Before her more well-known mystery series came to the fore, Ann Cleeves wrote other mysteries. "A Bird in the Hand" was first published in the ‘80s. It has been reissued as has at least one more book in the series that I know of.

"A Bird in the Hand" started with the murder of a birder and George Palmer-Jones, an elderly birdwatcher, was asked to look into the death. Through the investigation the reader comes to know various people in the birding community on the Norfolk coast and there were some dicey ones. George also took a side trip to the Scilly Isles to find out more background information. It was a good mystery although there were a lot of characters to keep track of. It was interesting to find out more about the birding community and about Scilly, a place new to me.

This story takes place in a community of bird watchers (twitchers - I term I had never heard before). I found this idea intriguing, but the execution was rather disappointing.
The amateur detective is George, a retired staff member of the Home Office, who is asked by the father of one of the young birdwatchers to investigate the murder of a famous birdwatcher.
Unfortunately, this book was a slog and I will not continue with this series. I took me ages to read it considering that it is so slim, and the story just seemed to drag on. The twitcher aspects, while they might be realistic, seemed alien to me and I couldn't quite picture the characters and scenes because of that.
While some parts of the story are very detailed, I still could not really get into it and had trouble imagining the characters. Sometimes I felt like reading something set in the 1950s, although I think that it is supposed to be set in the 1980s.
Still, the plot is crafted cleverly and the solution caught me off guard! The setting is also an interesting one.
I will definitely try one of the more famous series written by Ann Cleeves, but will not continue with this one. Maybe readers will enjoy it more if they actually were twitchers or know someone who was. ( )

2800 ( )

I really enjoyed this. I'm delighted to have found another series by Ann Cleeves to tide me over while we wait for a new Vera or Shetland mystery to arrive. Wonderful characters and a great sense of place. Loved the twitcher aspect of this one. I look forward to more with George and Molly Palmer-Jones. ( )

This doesn't quite work, but I'd struggle to put my finger on exactly why. A bird watcher is found dead in the marsh on the Norfolk coast. The father of another teenage birdwatcher asks George (a former Home office something - what is never made exactly clear) to investigate. George and his wife, Molly (former social worker), start to investigate in the village and the birdwatching community. The Police remain almost invisible throughout. I found the ages of some of the protagonists hard to pin down, they seem to be both too old and too young at times. The dashing around the country left me unsure where they were at times. They make a good pair, and it is a positive portrayal of a couple in early retirement. I's nice to see that it's not a one-sided relationship.
This was her first novel. ( )