A Bird in Winter

I finished A Bird in Winter within a week and am still thinking about it - about Heather, our protagonist, and all the twists and turns, and reveals in the story. It's not a thriller in the traditional sense of the genre but is a real page-turner and pacy - I really enjoyed it.

I don't want to say too much about the plot as part of the excitement of the book is not knowing what's coming next. I can say that, particularly in the first third, it's very gripping.

Heather's life story is told in flashback. We know that her dad was a spy and that she never married or had children. She seems to have given herself to her work instead. She did have a platonic friendship with a female friend and helped her with her young daughter, Adeline. As well as learning about Heather's life, there's also great use of foreshadowing with little crumbs dropped along the way that worked to keep me reading. These crumbs tease out exactly why Heather is on the run with an interesting twist on who exactly caused her to have to flee.

If you're a fan of thrillers or a detailed character study, you'll love this book but, really, anyone who enjoys a well plotted, brilliantly written story should read it too.

I am a big fan of this author - particularly the fact that every novel of hers I have read is so different - really pushes herself to do something different. A Bird in Winter is the story of a 50 year old woman who works for the Secret Service - and very suddenly has to go on the run. We don't know why to begin with - but as she flees and lives wild as she continually avoids capture - her story unfolds. A really good mix of a spy thriller, and also of a woman in early 50s learning to live with the reasons behind the life she has led behind. Really rare to get a good kick-ass type heroine that isn't in their 20s / 30s - and Heather is a brilliant character. Really tense at times and I struggled to put it down. Really recommend.

As good as Apple Tree Yard, it was impossible to put this book down. Great to read about a middle aged female protagonist who has flaws. Definitely to be recommended.

Very deep and well woven characters launch you into this thrilling tale of Bird. The scene is set with the story of her childhood her family including her father's decline but establishing who Bird is and how she got were she is today. The story opens with Bird in a Birmingham office and swiftly goes off at a hundred miles an hour as her life descends into chaos as she takes off. The hints are from the past and it is chasing her, in danger of catching her. A slow paced intricately woven thriller, as the threads fall into place the answers to Heather's questions are deeply exposed. The mystery of her father's life impacts on hers and her daughter's and ultimately culminates in an eye opening conclusion.

An older woman (loved this!) on the run, and the world of British Intelligence are the main subjects of this novel, and what a blinder of literature it is.
This is a gripping novel told through a series of flashbacks.
Espionage thriller but not as you know it!