The sixth mystery novel in the George and Molly Palmer-Jones series by New York Times bestseller Ann Cleeves. Even if there had been no murder, the last trip of a small band of dedicated birdwatchers aboard the Jessie Ellen would still have been news. George Palmer-Jones and the others achieve every birders dream when they sight a sea bird which has never before been recorded. In the excitement, however, no one notices the sudden absence of the most fanatical birder of them all. Later, Greg Franks' corpse, the head bludgeoned, is found floating in the sea. Had it not been for Franks, amateur detective George Palmer-Jones would not have been on the trip to Cornwall in the first place. He had been hired by the young man's anxious parents to try and persuade their errant son to return home. George would have turned the case down flat, but the offer of a free weekend of birdwatching was too tempting to resist.

Now, he must unhappily shoulder the burden of finding why Franks was murdered. Who hated the man enough to kill him? Almost everyone, it seems. Don't miss the first five books in the George and Molly Palmer-Jones series: A Bird in the Hand, Come Death and High Water, Murder in Paradise, A Prey to Murder, and Another Man's Poison.