It’s rare to come across crime fiction that avoids predictable clichés and tropes, doesn’t resort to gimmicks and still manages to make an impression. Thankfully, there are still writers out there capable of taking even the most seasoned reader by surprise.
In this second psychological suspense thriller by Sophie Morton-Thomas, we meet Fran, an avid birdwatcher and trailer park owner. Fran, her husband Dom, and their ten-year-old son Bruno live a simple existence in a small Norfolk coastal village, but beneath the surface, Fran’s inner unhappiness is slowly eating away at her. Dom has been spending longer hours at his office in Norwich and when he’s home he spends his time at her sister and her partner, Ross and Ellis’s caravan. Fran is convinced he’s cheating on her, but avoids confronting him. Instead she loses herself in her only remaining source of joy—watching the migrating terns. But a series of events soon upend her tranquil rural life.
A group of Romany travellers sets up camp near the caravan park. Tad, an seventy year-old man who has lost his wife and is alone caring for his mute daughter alternates Fran’s narration and provides an alternative perspective to events that follow. Charlie, Tad’s younger brother, got into trouble, forcing the group to unexpectedly leave their previous location. Despite keeping to themselves they face hostile behaviour, particularly from Dom, who believes they are trespassing and, ironically, finds their quietness unnerving. This only adds to the already crackling tension and feeling that the eruption of violence is eminent.
The group’s arrival coincides with the disappearance of two other people: Ms McConnell, the new teacher and Ellis, Fran’s brother-in-law, a recovering alcoholic. Fran loses what stability she has left when someone starts killing her beloved terns. However, the birds are not the only victims; a body is discovered within the bird hide that Fran went to great lengths to have built. The obvious suspects are Ellis, who missing, and Charlie, who has a criminal history.
You would assume that a murder would be the main contributing factor to suspense in a crime novel, but here the uncertain violence of someone killing helpless birds is what’s unsettling. Even more so when it could be a malicious act by a child because it raises the question of what else they might be capable of.
Morton-Thomas creates an atmospheric and claustrophobic domestic noir that could just as easily fit to the gothic mystery genre. It’s eerily suspenseful, ominous and fraught with tension from start to finish. She uses little dialogue, relying instead on the spaces between to create suspense. Morton-Thomas does not appear to feel the need to overexplain a scene or event or include excessively descriptive details. She does not underestimate the reader’s intelligence.
With its strong sense of place Bird Spotting in a Small Town is an unassuming, yet accomplished, novel which will stay with you.
Bird Spotting in a Small Town is published by Verve Books who provided me with a NetGalley copy for review.
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