Parrot Blues — Judith Van Gieson

A FULL-TIME ATTORNEY AND A PART-TIME SLEUTH, SHE'S ALL BUSINESS WHEN A RARE BIRD FLIES THE COOP

She may be a divorce lawyer, but Neil Hamel uses her PI's instincts when a millionaire's rare indigo macaw and newly endangered wife are kidnapped together. The unusual search puts her right in the heart of New Mexico's breathtaking Plains of San Agustin, for a dangerous game of bird smuggling and one-upmanship.

Armed with high-tech surveillance equipment and a backpack full of her client's money, Neil treks to a remote exchange point. Alas, she returns with the indigo, but no wife, and she's beginning to get ideas. When she learns that one of her chief suspects has suspiciously expired in her absence, Neil makes it her mission to find out who killed him and where the kidnapped woman is. So far, the only eyewitnesses are the parrots--and they're not talking.