Lamb to the Slaughter

Possibly the best of the Verity Birdwood mysteries?

Birdie finds herself out of her comfort zone, in a filthy rural town where a convicted wife-murderer has been released - after the dedicated urging of Birdie's old university friend, now a lawyer - on lack of evidence. It's a town filled with anger, desperation, booze, and secrets. When another murder is committed, Birdie has 24 hours to solve both the original and the new killing.

Rowe creates an engaging, deeply unpleasant milieu, parceling out the secrets and clues - fairly but deviously. As a seasoned reader, I picked up on most of the clues (some specifically, some vaguely) but couldn't piece them together to beat Birdie to the solution.

Probably best read after some of the others show more (although not necessary); as the final volume in the series, Birdie and her ensemble of characters are now deeply lived-in. I don't know why Rowe stopped writing these novels, and I think it was a loss to Aussie crime fiction when she did so! show less

A very good mystery indeed, good for those that like a known pool of suspects and alibis to be untangled. An Australian bush hamlet comes to life in these pages.