Moonbird Boy
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
In the fourth Bo Bradley mystery, Bo fights her way out of the dark side of her bipolar disorder when a friend is murdered, throwing his attention-deficit-hyperactivity disordered son into the child protective system for which she works.
Ghost Flower Lodge is an unconventional psychiatric treatment facility run by a band of Kumeyaay Indians, and host to Bo after the death of her dog casts her into an acute depressive episode. But when another guest at the lodge, successful comedian Mort Wagman, is shot and killed, Bo drags herself back to life in order to help Mort's strange son, Bird, now an orphan. And in the process discovers a human evil more toxic than rattlesnake venom.
"…Padgett weaves strands of neurophysiological research, Indian ritual, murder, big business, WW II atrocities, family ties and romance… into a gripping novel." Publisher's Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moonbird is a six-year-old boy whose future is at the heart of the latest in Padgett's increasingly compelling series featuring manic-depressive sleuth Bo Bradley. Bo meets Moonbird at Ghost Flower Lodge, a psychiatric rehabilitation facility run by the Neji Indians in the desert mountains of Southern California. The boy is there with his father, Mort Wagman, a single parent, aspiring comic and schizophrenic who had recently gone off his medications. Bo (seen last in Turtle Baby) is there climbing out of a deep depression that had been precipitated by the death of her 17-year-old dog.When Mort is shot to death in a nearby canyon, Bo is devastated, but her sympathy for the boy and her job as a social worker for the San Diego Child Protective Services give her impetus to investigate Mort's death and watch over his son, who will be moved into the child welfare system if no relatives are found. Bo, whose illness gives her an acute, reliable self-awareness, has become more forceful and credible with each of her four appearances. Padgett places her in a complex, well-orchestrated plot here, involving the greedy aspirations of a medical management corporation that hopes to franchise the Lodge's traditional Neji healing approach. Firmly rooted in Bo's unique interaction with the world, the narrative develops texture and depth as Padgett weaves strands of neurophysiological research, Indian ritual, murder, big business, WW II atrocities, family ties and romance (in the continuing relationship of Bo and pediatrician Andrew LaMarche) into a gripping novel. Mystery Guild featured alternate.
