I enjoy cosy mysteries and the lively red panda on the cover caught my attention. Turns out there’s a series about the Gunn Zoo I have been missing. THE PANDA OF DEATH, number six, follows on from other unlikely creatures such as an anteater, koala, and puffin in drawing the public while foreshadowing a murder. If you like ethical zoos, jump in anywhere.

California is the setting where our exotic animal wrangling heroine lives on a houseboat in the Monterey Bay village of Gunn Landing. Her little harbour is mainly quiet, but one morning a man’s body is discovered floating next to her boat. Theodora (Teddy) Bentley has to get on with her zookeeper job but it does seem coincidental that she knew the victim of violence. Sheriff Joe Rejas is Teddy’s husband and he instructs her to keep out of the investigation, words we readers of cosy crime know so well. The zoo co-operates with a children’s TV show for publicity, and the cast and producers are caught up in the murder investigation.  

Poonya, a red panda of extreme cuteness, is just one of the animals with extra-large personalities in the zoo. Teddy cares for her charges even when they do indescribable things. Her finest moment, however, comes when a mother takes her eye off a child long enough to let the child climb into the wolf run. Pity Teddy had already had one wardrobe incident that day; I’ll let you read it for yourself.  

I noticed this story has a wide cast of characters. Not alone do we meet the zoo staff and Teddy’s family, from the earlier books, but Teddy's mother-in-law, mystery writer Colleen, sent off for DNA testing and turned up the surprise match of Dylan, a son the sheriff didn’t know he had. Added to the good-sized TV crew and sundry townsfolk, the crowd means this may not be the best place to start reading the series. I take it as a good sign that the author Betty Webb, a former journalist, can handle a large number of characters and sub-plot threads, while providing background information. Much of said info is produced through Colleen’s (fictional) deep web search engine, called PlatoSchmato. But we do get a ton of background dump at times, too much to keep in mind easily, especially if we’re putting the book down and coming back to it next day. If you think this style won’t suit you, I suggest starting with an earlier book than THE PANDA OF DEATH. Nature lovers like me will read these cheeky and charming books as we find them.