Superb description of a haunting, blighted landscape. His best book so far.

A brilliantly constructed thriller, told part in flashback to his traumatic past, it’s utterly compulsive, written in sharp, unsentimental style, and with a wonderfully atmospheric storm-battered setting

What a pleasure it is when one discovers a writer who combines ironclad storytelling techniques with the linguistic finesse of more literary novelists. William Shaw is surely such a writer, a man whose command of narrative grips the reader by the throat from page one, and never lets go – but also allows every word to register with exactly the right amount of resonance. And that’s not to forget the idiomatic dialogue, which is another Shaw specialty . . . The Birdwatcher, it might be argued, is Shaw’s most accomplished (and most visceral) book yet . . . [The] unsparing treatment of the personality of South – and the dark drives that can lead people to murder – that is at the chilling heart of this book

a fine, atmospheric, emotionally compelling thriller

A gripping plot, atmospheric setting, highly believable characters and dialogue you can imagine real people saying, make this a contender for thriller of the year

An astoundingly good crime novel

Packs an emotional punch that hits all the harder because of the absence of histrionics. Crime Books of the Year

The Birdwatcher: the most gripping book I’ve read in years. William Shaw is, quite simply, an outstanding storyteller

If you’re not a fan yet, why not?