This book kept me awake for many nights.I couldn’t put it down and was desperate to know how it ended, Beautifully written and fast paced.

Enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to. Lots of twists and turns. Kept me engaged right to the end.

This was very good. It was tense and an excellent thriller, based on one persons attempt to stay one step ahead of pursuers, whilst also telling the reasons why she was running, and why she took the route she did. I enjoyed it very much.

Acclaimed literary crime writer Louise Doughty’s latest novel is cinematic and well-written, it just lacked pace, tension and intrigue for me. While I could really see this being made into a BBC serialised crime drama, it was quite a slog to get through at times. I think it’s a story that might work better on the small screen than it does on paper.

Our protagonist Heather (also known as “Bird”) is a middle-aged spy who spent her formative years in the British Army. When she is sent on a mission to Birmingham for counterespionage purposes, her personal circumstances lead to her becoming unwillingly (and somewhat unwittingly) entangled in some internal dodgy dealings, forcing her to go on the run.

The book opens with Heather on the run from Birmingham to Scotland and it’s a torturously slow start, written entirely in the present tense and bloated with descriptions of directions being taken from one place to another, with the reader in the dark as to why Heather has fled.

I was glad I stuck with it, as it does pick up once we delve into Heather’s life and with a change of location. The story takes a very Scandi-noir turn, with some beautiful descriptions of nature, weather, climate and landscape. I’d recommend this if you love literary spy thrillers and Scandinavian crime fiction - it’s a decent winter read, just don’t expect a fast-paced thriller. 3/5⭐️

*Many thanks to @gillhessltd @faberbooks for the #gifted copy of this book. As always, this is an honest review.*

Doughty is a favourite writer and this latest didn't disappoint. A Bird in Winter takes off at a tense pace from the first page as Heather suddenly goes on the run midway through a meeting. The reader is often unsure of her reasons and motivations but as the story unfolds these are cleverly revealed in flashbacks. Doughty's depictions of a middle-aged woman dealing with life on the run is gritty and realistic as are her portrayals of the challenges of being a woman in the services. The thrilling action sequences are interspersed with more introspective passages as Heather contemplates alternate possibilities for her future amongst cold northern landscapes whilst never knowing who to trust. The writing is of a much higher calibre than the average spy thriller and I would highly recommend it.

I really wanted to love this book but I found it hard going. The characters were unlikable and I often lost the thread of what’s going on. I normally love her books but this one wasn’t for me.

Great read, kept me intrigued and interested and even thrilled at some parts- ending felt like they were getting ready for book 2 but I would have preferred to get a satisfactory ending

Well written with a fair amount of tension. It wasn’t what I had expected from the blurb - not as much of an espionage thriller as a slow burning examination what led up to the main protagonist’s flight. Found it slow in the middle but it did keep me reading until the end.

One day, in the middle of a meeting with her colleagues in their Birmingham office, Heather just ups and leaves, picking up her go-bag on the way. What follows is part spy thriller, part travelogue and part trip down memory lane. It is essentially a journey, both literally and figuratively. It is refreshing that the main character is a woman in her fifties – she is capable, fit and can take care of herself. She is also vulnerable just because she is a woman travelling alone. Louise Doughty gives us a realistic depiction of life on the run (not as glamorous as it is in the movies) where Heather has to be constantly vigilant and can never trust anyone.
As she makes her escape, her past life is gradually revealed, along with the possible reason for her sudden flight. She has a lot of time on her hands and ponders what has led her to this point. I really enjoyed the atmospheric descriptions of the places she was travelling through, some of which I recognised – Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, Norway and Iceland. In my view, it is only a matter of time before A Bird in Winter ends up on the big screen.
The marketing department might have given a slightly false impression of this book; it is not an ‘action-packed’ thriller, but a much more nuanced piece of writing. Heather aka Bird is an unusual character, not particularly likeable, and her story is compelling. I have not read anything by Louise Doughty before, but will certainly investigate her back catalogue having been really impressed by the quality of her writing. Thanks to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

We meet British Intelligence operative Heather as her boss concludes a meeting in their offices in Birmingham, prompting her to get into the lift, pick up a bag from a secret location, and go on the run.

