Windows To The World

The Koala of Death

by Betty Webb

Teddy Bentley has been a zoo keeper at the well known Gunn Zoo in Gunn's Landing not far from Monterey on the California coast for about a year.  She loves her job. For the most part her main job involves taking care of the giant ant eater but she can help out anywhere if needed. 


Teddy lives on an old boat in the harbor that her father left her after he skipped out on her and her mother  years ago leaving them to face  scandal when he absconded with other peoples money that he ha embezzled.  They lost every thing but her mother did manage to get by and spent her time trying to set Teddy up with eligible men. Once bitten twice shy was Teddy's motto  and Teddy had been married once and thus was shy.


One June Teddy is awakened in early morning by something bumping into her boat and she finds the body swirling in the water. With the help of a fellow liveaboarder the body is dragged out and it turns out to be the of another zoo keeper who was last seen at a party on a boat in the marina the previous night that Teddy herself had attended. It is initially assumed that perhaps she had over indulged in alcohol and had fallen overboard.




She is a poplar woman known as Koala Kate, because she takes care of the Australian animals and she also has a blog, a news letter and TV segment on a morning show once a week which features her  animals. 

Sheriff Joe Rejas who responds to the scene of the recovery happens to be Teddy's boy friend and he is all business and  it is some time later that Teddy finds out that Kate was murdered. At the zoo Teddy is in good position to find out more about Kate's life because she has been appointed to take over her newsletter, her blog as well as her TV appearances much to her dismay. As she uncovers things several attempts are made on her own life and a the race for a motive and a killer is on.


Betty Webb's Teddy Bentley Gunn Zoo series so far is only two deep, but very full of animal lore and for that reason alone  worth reading.  Here we can  learn about the habits and habitat of all kinds of animals instead of, or perhaps I should say along with that of the behavior of humans.