The Birdwatcher

April 3, 2017
At the start of British author Shaw’s engaging crime novel, William South, an avid birdwatcher and a community policing officer in Kent, England, muses on why he doesn’t want to be part of a murder team. First, it’s October, and the migratory birds are arriving. And, second, because “he was a murderer himself.” (As a child, he may have killed a man.) William is even more reluctant to participate when he learns that the victim is fellow birdwatcher Robert Rayner, a friend and neighbor. Rayner’s death is a mystery, and his life turns out to be an equally big one. Shaw (A Song for the Brokenhearted) has more than enough material there for a fine procedural, but he interweaves the present-day case with a more personal one, set in Northern Ireland in an earlier generation: 13-year-old Billy McGowan’s father is murdered during the Troubles between the Protestants and the Catholics, and locals, not all of them official, want to know who did it. Both plotlines intrigue, but the crosscutting weakens the overall impact. Still, the action builds to a thrilling ending. Agent: Karolina Sutton, Curtis Brown.

April 15, 2017

When William South was a child, he and his mother relocated to a small town on the rugged Kentish coast of England from Northern Ireland, after his father was murdered. Now a detective, he is a trusted member of his community and is well known to locals as an avid amateur birdwatcher. When a fellow birdwatcher and neighbor is discovered dead in his home, Alexandra Cupidi, a policewoman from London, is assigned to assist William in solving the case. However, once someone personally connected to the death of William's father is also found murdered, he is taken off the case. While on leave from the force, William continues to investigate the killings until his own secrets are unveiled. VERDICT Award-winning author Shaw ("Breen and Tozer" series) delivers an outstanding stand-alone novel; its gritty protagonist, intricate plot, and atmospheric description of the English countryside will please readers of Tana French's "Dublin Murder Squad" series.--Russell Michalak, Goldey-Beacom Coll. Lib., Wilmington, DE

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Detective South hates murder cases, particularly the one he's been ducking for 40 years.Shaw's (A Song for the Brokenhearted, 2016, etc.) downbeat detective story follows the investigation of a brutal murder in the bleak, remote Kentish marshlands of southeastern England. Sgt. William South, assigned to the task force, knew the victim--a quiet, private neighbor who accompanied the policeman on birding expeditions--and aspects of the crime echo a shameful incident from South's own past. As the case grows increasingly personal, South must reckon with his own long-buried sins to bring his friend's killer to justice and break free of the isolating shell of secrecy that has stranded him, lonely and adrift, in a life of anonymous, penitential service. South is a sour and guarded personality, but Shaw makes him an unusually compelling narrator, deftly evoking the watchfulness, intelligence, and wounded decency in the man, with frequent flashbacks to South's tragic youth mired in the Troubles of Northern Ireland providing an emotional baseline for the older South's doggedly stoic efforts. Further complicating South's routine is the arrival of Alexandra Cupidi, a hotshot female investigator fresh from London, eager to prove herself in her new parochial surroundings, and Alex's troubled teenage daughter, Zoë, who touchingly takes up birding in an effort to bond with South, sensing a kindred lonely soul. All the pieces then are in place for a tidy redemption arc, but Shaw has something a bit more nuanced in mind; this is a character study as much as it is a (very competent) procedural, and the author imbues his cast with enough rough edges, private drives, and emotional messiness to make pat resolutions untenable. Shaw delivers something more satisfying: a juicy suburban crime story limned with authentic feeling and sensitivity for the poor doomed souls in its grip.A grimly effective crime drama distinguished by its richly drawn protagonist and empathetic understanding of human behavior, be it saintly or profane.

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Starred review from March 1, 2017
This quiet novel has an air of Scandinavian noir about itthe chilly landscape, the grim murder, the dysfunctional relationshipsand like the best northerly fiction, it brilliantly uses close character studies to immerse readers in a bleak storyscape. The southern tip of England is the stand-in for Scandinavia here, with one of its windswept shingle peninsulas the scene of a murder investigated by avid birder Detective William South. South is originally from Northern Ireland, and scenes alternate between the present day, when the detective is paired with his new boss in solving the murder, and his youth in that troubled place, when he was involved in a crime of his own. The two tales are equally well told and equally affecting. The writing is beautifully understated, and the characters are vividly drawn and likable in their imperfections. Shaw makes the stony landscape an important element in the work; it becomes, by the end of the story, a place to which readers will feel a curiously strong attachment. Despite the book's title, birding takes a backseat to sleuthing here, but birders will appreciate the many details of the hobby that are sprinkled throughout the tale. Those who enjoy a Northern Irish story could try Stuart Neville's Those We Left Behind (2015) after this, as it also features a mystery surrounding a stricken boy, while readers who are partial to the nature details here might like Katharine Norbury's The Fish Ladder: A Journey Upstream (2015).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)