Naming of the Birds

Powell's Picks of the Month

Hot new releases and under-the-radar gems for adults and kids.

Something is troubling Inspector Henry Cutter. Sergeant Gideon Bliss is accustomed to his ill-tempered outbursts, but lately the inspector has grown silent and withdrawn.
Then, the murders begin. The first to die is the elderly Sir Aneurin Considine, a decorated but obscure civil servant who long ago retired to tend his orchids. If the motive for his killing is a mystery, the manner of his death is more bewildering still. The victims that follow suffer similar fates, their deaths gruesome but immaculately orchestrated. The murderer comes and goes like a ghost, leaving only carefully considered traces. As the hunt for this implacable adversary mounts, the inspector's gloom deepens, and to Sergeant Bliss, his methods seem as mystifying as the crimes themselves.
Why is he digging through dusty archives while the murderer stalks further victims? And as hints of past wrongdoing emerge--and with them the faint promise of a motive--why does Cutter seem haunted by some long-ago failing of his own?

To find the answers, the meek and hapless sergeant must step out of the inspector's shadow. Aided by Octavia Hillingdon, a steely and resourceful journalist, Bliss will uncover truths that test his deepest beliefs.

Hypnotic and twisty, Paraic O'Donnell's The Naming of the Birds will ensnare you until the final pages and leave you questioning what matters most--solving a case or serving justice.

O'Donnell writes a sequel to the Victorian London-set The House on Vesper Sands. Sergeant Gideon Bliss has now worked with Inspector Henry Cutter for 13 months, and he can see that Cutter's upset after receiving a note; instead of his usual outbursts, he has become silent and withdrawn. Regardless, Bliss and Cutter begin looking into a series of murders of retired civil servants, all of whom have been killed in unusual, gruesome ways. Cutter seems to have a scattershot way of investigating, sending Bliss to search archives and records going back 20 years, even as the killer they are seeking claims new victims. Their journalist ally, Octavia Hillingdon, deploys her own research skills to discover a key monument and a fire at an orphanage. Cutter, Bliss, and Hillingdon are followed as they investigate, and shadowy government departments try to interfere. Despite violence and danger, Cutter is determined to find answers, although identifying the killer might not lead to justice.--Lesa Holstine

he dynamic latest entry in O'Donnell's gothic Victorian series featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Henry Cutter and Sgt. Gideon Bliss (after The House on Vesper Sands) finds the duo perplexed by a particularly macabre murder scene. After receiving word of Sir Aneurin Considine's death, Cutter and Bliss arrive at his home to find not one but two bodies, Considine's and his servant's, and the bones of a child clutched in Considine's hand. The pair seek help from journalist Octavia Hillingdon, a skillful investigator whose research leads her to conclude that the murders are connected to a decades-old fire that killed 36 children at an asylum. The body count rises with another murder, of a civil servant, and again a child's bones are found at the crime scene. Soon, Bliss and Cutter discover evidence of abuse at the asylum and consider the possibility that the killer may be a survivor out for revenge. O'Donnell's expert pacing never falters as he explores what makes his characters tick, including Cutter's regret over letting a murderer go free years earlier and Bliss's decision to hide his orphan roots. Along the way, the narrative also delves into the motivation behind murder and questions of morality when it comes to avenging abusers. Series fans will be captivated.--Library Journal

Paraic O'Donnell is the author of The House on Vesper Sands and The Maker of Swans. He lives in Wicklow, Ireland, with his wife and two children, and can usually be found in the garden.