A Little Bird is an intriguing, character-driven mystery from Australian author Wendy James.

When the end of her relationship coincides with learning her father is ill, journalist Jo Sharpe reluctantly returns to her home town of Arthurville in western New South Wales to take up a position at the town’s local newspaper. Her father, a grumpy alcoholic, bitter about his wife’s desertion over twenty years ago, hasn’t changed much but the town, in the grip of drought, is in obvious decline.

One of Jo’s first assignments for the Arthurville Chronicle, which is really not more than a community newsletter, takes her to Pembroke, her wealthy grandmothers estate on the outskirts of town. The Beaufort’s are little more than strangers to Jo, given they disowned her mother, Miranda aka Merry when she married Jo’s working class father, and failed to reach out even after Merry vanished, taking Jo’s baby sister Amy with her, in 1995.

Confronted with her past, Jo is motivated to re-examine her mother’s disappearance, and makes a shocking discovery that changes everything.

Shifting between the past and present, as Merry’s history unfolds, exposing her frame of mind prior to her disappearance, Jo’s narrative, set in 2018, is related in the first person.

Jo is a well-developed, likeable character. She presents as resilient, smart and determined, though her vulnerabilities, stemming from her mother’s abandonment, her father’s neglect, and the collapse of her long term romantic relationship, are evident.

The small community of Arthurville is realistically portrayed, a conservative rural town affected by drought and the subsequent economic downturn. Of its residents I was fond of local vicar Shep, with whom Jo rekindles a relationship, as well as the teens he is mentoring.

Jo’s investigation begins as she reconnects with the people from her past, most notably her mother’s friend, Kirsty, who provides Jo with some information that prompts her to look at Merry’s disappearance differently. While I felt the pacing was a little slow through the first half of the novel, there is a gradual increase of tension during the second half. I really liked the way the mystery played out, I thought James’ plotting was clever, and I was anxious to understand Merry and Amy’s fate.

A slow-burning, but gripping domestic thriller, I enjoyed A Little Bird.

Loved this book. Set in rural Australia, right near where I used to live! It makes it so much more relatable if you’ve lived somewhere similar to Arthurville. It was a character driven novel, with very true to life locals, with all their flaws and nuances. I loved all the characters in the book, and thought the author did very well concealing ‘who done it’. Highly recommend to lovers of Australian fiction, with a love of the bush. Great ending too!

A Little Bird is an engrossing slow-burn small town mystery, set in rural western New South Wales, Australia.
Leaving behind a journalism career in the city, Jo Sharpe returns to her hometown, (fictional) Arthurville, taking up a job telling "good news" stories in the community newspaper, the Chronicle. Arthurville holds complex and bittersweet memories and associations for Jo - she has a dysfunctional relationship with her aging, ailing father, and is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her mother, Merry, and baby sister over twenty years previously.
In the course of interviewing locals for stories, reconnecting with several past friends and acquaintances - including a couple of old flames - and enduring an awkward meeting with her mother's estranged family, Jo begins to scratch Arthurville's dusty surface, slowly uncovering secrets from the past. She comes across a cache of her mother's notes from when Merry herself worked at the Chronicle in the 1990s, including writing the newspaper's anonymous "A Little Bird" column, in which the embarrassing and dirty secrets of locals are alluded to. Did Merry unwittingly uncover a dangerous secret, and could that be behind her sudden disappearance from Arthurville, or was that secret her own?
Wendy James's evocative prose captures the dry, relentless heat of the Australian interior, and the feel of a community that has suffered years of deprivation and disappointment caused by drought. Her characters are flawed and multi-dimensional, relationships developing in understanding and complexity over the course of the story. The dual timeline narrative allows the underlying mystery plot to unfurl gradually and enticingly, as Jo closes in on the shocking truth of her mother and sister's fate.
I found A Little Bird to be a worthy addition to the ever-growing canon of Australian rural and regional crime fiction, and would enthusiastically recommend this title to readers who enjoy reading the work of authors such as Jane Harper, Sarah Bailey and Garry Disher. Like those authors, Wendy James combines a rich sense of setting, a cast of varied but believable characters and a well-conceived plot to weave an intriguing and satisfying mystery-thriller.
My thanks to the author, Wendy James, publisher Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This was a slow burn book that was very character driven. There is the sense of mystery with Jo's missing mother, but she has been gone twenty five years and it's only as Jo becomes a reporter for her hometown local paper that she delves deep into the story. I loved all the characters in this book and felt for them, even the minor ones. There is a lot of sadness in this town and within its people.

