A review by nonna7
The Buzzard Table by Margaret Maron

4.0

always look forward to the newest Judge Deborah Knott novel by Margaret Maron. They combine an interesting story with a touch of romance and insight into southern culture that we generally don't see portrayed in the media. This book deals with a local murder as well a local airstrip that is being used for refueling by CIA planes taking prisoners to foreign countries for "questioning" - knowing that they will be beaten and tortured until they confess. Buzzards set the theme for the book - birds that eat fresh kill. Mrs. Lattimore, one of the last of the grand dames, is dying. Her days are numbered so her daughter, Anne, a now retired well known photo journalist, and granddaughter, Sigrid Haralson, an NYPD police detective (and Maron's first character before she switched to Judge Deborah Knott) come to visit with her for a while. A surprise guest is Martin Crawford, an ornithologist who is staying at an old farmhouse studying buzzards. He is also a nephew of Mrs. Lattimore and, of course, Anne's cousin although she has never met him before. He DOES look familiar though! His mother was Mrs. Lattimore's sister who married a British citizen and moved to England. She estranged herself from her family after her first fiance dumped her for her sister, now Mrs. Lattimore. She died when Martin was young, and he was raised by his stepmother who was from Pakistan. So he learned Pashtun and Arabic and a number of other languages besides. The story had a lot of twists and turns, with a second murder and the near death of a teenage boy. It's a quick read and very entertaining.