A Bird in the Hand

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 show more 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. show less

A Bird in the Hand is not only the first book in the George & Molly Palmer-Jones series by Ann Cleeves but her first novel published in the ‘80s. It takes place in a town popular with birdwatchers or, as they are called in Britain, twitchers. The body of one of the twitchers is discovered and George, amateur sleuth and retired officer of the Home Office, is asked to investigate.

As Cleeve’s debut novel, this is not as polished as her later works and tends to drag in place but, again, as a debut novel, it stands up pretty darn well on its own. I hadn’t, at first, realized the age of this novel and, at first, found some of the issues and attitudes oddly anachronistic so I checked its publishing date and was then better able to show more appreciate its reflection of the time period. George and Molly are a likeable pair and they work very well together. I admit I know nothing about birdwatching but I thought Cleeves used it well as backdrop to the setting and the mystery. Overall, I found it an enjoyable tale and am already planning to read more of this early series by one of my favourite authors. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Sean Barrett who does a great job of bringing the story to life.

I received the audiobook from Netgalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review show less

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 show more not a one-sided relationship.
This was her first novel. show less

Drags here and there still solid

There's a lot about birds so be prepared for that. I enjoyed reading about George and Molly. Definitely will read book #2.

Full review:

So this was interesting. This is definitely Cleeves getting her feet wet with mysteries. Some of the descriptions are overly long and you start to get bored a bit here and there because the flow of the book sometimes just starts and stops. But I love the idea of a husband/wife mystery team and I thought how Cleeves wrote George and Molly was interesting.

"A Bird in The Hand" follows retired George Palmer-Jones. George used to work for the Home Office (doing very decidedly mysterious things) but feels a bit bored these days. Think an elderly Sherlock Holmes that's married. show more His wife, Molly, is also retired from social work and feels a bit restless. When George is called upon to solve the mystery of a birder named Tom French he feels himself interested despite himself. George is a birder and knows the ins and outs of it and some of the same people that Tom knew. It seems easy enough for him to make inquiries.

I loved George and Molly together. She's his Watson in a way, much better with people than George is. And though we hear mention of the two's children and grandchild, they are never seen. Instead George and Molly are able to just be and investigate with no issues. I liked their takes on the people they meet and the mysteries they unravel.

As I said above, the flow stopped and started, and there's so much talking about birds that after a while my brain started to tune it out.

The other characters in the book were interesting, Tom French reminded me of another character in another series that Cleeves wrote, that honestly ended up dead for almost the same reason it seems.

The ending was interesting and I didn't guess the murderer at all. show less

I was drawn to the idea of this mystery (a murder in the birdwatching community being investigated by a member of that group) but it dragged a little. There's too much telling and not enough showing, which made me switch off a bit at times. That said George and Molly are engaging characters, the mystery was decent enough and the setting worked really well. I bought the book and 5 more in the series in a Kindle deal and will definitely give the next one a try at some point.

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 show more community and about Scilly, a place new to me. show less