I loved the two timelines and as usual it was the older one that I got into most...That's just personal preference though. I also enjoyed the two points of view from Jo in 2018 and Merry in 1994. The reveal was a surprise to me and the setting was beautiful, even though it takes place during a drought, I could imagine the red dirt and dust very well. The writing was very captivating ad kept me on my toes. I would definitely read more from this author as she has quite the library of books to choose from.

Ive never read any Australian crime and I’m not sure I will again, I didn't really connect with this book. I found the writing really quite clunky and hard work. I couldn’t relate to any of the characters it was tough going and I found it difficult to finish.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading A Little Bird, by Wendy James. While it's mainly a suspense, there's plenty of family drama and some romance, as well. I thought that all the characters were well written and fleshed out.
Jo Sharpe, a journalist, goes home after a surprise job offer at the local Arthurville paper.
She finds that much hasn't changed especially her relationship with her sick, cranky Dad, unfortunately, her return has also brought back the pain and confusion that came after her mom and little sister disappeared back when she was a girl.
Jo finds that there are some plus sides as well.. She's getting a chance to reunite with old friends and she's making some new ones too. She's set her sights on unraveling the mystery of her Mother’s disappearance but she soon realizes that someone, in the town, wants her to leave well enough alone.

This has all the best elements of Australian rural crime

Josephine is returning to the small, dusty drought-prone place where she grew up. It wasn’t a particularly happy childhood, after her mother and baby sister vanished never to be seen again when Jo was around 8 years old. What was a missing persons investigation was closed when Jo’s father received a letter from her mother saying she wasn’t returning and after that, it was just assumed she’d left of her own volition. Jo has had to live with the fact that her mother took her sister with her but not her, her whole life. Her father turned to the bottle and Jo left town as soon as she finished school and hasn’t been back much. Until now.

She’s been offered a job to take over the local flagging newspaper, a mysterious benefactor paying for her employment. The catch is, she can only report positive stories and news. Whoever funds the paper isn’t interested in crime or bad happenings. It’s good times only – the bigger papers in the bigger cities can handle anything dark. Jo finds this….odd but goes with it. She covers local school events, functions, feel-good community stories but in being back in town, the disappearance of her mother and her sister is always on her mind.

Jo is a tough, independent type of character. She practically had to raise herself, she’s been on her own for a long time. Her relationship with her father is rough but not unsalvageable although the two of them have a lot of baggage and things to work through but they’re not the types to sit down and air it all out. Being back in her hometown is complex for Jo, there are all sorts of memories to confront. A lot of people she knows still live there and sometimes that’s good…..sometimes, not so.

Quite unintentionally, Jo discovers some things that make her realise that her mother’s leaving might not be as straightforward as it seems all those years ago and why none of her attempts to find her have ever been successful. Jo wants answers because I think that anyone in her position would want to know if their mother had chosen to leave them behind, in such a way. Or had they been a victim of something that meant that they weren’t able to return. A lot of Jo’s character has been shaped by her mother leaving and the story is excellent at showing the reader this without going into long inner monologues from Jo.

I also really enjoyed the character of Jo’s father. Mick Sharpe is a complicated character – a very young father, who attracted a girl from a very different background to his. A girl that then disappeared when they were still only in their mid-20s, leaving Mick a single father to Jo. He didn’t cope well with that and made mistakes but not through lack of caring about Jo or not wanting to be there, I don’t think. He’s always lived close to the poverty line, worked a hard physical job for not much financial reward and found solace in drink. He was a tough, reticent, very rural-Aussie-man type of character who does not do well talking about his feelings and often avoids things but still has ways of showing that he does care quite deeply for Jo and was very shook by the disappearance of his wife and baby daughter.

I found this incredibly engaging from the first page. I really wanted to know what had happened to Jo’s mother and sister and felt like this book did such an amazing job of showcasing the small town, the difference between some of the bigger properties with wealth behind them and those who have much less. Jo’s feelings about her return come across well as do her feelings about her father and her childhood. I also loved her connection with someone she knew when she was still living there and was hoping that’d play out in a particular way.

