Someone has been strangling people and arranging their bodies in artistic positions in water with flowers. Vera Stanhope finds this a fascinating puzzle, but what could a group of bird watchers have to do with it? One by one she finds the clues, and with Joe Ashworth's help, she combines their talents to eliminate all sorts of guilty secrets that have nothing to do with the crimes, until finally the murderer is tracked down. Matching wits with Vera and trying to figure out who is the murderer kept me intrigued.

I always enjoy Ann Cleeves' series - Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez - in books and on DVD's. This was not my favorite of the mysteries, but it was still a "good read". Highly recommend both series. Kristi & Abby Tabby

An awesome book....I’ve just discovered Ann Cleeves...I’ve watched all of Vera...you actually hear her voice as you read. Enjoy...

I've watched six season of Vera, so I thought I'd read the books. This one I sort of remember from possibly season one or two of the BBC production. There were so many differences that the book still held surprises. It is also much better than the first two of the series.
Cleeves still makes it a point to say how ugly and fat Vera is, but she doesn't beat you over the head with it in book #3. That makes the book more enjoyable than the two earlier books, for me. If there had been two or three fewer characters, I'd have been a bit happier with the overall story. But with four men, their wives, ex wives, children, co workers, and the neighbors and work associates and room mates of the murder victims, it got to be a lot of people to juggle. (Plus first names and last names and ranks used in different places.) Had I not kept saying "who?" I'd have given this a full five stars.

A teen-age boy is murdered and his body is staged. A few days later a live-in tutor is slain and her body staged. Vera Stanhope is called on to bring the killers to justice.

Third Vera mystery. The mystery is good, but it was a little bit of a challenge to keep track of which bird watcher was which.

Boy, can this lady write when she wants to. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and character development of this plot. It went right through till the end. Good old fashioned northern English crime mystery. Vera Stanhope is a great character. I believe this is the 3rd book in the series. Another excellent writer in this vein...Val McDermid.

I really liked this. The right number of characters and clever relationships. Well written too...and it is better than the Video.

This story is in Set 1 of Vera which I have viewed. The book, however, is better than the DVD version. 4 friends , again birders, are the focus of this story. A young women and a teen boy have been murdered in similar ways in the same area. Remarkable how each character in the story could be a suspect.

very good
Vera Stanhope mystery