A Bird in the Hand (George and Molly Palmer-Jones, 1) - Softcover

A fine writer * Sunday Telegraph * Ann Cleeves has enviable talent . . . I love these books * CrimeSqaud * Ann Cleeves is a skilful technician, keeping our interest alive and building slowly up to the denouement. Her easy use of language and clever story construction make her one of the best natural writers of detective fiction * Daily Express * Nobody does unsettling undercurrents better than Ann Cleeves * Val McDermid * Cleeves is carving out a reputation as the new Queen of Crime * Sunday Mirror * It's splendid . . . a classic whodunnit * Bill Oddie * A fine debut . . . watertight and exciting -- Susan Hill

A Bird in the Hand is the first novel featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series. In England's birdwatching paradise, a new breed has been sighted - a murderer . . . Young Tom French was found dead, lying in a marsh on the Norfolk coast, with his head bashed in and his binoculars still around his neck. One of the best birders in England, Tom had put the village of Rushy on the birdwatching map. Everyone liked him. Or did they? George Palmer-Jones, an elderly birdwatcher who decided quietly to look into the brutal crime, discovered mixed feelings aplenty. Still, he remained baffled by a deed that could have been motivated by thwarted love, pure envy, or something else altogether. But as he and his fellow "twitchers" flocked from Norfolk to Scotland to the Scilly Isles, in response to rumours of rare sightings, George - with help from his lovely wife, Molly - gradually discerned the true markings of a killer. All he had to do was prove it . . . before the murderer strikes again.