite a character he is. He is an opinionated and rather curmudgeonly older man who tends to speak his wandering mind rather than keep quiet. Fortunately Madeline, his wife of over 20 years knows how to make him see some of his shortcomings while she also manages to rein in most of his emotional excesses, but not so much as to tame him totally. Doc is still madly and passionately in love with her. THE CASE OF THE TOUGH-TALKING TURKEY is more of a character fest than a murder mystery. Doc and his friends and their lives make up most of this book. The murder simply gives Doc something to do in between giving away his services to farmers who are having their own troubles meeting their monetary obligations. The writer, Claudia Bishop, spends more time giving the readers details about the different high-cholesterol dishes that Doc misses because of his wife's interference than we actually hear about the murder. As for the conclusion, after questioning everyone in town – twice it seems – the answer to the mystery suddenly pops into the Doc's head and the next chapter has him filling in all the blanks. I never enjoy when that happens in any book and it quite annoyed me here. THE CASE OF THE TOUGH-TALKING TURKEY is a light and enjoyable book, but not much more.
Reviewed by A. L. Katz, October 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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