When requesting this novel, I didn't stop to read the blurb. I just clicked on 'Louise Doughty. When it arrived, I just opened it and began. If I could have one wish for you, fellow Dear Reader, is that this could be the way you come to Bird as well! What an opening, rocketing our heroine into her plight while we are riding shotgun.

I love spy novels and have no trouble enjoying the same old tropes being rolled out again and again. But what Ms Doughty does is cleverly invent new ones. We all know spies have to do secret sneaky stuff, and Bird does not disappoint. I loved the feeling that she was somehow merging her tradecraft with the basic things she knows about people just from being a person in the world. Her 'reading' of people - and the accompanying explanations as to how she does this are gold.

Louise Doughty is, of course, known for nuanced, unforgettable characterisation. This novel is no different. In this case, I loved that the spy at the heart of this is a woman. It somehow added credibility to her ability to 'read' people and situations. It also upped the stakes in terms of the danger she was continually running from, and which was inevitably catching up with her. So much more satisfying that she had to plan and finesse her way out of danger instead of just being able to stand and wield an axe or wave an Uzi around the whole time.

There is tantalising scope for a sequel here. I hope it is available very soon!

Might be worth picking up an extra copy to have in your glove box in case you suddenly have to go on the run. But then, you weren't thinking of taking your own car, were you?

With thanks to Faber and Netgalley for allowing me to read the advanced copy.

This isn't quite what I expected and I felt shades of Ruth Wares 'Zero Days' and Ava Glass' ; The Traitor' both fo which I read earlier this year an enjoyed. Packaged as a crime thriller but more of a spy chase with the main character on the run. What we really don’t know for some time is whether Bird is good, or working for someone who really is trouble. I enjoyed reading this but felt very different to her previous titles.

With its pulse-quickening twists and turns, this thriller's carefully constructed plot guarantees a thrilling ride that won't disappoint. As always louise delivers!!!

Heather, also known as Bird, has been planning her escape for a long time; now she has to run. Running is essentially what this book is about as Heather, a onetime member of the security services flees her job and people who, for various motives, want her silenced. She has planned this escape to Scotland, Norway and beyond and, sometimes, this story reads like a travelogue intersected with cunning ruses designed to throw her pursuers off the scent.

There’s a range of different characters and relationships in her past and one or two people who she can trust but everything else is viewed as a threat and the relationships, even with people she cares about, are transient.

Because it’s all about MI6 and MI5, there have to be traitors and double-crossers and there’s a lingering suspicion that if Heather had sorted things out earlier in the plot she wouldn’t have to run so far or so fast. But, that isn’t what happens!

It’s a well written novel even if you also suspect that the screenplay was written first and there was a tax-deductible holiday to Scotland in the mix. It’s an exciting read but you must decide for yourselves how convincing it is.

This is a gripping, pacy thriller with a relatable and very human protagonist. Heather/Bird is a middle-aged woman - not the usual lead for a spy thriller - and through flashbacks, we hear her story told in the past and present. It is very well written, as are all of Doughty's books, and the moving back and forth in time was deftly handled and was easy to follow. There are multiple locations in this book, and each is described in detail, which transports the reader instantly to each setting.

However, the ending left me unsatisfied - maybe it was the necessary one, but having invested in this character would like to know more about her future - Maybe there is room for a sequel to reveal this?

Thanks @louisedoughtyauthor, @faberbooks & @netgalley for the ARC

Heather Bird is a woman on the run, as she flees north to Scotland she has to work out who exactly is on her trail and who can she trust.
She has made a career working for the Secret Intelligence. She was born to do it, her father was a spy too.
However one poor choice compromises her whole reputation and suddenly she’s on the run.
It’s written in three parts - present, past & present.
I enjoyed the reflection and introspection of the past, it gave an edge to the book.
We learn more about the events which caused Bird to run, she suspects that her boss is implicating her double dealings.
Loved the character of Heather Bird she’s a feisty woman in her 50s - wily, independent and resourceful.
It’s a nail biting tense spy novel - very addictive, putting the reader at the centre of the story.
Thanks @louisedoughtyauthor, @faberbooks & @netgalley for the eARC

