A Cast of Falcons
A Birder Murder Mystery
-
-
4.6 • 5 Ratings
-
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
Book 3 in Steve Burrows’ fabulous Birder Murder mystery series
The threat from above casts a dark shadow.
A man falls to his death from a cliff face in western Scotland. From a distance, another man watches. He approaches the body, tucks a book into the dead man’s pocket, and leaves.
When the Scottish police show visiting Detective Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune the book, he recognizes it as a call for help. But he also knows that answering that call could destroy the life he and his girlfriend Lindy have built for themselves in the village of Saltmarsh, in north Norfolk.
Back in Saltmarsh, the brutal murder of a researcher involved in a local climate change project has everyone looking at the man’s controversial studies as a motive. But Sergeant Danny Maik, heading the investigation in Jejeune’s absence, believes a huge cash incentive being offered for the research may play a crucial role.
With their beleaguered Chief Superintendent blocking every attempt to interview the project’s uber-wealthy owners, Jejeune and Maik must work together to find their answers. But will the men’s partnership survive when the danger from above begins to cast its dark shadow?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Burrows's intriguing third Birder Murder Mystery series featuring Det. Chief Insp. and bird lover Domenic Jejeune (the first book, A Siege of Bitterns, won the Crime Writers of Canada 2015 Award for Best First Novel) opens as a man falls from a cliff in western Scotland, and another man watching with binoculars finds the body, tucks a bird guidebook in the corpse's pocket, and leaves. When Scottish police show Domenic the book, he immediately recognizes it as a call for help from his older brother, Damian, a criminal fugitive. If he answers the call and doesn't turn his brother in, he risks not only his career but going to prison himself. Aside from that dilemma, his own police division in Saltmarsh also has a murder case to solve after a former employee of a carbon-capture research project is found dead in the woods surrounding the facility. The property is owned by Emirati princes, whose prized gyrfalcons, some of nature's most lethal hunters, also enter the story. Burrows skillfully makes birds and birding an integral part of the plot, just as he brings Jejeune's personal drama into this suspenseful and well-constructed mystery.
