Bird Spotting in a Small Town

My feet are itching to walk to the shore, to leave the kids again, to sit with the birds and pretend none of this has happened.

In a small, isolated town on the North Norfolk coast, Fran's life is unravelling.

As she fills her days cleaning the caravan park she owns, she is preoccupied by worry - about the behaviour of her son, the growing absence of her husband and the strained relationship with her sister. Her one source of solace is slipping out to the beach early in the morning, to watch the birds.

Small-town tension simmers when a new teacher starts at the local school and a Romany community settle in the field adjoining Fran's caravan park. From the distance of his caravan, seventy-year-old Tad quietly watches the townspeople - mainly, Fran's family.

When the schoolteacher and Fran's brother-in-law both go missing on the same night, accusations fly. Yet all Fran can seem to care about is the birds.

PROLOGUE

They’ll know soon enough.

Everything was taken care of to ensure the best outcome. At first the idea was crazy, ludicrous, not thought out. I couldn’t say it was the most razor-sharp of plans. It happened so quickly. I remember my breath, raggedy, sharp, as if something was trying to burst out of my lungs. I was losing my footing in the fast pace of it all, the almost-running. I couldn’t really run with the weight in my hands. The wind from the sea was whipping at my face in a fury, telling me to slow down. But I couldn’t. I had to listen to the other sounds; the calls of the gulls, saying it was the only way. You’ve always got to listen to the birds.