Rating: 
Summary: Another Winner
Review: Friedman has a unique ability to entangle his readers in his protagonist's perspective as well as bring his scenes to life. In "Bird's-Eye View" he ensnares you in the life of Fritz Tullis, an up and coming history professor whose life is in disarray. This disillusioned, even shattered, young man (maybe I identify as a former assistant history professor) buries himself in the Maryland swamps around his family home and between booze, marijuana and taking pictures of birds attempts to get his life back together. Fritz discovers a whooping crane, the most famous endangered species in the United States, has shown up in his swamp among sandhill cranes and he comes back again and again to take pictures of this extraordinary bird. While photographing the cranes he sees a mysterious airplane land on a private field across the waterway and on an impulse starts taking pictures. He ends up photographing a murder. Soon we learn that the airstrip is owned by an assistant secretary of state and the victim is an important foreign dignitary. This is a well written, suspenseful and very human interest focused book that captures both the Chesapeake Bay area as well as the complex struggle 21st century men and women face trying to find companionship and continuity. Suspenseful till the end, "Bird's-Eye View" is both a good read and thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner
Review: Friedman has a unique ability to entangle his readers in his protagonist's perspective as well as bring his scenes to life. In "Bird's-Eye View" he ensnares you in the life of Fritz Tullis, an up and coming history professor whose life is in disarray. This disillusioned, even shattered, young man (maybe I identify as a former assistant history professor) buries himself in the Maryland swamps around his family home and between booze, marijuana and taking pictures of birds attempts to get his life back together. Fritz discovers a whooping crane, the most famous endangered species in the United States, has shown up in his swamp among sandhill cranes and he comes back again and again to take pictures of this extraordinary bird. While photographing the cranes he sees a mysterious airplane land on a private field across the waterway and on an impulse starts taking pictures. He ends up photographing a murder. Soon we learn that the airstrip is owned by an assistant secretary of state and the victim is an important foreign dignitary. This is a well written, suspenseful and very human interest focused book that captures both the Chesapeake Bay area as well as the complex struggle 21st century men and women face trying to find companionship and continuity. Suspenseful till the end, "Bird's-Eye View" is both a good read and thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Politics, Revenge & Redemption
Review: Fritz Tullis has been exiled from academia after a passionate affair with the wrong man's wife. In a sharecropper's shack on the edge of a swamp he amuses himself fishing & photographing the abundant bird life until one dawn when a plane lands on an airstrip across the bay & he witnesses an argument that turns into murder. This far from lovable ex-professor who seems to be able to get just about every female who comes within range into bed, gets caught up in a web of political intrigue, undercover surveillance & revenge. Nothing earth-shaking - a solid armchair kind of thriller with an unexpected twist or two; a cast of interesting characters in a well-drawn landscape & a chance for redemption for both the hero & a wildlife sanctuary.
Rating: 
Summary: Bird Brained Book
Review: Fritz Tullis is a belligerent pot smoking lothario now pushing forty who somehow evolved out of a smart athletic golden boy with a Ph.d. from Yale. He is, or was before he was fired, a well-liked college professor who presumably has book smarts but as much common sense as Ollie the lost whooping crane, which has more depth as a character than Fritz. Freedman goes on to make his villain an evil arms dealer in diplomat's clothing and names him Roach. Is he playing with his readers, or does he think these people seem real. Fritz's amateurish investigation of the murder he saw takes him into pitfall after pitfall, almost like the old Saturday serials where the audience wants to scream, "no, don't go there." Take the visit to his college buddy Buster who's now a big time Washington lawyer. "Can I trust Buster?" Come on! In the end Freedman needs to use a bad guy with a gun standing over Fritz and his babe to explain how everything ties together. It wouldn't flow from the story any other way, and Fritz certainly wasn't going to figure it out. Like its leading man, this story is all promise and zero substance.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable thriller
Review: Fritz Tullis is trying to start over. After an affair with the wrong woman, Fritz is exiled from his job of teaching, and forced to begin again. Moving back to the guest house of his parent's home, Fritz has taken up the quiet life by fishing and bird watching, until one day he witnesses something he shouldn't have. While bird watching, Fritz sees a plane land on the property next to his. Three people emerge from the plane, and within minutes one of them is dead. Horrified by what he has seen, but not willing to get involved, he tries to ignore it. The following day at a dinner party given by his mother, Fritz meets his new neighbor James Roach, a wealthy and mysterious man, who also happens to be an assistant secretary of state with connections to the CIA. Can this man be one of the people involved in the killing? Fritz begins his own investigation into this man's background, and the murder, but as his investigation takes off , things become very complicated when he meets an attractive woman with a strange curiosity about his life. And, that's only the beginning, because more killings start leaving Fritz as the prime target in a deadly conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of government. 'Bird's Eye View' is an enjoyable thriller, although not as good as J.F. Freedman's previous novels, it is well written and suspenseful, but too much time is spent building up the plot and introducing characters. J.F. Freedman does a nice job of throwing in some interesting plot twists, but by the time everything comes together the reader has figured out most of it. Not a bad read, but not on par with 'The Disappearance', 'Key Witness', or 'House Of Smoke'. Nick Gonnella
Rating: 
Summary: Freedman's Latest is Great
Review: I love this book. Freedman puts the reader into the head of yet another otherwise inscrutable character who is fascinating in his predicament and complexity. While reading his books, I find myself wondering what the people in my life are really thinking -- and doing! The confluence of characters and events in Bird's-Eye View makes for a compelling story and a big-surprise ending you won't see coming. Worth the price of the trip.
Rating:
Summary: A great summer read!
Review: J. F. Freedman creates some very interesting characters in this book. Fritz Tullis, the main character, is a forty year old male Nancy Drew. Only difference in Fritz and Nancy is that he has experienced the many pitfalls life sometimes takes you prior to reaching the forty years old birthday. A very light read for relaxing during the summertime.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Most of his novels are so exciting, they're difficult to put down. With this one, it was so dull, it dragged and I almost didn't want to waste the time to finish it.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad - but not his best
Review: Not a bad story and not badly written, but ultimately very predictable. It lacks the complexity of Against the Wind. It would also have been nice to have a protagonist who had at least one thought that wasn't about himself.
Rating:
Summary: As Free As Ollie
Review: Over-indulgent Fritz Tullis, a boozing womanizer who has been fired from his professorship at the University of Texas, finds himself in the middle of a murder mystery involving an Assistant Secretary of State and a wayward whooping crane named Ollie. Fritz has escaped to his family's plush retreat in Maryland where he plans to mend his bruised ego by drinking and taking pictures of Ollie. Instead, he accidently photographs a murder and his R and R is suddenly ground to a halt. While he attempts to keep his life simple, the people and circumstances that surround him challenge his sense of integrity and valor.
The story is well-written with enough suspense to keep it interesting. The personal growth of Fritz Tullis is what I most liked and will remember. When faced with the challenge of his life, he grew from a sniveling,selfish man trapped in his one-tracked mind to an honest empathic adult with the freedom to make healthy decisions.
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