Wendy James is excellent at endings and honestly? This book has another fabulous one. Very clever.

8/10

I am a fan of Australian crime and read quite a bit of it but I didn't really connect with this book. I found the writing really quite clunky and try-hard.

‘Bad news might be real life, but believe me, no one wants to hear about it anymore.’

A relationship break-down, her father’s illness and a job offer bring Jo Sharpe home in 2018 to the small drought-stricken town of Arthurville in remote, rural Australia. Jo has mixed feelings about returning: her mother and baby sister left Arthurville in 1994 and apart from one letter, neither have been heard from since.
Jo’s job on the ‘Chronicle’ is to produce six pages of good news each week. Not as easy as you might think given that the town is gripped by drought, but Jo settles in, rekindling some old friendships and making new friends. But being back in Arthurville rekindles Jo’s desire to find out why her mother left, taking her sister but leaving Jo behind. Her father, ill and ill-tempered, does not want to revisit the past. And then Jo finds some papers which, while they may shed some light on the past, raise plenty of questions.

The story shifts between Jo in 2018 and 1994, where Jo’s mother Merry is the narrator. As the two narratives unfold, we learn of secrets held, of ill-feeling and misunderstandings. And at the heart of it all is someone who would rather kill than concede ground.

I enjoyed this story with its complex, flawed characters and with a few twists that kept me guessing until very near the end. Ms James has published eight novels so far, and as this is only the third I have read, I have five others to look forward to.

If you enjoy domestic thrillers in a rural setting then I can recommend this,

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

A little bird by Wendy James.
Running from a bad relationship, journalist Jo Sharpe heads home to Arthurville, the drought-stricken town she turned her back on years earlier. While some things have changed—her relationship with her ailing, crotchety father, her new job at the community newspaper—Jo finds that her return has rekindled the grief and uncertainty she experienced during her childhood following the inexplicable disappearance of her mother and baby sister.
A really good read with good characters. Likeable story. I liked Jo. 4*.

This is my type of book, more character driven with some mystery and finding your place.
I usually write a few words of the synopsis of the book to gather my thoughts but feel this book’s blurb does this so much better.
There are two narrators, Jo in the present day and her mother Merry in the past. It was very easy to distinguish these and I was immersed in the story immediately when it changed.
This is a great Australian domestic thriller, I felt the constrictive essence of a small country town, a father who loves his daughter but can’t show it and the story line slowly unravelling but holding you in it’s grip.
I love a book that gives me a great sense of time and place with lots of different emotions and it was the perfect book for me at the time. Loved it.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

Strong characters and a compelling storyline make this tale a fascinating read. Jo Sharpe is finally coming to terms with her mother and her little sister's disappearances twenty-five years ago. A journalist, Jo returns to her hometown to work for the local newspaper, and to get some closure. However, a mysterious clue from the past has revived interest in their vanishings. In this story, set in the rugged terrain of Australia in a place called Arthurville, the telling is in dual timelines. The present is narrated by Jo, the past by her mother, Merry. There is also a column entitled “A Little Bird” written in the past. This is a slow-rolling boil domestic mystery rather than a pacy thriller, with the characters very much at its core. Very highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Lake Union Publishing via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

EXCERPT: She hadn't thought, hadn't worried. That had always been her major failing, this failure to see into the future, this ability to shrug off the consequences, to wait until it was too late to remedy. That was how she'd ended up pregnant and married in the first place. It was how she'd ended up pregnant to a man she'd known for only a few days.

It was how she ended up dead.

ABOUT 'A LITTLE BIRD': Running from a bad relationship, journalist Jo Sharpe heads home to Arthurville, the drought-stricken town she turned her back on years earlier. While some things have changed—her relationship with her ailing, crotchety father, her new job at the community newspaper—Jo finds that her return has rekindled the grief and uncertainty she experienced during her childhood following the inexplicable disappearance of her mother and baby sister.

Returning to Arthurville has its unexpected pleasures, though, as Jo happily reconnects with old friends and makes a few new ones. But she can’t let go of her search for answers to that long-ago mystery. And as she keeps investigating, the splash she’s making begins to ripple outward—far beyond the disappearance of her mother and sister.