A Bird in Winter.
Bird is on the run. She’s left a business meeting in a Birmingham corner office known as Alaska as it’s so cold and abandoned her entire life. During her work in the Service, she knew when to pick up on the subtlest of clues and when it was time to run.
Bird is the nickname that her father gave her. He was a man of mysterious disappearances and who she followed into the Service after being recruited by a family friend. Now she is no longer Heather Berriman and, instead, has become Sophie. Bird was once safe, reliable, dependable and rose rapidly through the ranks. Now she is a fugitive and soon will become a murderer.
The goal is to get to a village called Plockton in Scotland and an old friend Flavia. So Bird runs and runs; sleeping rough, hitchhiking and always, always moving forward. Soon she knows that someone has been put on her trail to find and kill her. Bird knows too much.
It’s been a life lived in the shadows. Short lived affairs with older, married men, ‘Daddy complex’ she calls it. A metaphor for her life could be the lone donkey in the field adjacent to her land in her short lived ‘dream house,’ an attempt to put down proper roots. The donkey is gone one day living no trace as she will do.
But there is no welcome or safety at Plockton. Only a buried box to be opened in case they are no longer there. So Bird moves onwards and onwards until she is in a foreign country. She turns and names her terms. And those pursuing her name theirs.
It was an interesting choice to have a middle-aged woman in her 50’s and one as determined and resourceful as Bird. The reader is immediately thrown into the action as Bird takes flight and her journey is well written. I was with her as she realises the significance of her manager in Alaska unusually ordering pastries for the meeting. She is always on ‘high alert’, ‘sweeping the room’ whenever entering public places and knowing when someone has been in her flat snooping. She didn’t need the distasteful evidence to prove it.
Bird knows how quickly she can fall through the cracks and become someone on the fringes. There is a very telling encounter between her and a middle-class mum at a pottery painting class with her children. The latter looks at Bird, as she watches, with undisguised horror. Bird’s disguise is complete.
However, I thought that her life appeared bleak especially after one catastrophic decision. She was then ripe for manipulation by a man who knew her Achilles heel and exploited it to the full. The narrative is told in the first person and with flashbacks. Bird’s upbringing in a comfortable, middle-class home; her two brothers in bed, resembling ‘small lumps like slugs’, a ‘blue candlewick bedspread’ and her time in the WRAC where she met Flavia. Bird also seemed to be full of regrets for what might have been. The flight sequences were so vivid that I felt as if I was running with her. The pace was slow in parts but it always picked up again. I couldn’t put it down – I had to know what happened next.
However, I felt that in the closing pages, that it might not go well for her and that there might be no bargain to be made.

A Bird in Winter made the think of The Thirty Nine Steps. Heather, aka Bird, is a 50 year-old woman on the run from her life in Birmingham. She doesn't know who exactly is trying to find her and she has to move fast, using many different disguises when she realises her life is at risk. Bird's story is told through flashback and although I found it gripping, the platonic friendship with Adeline drew me out of the main story. But once again Louise Doughty has written an excellent and different thriller using an older female protagonist. Recommended! Many thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for the opportunity to read and review A Bird in Winter.

I have to admit I was a little confused at first by this story - my fault as I don't read the synopsis before I read the book! it is obvious that Heather - or whatever name she travels by - is on the run - and the descriptions of the many low population areas she passes through are so well described - the sparceness, the lack of facilities, the wildness - is fascinating. As Heather attempts to stay off the grid her background is developed - her jobs and life in male-dominated areas - her inability to really know where she fits in.
I am not a great lover of spy novels but this story appeals to me and kept me reading to the last page.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Louise Doughty/Faber & Faber for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Heather is on the run and this crime/spy thriller in three parts takes us on Heather's perilous journey, The book gripped me from the outset as I wanted to know why Heather had found herself in this predicament. I was hooked and engaged, too, in the middle section when the reader learns more about Heather's story but the final 'denouement' (if it was in fact that) was predictable.. The third part felt a bit of a let down for me, a long 'travelogue' that lacked the suspense and danger of the first section. It was as if the roller coaster ride slowed down too soon for too long. Louise Doughty writes well and the characters were reasonably well realised, particularly the protagonist, although I did not much like her. I thought I would be giving this one more than three stars but felt strangely unsatisfied at how it turned out, particularly as it was clear to me early on who was going to be unmasked as the real 'villain' of the piece.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy of this novel.

Something a wee bit different from this author, this book was wonderfully written and utterly gripping. I have to admit - and this is just me probably being a bit daft - after finishing the book I was still a bit confused as to why Heather/Sophie/Bird made her dramatic escape. I loved the way the story was told and how she travelled through and out of the UK, she was a superwoman! I get who it was that set her up but I don't know why.

