Before Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves wrote the George and Molly Palmer-Jones series following remarkable mysteries in a birdwatching community—now in print for the first time in the US.
The picturesque privately owned island of Gillibry off the North Devon coast turns out to be the perfect site for a murder . . .
A routine weekend visit by the Gillibry Bird Observatory Trust is made memorable by the owner’s announcement that he is going to sell the island. A sale would mean the end of the Observatory, which makes life worth living for many of the birders on the island.
Then a fire in Charlie Todd’s cottage adds to their distress, followed by a fierce storm. The next morning, the birders find Charlie dead in a bird hide. Suddenly their pleasant September weekend assumes a dangerous new face.
Charlie Todd’s murder could have been the deed of any member of the Trust. And it falls to one of their own, George Palmer-Jones, to unravel the identity of a killer within their midst.