Jo is determined to dig as deep as it takes to get answers. But it’s not long before she realises that someone among the familiar faces doesn’t want her picking through the debris of the past. And they’ll go to any lengths to silence the little bird before she sings the truth.

MY THOUGHTS: Wendy James has been called 'Queen of Australia's domestic thriller' and 'master of suburban suspense'. I would have to agree. I read A Little Bird in one sitting, it's characters and setting enchanting me, the plot captivating me.

Set in a small town on the Western Plains of NSW, Australia, Arthurville was a once thriving community. Now, in the grip of a relentless drought and as a result of young people moving to the cities for work, it's once bustling main street is mostly boarded up, and the young who have remained in town are mostly unemployed and addicted to drink and or drugs. But it is also a town stuck in some kind of time warp. One where relationships and family breeding are still important; where old social traditions still matter; where a hierarchy is still in place and where some people will kill rather than have their secrets revealed.

A Little Bird is quietly brilliant, very much a character based mystery set over two timelines: the 1990's through Miranda's (Merry's) eyes; and 2018 when Jo, Merry's daughter, having lost both her relationship and her job in Sydney, returns home to be with her father while he receives treatment for cancer - not that he's grateful - and as the only paid employee of the local paper, where she is only allowed to write 'good news'.

The characterisation is strong with much of the story resting firmly on Jo's shoulders. It's a story that examines the bonds of family and friendship and long term relationships; the fact that they are not always as they seem; that our memories can deceive us.

These are characters that I could see and hear; I could feel that infernal red dust that leaves a fine layer over everything; and enjoyed the atmosphere of the pub where the locals go to escape the relentless heat.

James writing is vivid, the plot compelling, the outcome shocking.

She has previously written a novel called Where Have You Been, which is a good question. Where have I been that I have never before read this author?

⭐⭐⭐⭐.6

#ALittleBird #NetGalley

I: @wendyjamesbooks @amazonpublishing

T: #wendyjamesbooks @AmazonPub

#fivestarread #contemporaryfiction #mystery #suspense

THE AUTHOR: Wendy James is the celebrated author of eight novels, including the bestselling The Mistake and the compelling The Golden Child, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Ned Kelly Award for crime. Her debut novel, Out of the Silence, won the 2006 Ned Kelly Award for first crime novel, and was shortlisted for the Nita May Dobbie award for women's writing. Wendy works as an editor at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation and writes some of the sharpest and most topical domestic noir novels in the country.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Lake Union Publishing via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of A Little Bird by Wendy James for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

A Little Bird is the 8th novel from Australian writer, Wendy James. Better known there than here, I hadn’t read any of her previous novels but she would appeal to readers who enjoy Jane Harper.
Jo Sharpe returns to her remote outback hometown, bruised by a bad breakup and concerned for her ailing father, she accepts a job on the local paper. When she was young her mother and baby sister disappeared - they were never heard from again and they were believed to have run away. As Jo settles back into town she begins to question the circumstances of their disappearance and delve deeper into what really happened.
A Little Bird is well written with believable interesting characters. I particularly enjoyed her evocation of the outback town and the local cast of characters, it felt very authentic. The plot draws you in and the final twist is well done and believable. Wendy James deserves a wider audience outside her home country and hopefully A Little Bird will bring her one. Thank you to #netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for allowing me to review this ARC

This novel is a slow burn. Well written, well developed characters who are flawed (which I like). Thank you to Lake Union Publishing, Netgalley, and author Wendy James for this ARC. 4 Stars

Oh, this is a slow moving but gripping book - think a python who wraps its coils around your arm until you suddenly realise that your hand is white from lack of blood supply....that is how the major twist was for me. I could just FEEL the sticky humidity of Arthurville and the red dust of a country in drought. And that is quite something, considering I live in Tasmania.

Jo finds herself living with her dad, working for the local paper, not exactly living her best life. Her dad is cranky, and more often than not, drunk, and the paper only wants good news, all the time. Her mum left town with her baby sister some 25 years earlier and Jo finds herself trying to explore what made her mother tick and goes on the hunt for any kind of trace of her. Her estranged grandmother, Ruth, suddenly is in the picture again and all in all, Jo is finding it rather difficult being back in town. Lots of people are not what they seem. There are some lessons here about not judging a book by its cover, absolutely. Shep is an intriguing character, I have to say.

