"This stylish, suspenseful thriller tingles with on-the-run tension and emotional intrigue as a female spy flees her entire life."
Guilefully crafted, Louise Doughty’s A Bird in Winter oozes storytelling sophistication. A searing, compelling thriller, it reels with the tension of a woman on the run, with a moving ending that might just cause the eyes to well and the heart to swell.
Like her father before her, Birdy, the name Heather’s father gave her as a child, joined the secret service after a career as a soldier. In the Service, she quickly rose through the ranks because she preferred the less glamorous aspects of the work: “the bureaucracy that supports the action.” After decades’ devotion to the job, having recently joined a new team that’s investigating dirty spies, Birdy leaves a meeting and goes on the run.
Set on always staying one step ahead, Birdy is a mistress of multiple identities. She travels north to a place from her past, but muses: “I was crazy to come here after all this time. What made me think the past would be waiting for me, just because I needed it as I fled from the present? Wasn’t that the kind of solipsism that made me so bad at relationships before? The past is dead. I hate everybody. I hate myself most of all.”
While A Bird in Winter boasts all the distrust, betrayal, paranoia, and sense of closing in you might desire of a spy-themed thriller, it’s a whole lot more besides. As imminent danger ramps up, Doughty skilfully interweaves in-the-now action with her character’s deeper emotional journey — loneliness, regrets, and the unexpected unravelling of a life. This is one classy, compelling read.
| Primary Genre | Espionage and spy thriller |
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