The Butcher Bird
The Butcher Bird, the sequel to Plague Land, is a classic who-dunnit laced with numerous and well-placed red herrings, and enough backstory competently woven into this current tale to give the reader a picture of what has gone before.
A reluctant lord, nineteen-year-old Oswald de Lacy is a memorable and modern character, and although he’s flawed – stumbling his way through the investigation, occasionally acting cowardly, and very quick to dismiss the opinions and observations of others – his scepticism serves him well in his role as amateur sleuth, with the final denouement making perfect sense. His hesitant devotion to his crabby older sister Clemence and his exasperating mother is both touching and awkward and bears more than a little resemblance to C J Sansom’s Shardlake character.
Set against the backdrop of a Kentish estate in 1351 following the plague years, there’s a strong sense that the old order of things has been broken, with tenants making the most of the new times and demanding higher wages due to the shortage of labour, but also of freshness and new beginnings. Nature plays a strong role in The Butcher Bird, and despite the heinous crime – child murder – and with so many losses to the Plague, a celebration of life is nevertheless central to the novel.
Evocatively told and gripping, with a sense of danger from the start, a copious use of sensuality in the language, e.g. ‘spring was stroking the world with its soft green fingers’, and a helpful glossary of Medieval terminology at the back, this novel is very highly recommended.
