Before Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves wrote the George and Molly Palmer-Jones series following remarkable mysteries in a birdwatching community--now in print for the first time in the US.

The picturesque privately owned island of Gillibry off the North Devon coast turns out to be the perfect site for a murder . . .

A routine weekend visit by the Gillibry Bird Observatory Trust is made memorable by the owner's announcement that he is going to sell the island. A sale would mean the end of the Observatory, which makes life worth living for many of the birders on the island.

Then a fire in Charlie Todd's cottage adds to their distress, followed by a fierce storm. The next morning, the birders find Charlie dead in a bird hide. Suddenly their pleasant September weekend assumes a dangerous new face.

Charlie Todd's murder could have been the deed of any member of the Trust. And it falls to one of their own, George Palmer-Jones, to unravel the identity of a killer within their midst.