The Birdwatcher

In William Shaw's The Birdwatcher, this standalone thriller will have you at the edge of your seat. For DI William South, he shouldn't be at this murder scene. But when he arrived at the home of the victim, he knew the victim as his friend Bob Rayner. While he investigated the case with DI Alex Cupidi his newest partner, things became complicated between them. For South, it had drudged up memories of the past, painful flashbacks of when he lived in Ireland with his mouth and how he dealt with an abusive and violent father in a rough childhood. As we get to know more about him, we know how he became a birder in his youth and how he still is today as a past hobby. When someone turned up in the sea and presumed missing, he knew who the person was and had been looking for. More memories resurfaced about the crime he committed in the past and how it was recovered up by a closest ally of his family. One of these days, he would have to fess up and pay the piper. As he dredged up more clues to his friend's death, he became distant from Cupidi and pieced the puzzle together. The closer he had gotten to the truth, it had put him in a line of fire of the least person he suspected after all... who would do anything to stand in his way to keep it from coming out.

This was a gripping thriller inside-out of how South became interesting in birdwatcher and how he became the person he is today... with a dark past of his own. I did care about him, when he was young via flashbacks, and how he dealt with police work by covering up that secret, which could be explained as self-defense. I did also care for Cupidi and her daughter Zoe, who became excellent secondary characters to the plot and possible series spinoff in the future. I really liked the dual locations of England and Ireland, past and present, which showcased the scenes real well and around the storyline. This would make you fascinated and curious about South further and shake your heads a few times with non-stop action, drama, suspense, intrigue and a dollop of mystery.

Will you check out the Birdwatcher today?