A great tale of Australian outback living. The little towns that can quite easily die, the youth who are bored and restless, the heat and lack of water which colours absolutely everything, the gossips who think they know everything but don't, actually.

There is a big secret in Arthurville and I think this will be a major surprise to most readers. It was to me. I loved it!

4.5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing.

A Little Bird by Wendy James
Running from a bad relationship, journalist Jo Sharpe heads home to Arthurville, the drought-stricken town she turned her back on years earlier. While some things have changed—her relationship with her ailing, crotchety father, her new job at the community newspaper—Jo finds that her return has rekindled the grief and uncertainty she experienced during her childhood following the inexplicable disappearance of her mother and baby sister.
Returning to Arthurville has its unexpected pleasures, though, as Jo happily reconnects with old friends and makes a few new ones. But she can’t let go of her search for answers to that long-ago mystery. And as she keeps investigating, the splash she’s making begins to ripple outward—far beyond the disappearance of her mother and sister.
Jo is determined to dig as deep as it takes to get answers. But it’s not long before she realises that someone among the familiar faces doesn’t want her picking through the debris of the past. And they’ll go to any lengths to silence the little bird before she sings the truth.
This story will engage readers who enjoy women’s fiction and those who crave a good mystery. It is a moving, touching story with many twists and turns as you join Jo in her quest for the truth.
I want to thank NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and author Wendy James for a copy of this to review.

This is the first time I have read this author even as her name sounds vaguely familiar, I just haven't read any of her previous books. A Little Bird is a story set in a small Australian community where, on the surface, nothing terrible ever happened. Yet, as we follow our journalist protagonist, Jo Sharpe, as she returned to her hometown and searched for reasons her mother left town when she was a little girl.

I found A Little Bird to be very easy and riveting read; easily likeable protagonist, engaging mystery (with tidbits from the past too), and interesting setting. I did guess correctly the identity of the villain though I didn't quite get the reason BUT the little twist at the end was brilliant.

My thanks to Lake Union Publishing for ecopy of book via NetGalley in exchange of my honest thoughts

I enjoyed this Australian story by an Aussie author very much indeed. The heat and the country life style were evident throughout the story and the cover picture says it all!

Jo Sharpe, journalist, has spent years in the city but returns to her country home town when her father is sick and she herself has had a relationship end in a bad way. Being back brings up her past, significantly the unexplained disappearance of her mother and baby sister when Jo was eight years old. Events pile up and Jo is forced to find out the truth of what happened all those years ago.

I really liked the way the mystery was revealed bit by bit, and the way Jo researched and uncovered the facts. The person responsible for the whole afair was the most unlikely character in the story - at least for me it was! Totally a nice twist and a shock at the end.

I thought this was an interesting and well written book with realistic characters and a good interpretation of the Australian country life style. I enjoyed Jo's developing romance with one of her exes from the past and thought it rounded things off well.

The memories of her mother and baby sister’s disappearance twenty five years ago hadn’t left Jo Sharpe since that day, and now, arriving back in Arthurville to a new job and a frail, embittered father, she wondered whether she’d done the right thing in returning. Her new job at the local newspaper, The Chronicle, was a step-down for Jo, but she knew it was what she needed. Her latest relationship in tatters, there was nothing left in the city for her. Now, catching up with old friends, finding a lot of changes since she’d last been home, and realizing the heat in the small, dusty town hadn’t improved, Jo strangely felt like she was home.

The mystery of her mum’s disappearance along with baby sister Amy, was one that Jo needed to solve, for herself and her father. But where would she start? And would she find answers? It seemed like there were a lot of secrets around the town; could she crack them open?

A Little Bird is the latest novel by Aussie author Wendy James and it’s a slow burn, which gradually had me reading faster to find what was going to happen next. An excellent psychological thriller, I enjoyed Jo’s character – strong, resilient and resourceful – along with many of the other side characters. I have no hesitation in recommending A Little Bird to fans of both the genre, and the author.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.