The Birdwatcher
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A Zibby's Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025!
From New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes a page-turning drama that explores the beauty of female friendship; the relationship between money, power, and sex; and the very human desire to protect the ones we love most.
When she is convicted of a double murder, Felicity Wild, a brilliant grad student turned high-priced escort, declares, “I may not be innocent, but I’m innocent of this.”
Reenie Bigelow never doubted it. A jury may have given Felicity a life sentence, but Reenie knows that her childhood best friend is not capable of murder. And so Reenie, a journalist, decides to use her deep connections to Felicity’s past to unravel the truth.
The more she uncovers, the more Reenie is convinced that the story the prosecution told is wrong, despite the puzzling fact that Felicity said not one single word in her own defense. But there's one thing Reenie knows for certain: Felicity would never lie.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This plodding standalone from Mitchard (A Very Inconvenient Scandal) finds Chicago fashion journalist Irene "Reenie" Bigelow returning to her native Wisconsin to report on her childhood best friend's murder arrest and trial. What perplexes Reenie is how Felicity Wild, once a bright biology student, could have turned to a life of sex work and stand accused of poisoning two of her clients. The victims—economics professor Cary Church and dairy salesman Emil Gardener—both listed Felicity as a beneficiary of their life insurance policies, despite being married to other women. Still, Reenie believes Felicity is innocent, so she's shocked when Felicity tells her to go away when the two bump into each other during the arraignment. Instead, Reenie persists, interviewing Felicity's attorney and the pair's mutual friends, which eventually leads her to Ophelia, the strip club where Felicity worked. Posing as a bartender at Ophelia, Reenie befriends some of Felicity's former colleagues, who clue her into the club's criminal underbelly. Mitchard squanders a strong setup with a predictable ending and too many long-winded, inconsequential diversions into the local lore of her Midwestern setting. It's a letdown.