I can't decide on this book. An enjoyable read but I kept hoping for much more. Heather, the narrator works for the Secret Service and gets caught up with corruption. The book starts with her on the run, then she tells her story from the beginning. It is really her life story and the corruption is a minor and inconclusive part of the plot. Heather is not a particularly likable character and is very self-centered. I finished the book in hope of some more action or revelations. I'm sure many people will enjoy it but I found it lacking. As I cannot give three and a half stars I have rounded it up to 4.
This is an honest review of a complementary ARC.

Heather, in her early 50's, works for the secret services. Her late father also worked for the service, and his former colleague Richard is a mentor to Heather.
Richard assigns Heather to a new internal investigation department, where things begin to get a bit strange.
The book tells us what happens when Heather is compromised, and about her early life, career and friendships and how she prepares to take steps to save herself. Heather is a stoic, resourceful and determined character. The writing is lovely; even the relating of mundane activities add to the momentum of the story, and the descriptions of other countries and nature are beautiful.
The ending is open, I'd love to find out what happens next.
Recommended.

I absolutely loved A Bird In Winter. From the propulsive tension of the early chapters - when the reader doesn’t know why Heather is on the run, but the tension nevertheless mounts as she avoids detection by her former colleagues in the Service - to the slower, more reflective layer chapters that slowly unfurl her reasons for running, it had me gripped.

A Bird In Winter is not precisely a thriller, although it shares much in common with the genre, but more an examination of a life lived and the compromises we make - sometimes without realising. Beautifully written (as is all of Doughty’s work) and with with a perfectly realised main character, it’s a great read for anyone after a more literary take on the classic ‘spy on the run’ trope.

This page turner starts off in an office setting and within minutes, it is all go!
Doughty uses descriptive language throughout, paired with clever, unique analogies. I stopped to visualise these, building connections with my own and the wider world.
The style in which this book is written allows us to get inside the protagonist’s head. Her fears became my fears. I was totally invested and had to find a quiet spot in my home to fully immerse myself in this story.
This book left me with a taste of more- we need more from Doughty.

This book has a lot of merit in the way the author has many twists and turns and surprises the reader almost on every page. Her father nicknamed her Bird, when her real name is Heather. This is about a woman who is on the run from her job, from Life and all that she has known before her. We see her in a meeting in a high rise office building in Birmingham and the next minute she is walking out of that building, her home, her life - she is not married. It is an ordinary day, but a day, she hoped and thought would never happen to her. As she flees north using multiple disguises, Bird has to work out who exactly is on her trail, and who - if anyone - she can trust. Like many people, she has thought about an escape for a long time, but now it's actually happening. Is her greatest fear that she will be hunted down, or that she will never be found or she dies along the way.

A truly remarkable book for all who enjoy spy stories and thrillers.

Louise doughty is undoubtedly a very good writer of thrillers. This is another example of such, Heather the main character tells the story through flashbacks. She is a single woman who goes off on a journey. The reason behind this trip emerge as the story progresses. I found it slow to begin, but i was hooked and needed to know why and what would happen to her. I found the ending a bit of an anti climax, although also not unexpected.

I can recommend this to lovers of spy thrillers.

In the opening chapter Heather Berriman (nicknamed Bird as a child) stands up in the middle of a meeting with her boss Kieron and their colleagues in their Birmingham office, walks out of the building and starts running. She’s had her disappearance planned for quite a while but, although she had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, she now has no choice.

Heather works for the Secret service and it will take all her years of spycraft to stay under the radar until she can get to a safe place. Why she has to run will be slowly revealed in this character driven thriller. We spend a lot of time inside her head, about her family and childhood, her army career, her dearest friend now estranged and how her career came to be compromised in Birmingham. The writing is rich and evocative as Heather travels through some atmospheric and isolated locations in the bleakness of winter as she tries to evade those who may be tracking her. Although not a fast paced thriller, there are moments of tension and some great plot twists and Heather’s story is one that hooks you in to this unconventional spy novel.

Heather, an army veteran with connections to power and spies at the highest level of the UK government, gradually unravels her story as she goes on the run for reasons that only become apparent during the course of the novel.

I was so gripped by the story from start to finish, and the eloquent and gradual reveals that happen during the course of Heather's flight across countries and into the anonymity she needs for her safety.

I found myself feeling really anxious and deep within the story as I read it, willing Heather on through her experiences, and living through the experiences with her - very compelling.

A page turning spy thriller where the protagonist is a middle aged woman. Very readable and would recommend.