A Dance of Cranes

Canadian author Burrows’s sixth Birder Murder mystery (after 2018’s A Tiding of Magpies) smoothly integrates bird conservation concerns with a complex mystery plot. Det. Chief Insp. Dominic Jejeune has returned home to Ontario after a stint working in Saltmarsh, England, where his girlfriend, Lindy Hey, was the target of a psycho. Dominic, who has ended his relationship with Lindy, is confident the psycho is no longer a threat to her. He gets worried about another loved one when he learns that his brother, Damian, has gone missing in a remote area of Wood Buffalo National Park. Damian was studying whooping crane migration with a colleague, Annie Prior, when both of their communications equipment went silent simultaneously. Though the park officials are unconcerned, Dominic rushes to the scene, unaware that Annie is already dead. Burrows keeps readers guessing about what’s going on even as he introduces another plotline—Dominic’s former colleagues in the Saltmarsh PD are investigating the murder of music writer Wattis Wright, a crime with a particularly clever solution. Readers who like their whodunits with an ecological tinge will be happy. Agent: Bruce Westwood, Westwood Creative Artists. (Aug.)