The Birdwatcher

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. (June)