The mystery genre has long been composed of strong and resolute authors who would be worth reading in any genre. William Shaw is one such writer. A well-respected pop culture journalist who up until a few years ago was known primarily for his nonfiction books, Shaw more recently has turned to detective fiction --- a blessing indeed --- beginning with the wonderful and haunting novel, SHE’S LEAVING HOME, which introduced the team of Breen and Tozer.

Coming off of a trilogy featuring those characters, Shaw now favors us with what appears to be a stand-alone work (sometimes it’s hard to tell these days) titled THE BIRDWATCHER, and it’s exquisite in every way. It’s a slow burn book that begins with a violent crime and ends explosively, with plenty of character development and all of the elements that we have come to love and expect in a police procedural story.

"It’s a slow burn book that begins with a violent crime and ends explosively, with plenty of character development and all of the elements that we have come to love and expect in a police procedural story."

The birdwatcher of the title is William South, a police officer in a very quiet area of southeast England on the Kent coast. His life is disrupted by two events. The first is the violent murder of his neighbor, friend and fellow birdwatcher Robert Rayner. When Rayner’s brutally beaten body is found in his cottage, everyone, particularly South, is at a loss. Rayner was a quiet type who kept to himself, with few friends and certainly no (apparent) enemies. The second is the arrival of Alexandra Cupidi, South’s new supervising officer. Cupidi is a transfer from London, a single mother with a teenage daughter named Zoe, who is a bit of a bird fancier herself. Due to his friendship with Rayner, South is barred from the investigation, but he can’t help himself from dipping a toe or two (or maybe a whole leg) into the investigation.

Everything proceeds at a slow but steady pace, with the majority of each chapter given over to the investigation and the slowly developing friendship between South and Cupidi, who are kindred souls. Cupidi left the London police force under a bit of a cloud --- one that she seems ready to recreate in her new position --- and South...well, his name really isn’t South, and he’s hiding something as well. As we learn in the early pages of THE BIRDWATCHER, South himself is a murderer, and a bit of the end of each chapter provides some information about his childhood, which is when the events giving rise to his own guilty secret occurred. Indeed, South’s past collides with his present when a grisly discovery appears to resolve the mystery of who murdered Rayner, if not entirely why.

That isn’t the end of the story, though. A revelation near the beginning of the book’s two-third mark increases the pace --- you won’t want to put it down from that point on --- as more secrets are unearthed and revealed, resulting in a violent, shattering conclusion that stands in sharp contrast to what has gone before.

THE BIRDWATCHER ends on a sad but nonetheless upbeat note. I’m not quite sure how Shaw pulls that off, but he does, and I’m glad for it. There may not be a sequel planned, but the book should certainly bring additional attention to Shaw’s superlative work and undoubtedly will create a demand for more.