What follows is a slow reveal of how Heather came to be working in the British Secret Service, investigating other British Intelligence agents, and what exactly prompted her flight to Scotland and beyond. From her early days in the WRAC, befriending Flavia – who is instrumental to her story – through her career in intelligence, we learn in this intricate character study how Heather came to prepare for the moment where she leaves all she knows behind and runs.

With Heather constantly looking over her shoulder, it is a rather tense read, but isn’t action-packed as may be expected from a book about a Secret Service operative on the run. Instead, it is more an introspective of Heather’s life, and her loneliness as she flees from whatever it is that led to that pivotal moment in a cold conference room in Birmingham.

The characters are completely compelling, and the plot kept me gripped throughout, although I can see that the slow burn nature of the reveal wouldn’t be to all readers’ taste. I can’t say more without possibly introducing spoilers, so I will leave it by saying that I would recommend this novel to any fans of Louise Doughty’s work.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

An unusual thriller, not your usual set up (which can be quite repetitive sometimes). In A Bird In Winter, our hero is a woman in her 50s who works for the Secret Service, as did her father before her. She has to go on the run suddenly, although with her background its something that she's always been ready for. The story follows her on her escape, changing her identity, background, unaware of who she can trust or what is coming up next.
All of Louise Doughty's books have been in very different styles, and yet again she has conjured up a unique storyline and told it brilliantly.

A mystery about a woman in the run from unknown agencies. The narrative was slow, Heather aka Bird is emotionless in personality, her relationships with her family especially her mother and masculine in her approach to men sexually. Although well written, I felt disappointed in the story. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Bird unwittingly becomes embroiled in a security issue and finds she is being framed. She has no choice but to go on the run to try to keep one step ahead of her enemies. But who exactly are they and who can she trust in what degenerates into a matter of life and death.

Louise Doughty and I don’t always align but this, like Platform Seven, delivered a solid gut punch. I wasn’t expecting the flash of James Bond so wasn’t disappointed. A Bird in Winter is more the quiet, gritty reality of life for an agent on the run, if maybe a rusty one. It’s thoughtful, considered and reflective of earlier life and how Heather reached the point she is at. So easily done, it seems, but why is she running?

Heather isn’t the most likeable character but she is one the reader can trust to be pragmatic and sensible…in a fashion. She isn’t emotional but does seem real in many regards. Her struggle in life, and throughout this book, pulled me in and I felt empathetic to her plight. This book struck the right tone for me and took me on a journey I wasn’t expecting. Not high octane but a thoughtful turn at a quasi spy novel.

Heather (aka Bird) is on the run from people who want to kill her. This takes her up and up through England and to the tip of Scotland, then on into Scandinavia - she knows she’s being followed but will her training and natural ability help her to avoid being caught? Bird worked for the Secret Services and has clearly done something untoward in the eyes of her bosses, but the book takes a little too long to explain what, leaving the reader confused for at least the first half. All begins to become more clear thereafter, and the story becomes much more engaging, if a little far fetched at times. Overall, a good read, but a little perseverance may be needed in order to get a true sense of what is going on. Nonetheless, the descriptions of place and characterisations are excellent and toward the end of the book, the reader will be eager to find the answers to many questions, which are all answered in the end.

4.5★
“I feel myself rise, and as I am rising what I am thinking, calculating, is: It’s no more than thirty paces to the lifts.”

Heather Berriman has been working in the British Secret Service, most recently in the Birmingham office where their brief is to investigate the Service’s own agents and staff suspected of wrongdoing.

She’s good at her job and experienced at reading between the lines in conversations and meetings. Her father had worked in the same field after WW2, so she and her mother were very aware of the demands and limitations such a career put on their lives. He has always called her “Bird”, hence the title.

The situation above arises as the story is beginning, and it’s something she has been prepared for seemingly forever.

