‘The Murder Bird’ by Joanna Hines

Published by Simon & Schuster,
6 March 2006.
ISBN: 978-0-7432-4800-6 (HB)

There seemed no reason why Kirsten Waller, a famous poet, should have ended her own life, but that is the verdict of the Cornish Coroner. Kirsten had been living alone in a cottage in Cornwall and was found dead in her bath by Davy her first husband.  But her daughter Sam refuses to accept the verdict particularly as she knew that her mother was currently working on a poem -  The Murder Bird, which strangely cannot be found.  Sam is convinced that her mother’s papers will yield an explanation for her death, but her mother’s journal is also missing. Convinced that her stepfather Ralph has the papers, Sam effects an unorthodox method of obtaining them.

Ralph Howes a highly successful barrister, is currently preparing the defence for Grace Hobden the mother of three children who calmly stabbed her husband to death while he was sleeping.  The complex structure of a defence for Grace Hobden is cleverly constructed, and forms a background to the story, as Sam determines to prove that her mother was murdered and who by.

A compelling psychological book, that will have you gripped, as the family secrets are slowly and skilfully revealed as Sam searches for the truth of her mother’s death. 
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Joanna Hines grew up in London and attended the LSE and Oxford.  She has a trilogy set in mid-17th century Cornwall beginning with The Cornish Girl and ten suspense novels from Dora‘s Room (1993) through to The Murder Bird.  Her book Improvising Carla was televised by Granada, as Carla, in 2006. Joanna lived for many years in Cornwall but has now returned to London, and is now writing non-fiction under her maiden name, Joanna Hodgkin . She is a counsellor for Relate. She has two grown-up children and a stepdaughter.

Visit Joanna's website at www.joannahines.co.uk