Uncle Will is pretty much young Chloe’s best friend. When he passes away unexpectedly, he leaves her Charlie, an African grey parrot, in his will. And when Charlie blurts out, “It was murder!” Chloe starts to wonder if something … fowl is afoot.
Uncle Will is pretty much young Chloe’s best friend. When he passes away unexpectedly, he leaves her Charlie, an African grey parrot, in his will. And when Charlie blurts out, “It was murder!” Chloe starts to wonder if something … fowl is afoot.
When you hear someone call out, It was murder! or homicide, you might think that they’ve been reading too many murder mystery novels. Chloe sure does.
But 13-year-old Chloe’s situation is a bit unique because the homicide-focused crier is an African grey parrot. And Chloe is pretty sure parrots can’t read.
It all started with Chloe’s uncle. The fact is that Uncle Will was probably Chloe’s best friend. They spent time together, shared ice cream trips together, and Chloe felt like she could talk to Uncle Will about, well, anything.
So when that favorite uncle suddenly passed away without anyone in the family knowing anything about him being sick, it was a complete shock. Surely Uncle Will would have told her if things were bad.
Will’s sudden death was the most devastating news Chloe had ever been hit with. But that brings us back to Charlie, Uncle Will’s African grey parrot. Uncle Will had created a video will. And in it, he said Chloe was his favorite niece. (The fact is she was his only niece, but it still made Chloe smile every time he said it.)
The will also said that Uncle Will was leaving Chloe (or as Will called her, Chlo-dog) the thing that meant the most to his heart. And the squawking, chattering Charlie was so much like Will himself that just having the bird near her brought tears to Chloe’s eyes.
It was later, though, when Charlie started squawking out things about cyanide, murder and poison that Chloe’s mind started racing.
What if something bad, something rotten, was at the core of Uncle Will’s untimely death? What if it wasn’t just an unexpected illness? And what if Charlie was Uncle Will’s secret messenger? Surely, Will would have known that Chloe would be smart enough and thoughtful enough to follow the clues.
All Chloe has to do is care for and listen to Charlie and wait to hear just the right words. She takes notes and puts together pieces of a puzzle that others would miss. She searches through the random items Will left behind.
Maybe she should start making a list of suspects: There was Will’s ex-girlfriend, who broke things off with him not long ago. There’s that always angry neighbor, too. And what about Chloe’s uncle Frank? He seemed awfully angry during the execution of the will.
This mystery unravelling is going to be hard. And Chloe has a lot more questions than answers right now. But she is the person to get it done. For that matter, she has a noisy bird to help push her along.
Call the police!
Chloe thinks about heaven and wonders where her uncle Will went. “How does that work?” she wonders. But she never asks any further questions. At one point, Chloe says a “quick prayer” asking for a hidden item to remain hidden.
Chloe discovers that Uncle Will had the phone number of a “psychic” named Deloris. And Will had contacted that woman for advice several times. But when Chloe calls the woman about her deceased uncle, Delores handles the conversation gently and doesn’t try to mislead the girl in any way. She says that Will’s family “meant everything to him.”
Chloe’s investigations also lead her to a cemetery, where she speaks of a past hurricane that hit the graveyard and washed bodies away. The imaginative girl says, “You can feel the spirits in this cemetery, unsettled, moaning alongside the massive, swaying tree branches.” But when Chloe looks into something that she is convinced will be tied to spirits, it turns out to be something altogether different.
Chloe stumbles upon a tour group called the Charleston Historical Ghost Tour that examines old gravestones and the gravesites of famous people.
From Chloe’s perspective, Uncle Will is a wonderful man. And as her investigation unravels things, it turns out that he was indeed a loving and playful individual who didn’t want his family to be emotionally wounded by his illness. “Family is wondrous,” he told his niece. And he told her that carpe diem or “seize the day” was a philosophy to live by.
Chloe questions Uncle Frank’s loyalty to Will and the family. But he turns out to be someone who longed to be closer to his brother even though they had a difficult time connecting. With time, Frank comes to fully support Chloe, and the two get to know each other better.
Chloe’s mom is a loving parent. She and Chloe’s dad divorced for an unexplained reason, but they have both tried to support their daughter in things she enjoys, such as soccer and art.
Chloe’s art teacher, Mrs. Umar, is a focused but supportive teacher who challenges her students to take chances with their art.
Chloe stumbles upon the fact that Uncle Will owed a great deal of money to a loan shark nicknamed Jaws. Jaws is an elderly woman who is rather threatening and wants to pin Will’s debt on his family. But ultimately, Chloe and the family are able to outfox this woman.
By the end of Chloe’s investigation—and after talking with many people in Uncle Will’s world—Chloe and her immediate family realize that the “mystery” Chloe was working on wasn’t what she thought it was. But the effort to discover the truth drew them all closer together. And Chloe declares that she thinks she understands what Uncle Will meant when he constantly told her to apply carpe diem to her life. “I think … ‘carpe diem’ means focus on what’s important. Everything else should just fall away.”
People talk about grief over a lost loved one and how it can affect you. “Grief sometimes looks like anger, and sometimes looks like forgiveness, and sometimes like love,” someone notes. “Grief doesn’t go away, it just changes shape.”
There’s no foul language in the story mix, but characters do call out a variety of euphemisms such as “you son of a biscuit eater,” “dang it,” “dumbutt,” “flipping,” “heck” and “crap.”
With Charlie being a large bird, there’s also quite a few quips about birds and other animals leaving large deposits in their wake.
There’s some light peril in the story, but that is diffused by Chloe’s family members who stand firmly by her.
One elderly member of Chloe’s family sneaks a cigarette from time to time. Some members of the family also share “adult beverages.”
Will’s ex-girlfriend talks about her sincere affection for Will and reveals why they broke up.
Most of what unfolds for Chloe is done so through a lightly humorous lens. But she asks a very serious question at one point about heaven and where we go after death. She never comes up with an answer. Do you know what happens when we die?
Take a look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, John 11:25-26 and John 14:1-3. What do you think those verses, those biblical promises, are telling you?
Grief is a hard topic. And it’s difficult to live through. How do people deal with loss and grief? How did Chloe’s family deal with it? Did they find strength in each other? What was your favorite part of this story?
Fowl Play is a fun little book that slowly unravels a “murder” mystery while asking readers to consider the ways we express and deal with grief after losing a loved one. The story also emphasizes the value and support of having a loving family.
Parents should note that this book features one elderly family member who sneaks a cigarette from time to time when others aren’t watching. And some of Chloe’s family members share “adult beverages.”
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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