“I thought of how my father had insisted on a gravel drive in front of our house, so you could always hear the postman’s approach in the morning.
. . .
And so I suppose it was always in my blood, running I mean – perhaps not running itself so much as the preparedness to run – the capacity to go through each day always being ready. If you grow up with that, you come to think of it as just something inside you that you live with, like mild asthma, or an allergy to seafood. It doesn’t dominate your life, you just feel a low-level awareness of it all the time, an instinctive vigilance that you hardly ever think about.”

In other words, you’re always looking over your shoulder and can never afford to take anyone at face value. Exciting and exhausting.

The author moves Heather’s story between her army years in the WRAC, where she makes friends with Flavia, another soldier, who becomes a surrogate sister, and her later career in various roles.

She and her best pal both sleep around – a lot – and lead colourful lives. Flavia is a gorgeous girl, while Heather feels like a shadowy imitation of her. Still, she enjoys plenty of action, and that never stops.

“Older men often had an endearing, world-weary but kindly quality – at the same time they knew what they wanted. Being ten or fifteen years younger than them was as good as being beautiful – and so they wanted me.”

Women in the army are very much second-class soldiers.

“Over at Sandhurst, the passing-out parade was attended by the Queen. We got our parents. But at least mine seemed to enjoy it.”

Of course they did – she is following her father’s career path. After the army, when she’s older and in another career, she gets a tap on the shoulder from a man her father worked with, and thus begins her career as a spy.

I will say that she makes it across the thirty steps to the lift and to the bag she has always had ready in the event she would need to flee. From there, she takes off on an exciting (and exhausting) escape into the cold northern climes.

The story is full of burner phones and Heather dodging the people she senses (and sometimes sees) who are on her trail, as well as the usual threats to a small woman travelling alone. It can also be grindingly frustrating, having to sit tight in one place, unable to contact anyone.

The author has plenty of scope for description as Heather constantly hikes through the countryside to learn the terrain by heart and calculate possible escape routes. Life on the run can be miserable.

“It’s raining hard and the second-hand bomber jacket is like one of those soft holey sponges you use to mop the kitchen counter. I begin to shiver, and I recognise the depth of my shuddering as a kind of delayed shock – not so much shock, perhaps, but the drain of adrenaline that occurs after a situation. Strange, I think. I didn’t believe myself to be afraid, but my body is acting as if I was.”

Later, though:

“The sky above me is blue, with drifting clouds that are snowy white on top, the colour grading gradually towards the bottom through palest grey to dark, darker, darkest. There is a richness to the browns and greens beneath me: the bracken is both fresh and bone dry, lurid green and the colour of a brown envelope.”

I found her whole life interesting and was happy to suspend disbelief here and there, when I admit I doubted her ability to pull something off. Petty details!

Thanks to #NetGalley and Faber and Faber for a preview copy of #ABirdinWinter for review.

A personal P.S. is the idea of a go-bag for emergencies - fires, floods, storms. As I write this, Australia is getting ready for what looks like a bad bushfire season, so we're getting ready.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. I enjoyed it in some parts and I believe it was well written but the pace was just too slow for me to want to read more. I feel like I might’ve missed the point of the story as well as who the main character actually was and what her role in secret services was. I felt confused for the most part when reading this book but it’s probably just a me problem as I couldn’t focus on the plot.

Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for this DRC.

“Bird” is on the run and the journey takes us through Norway, Iceland and many more countries. The descriptions of the countryside made me wish I was there - and partly feel as though I had been. And, the characters were beautifully portrayed. I’ve read books by this author before and she did not disappoint

Heather the main character in this book is still almost as much a stranger to me as she was at the start of the book. That’s not saying the tale isn’t very well told because Louise Doughty has a lovely writing style but it’s just the revelations that I wanted never came. That may have been why I didn’t feel much tension either because I wasn’t sure even by the end what who and why she was running.

Engaging story that had me picking up the book to continue reading at every opportunity. A nice variation on the traditional spy story.