A Little Bird in Aussie Readers

Nov 24, 2021 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: own-read, arc, psychological-thriller, aussie-authors, net-galley, 2021-release, 5000-2021, read-on-kindle, suspense

The memories of her mother and baby sister’s disappearance twenty five years ago hadn’t left Jo Sharpe since that day, and now, arriving back in Arthurville to a new job and a frail, embittered father, she wondered whether she’d done the right thing in returning. Her new job at the local newspaper, The Chronicle, was a step-down for Jo, but she knew it was what she needed. Her latest relationship in tatters, there was nothing left in the city for her. Now, catching up with old friends, finding a ...more

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Jan 02, 2022 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley-reviews, arc-are, aussie-author

A Little Bird is an intriguing, character-driven mystery from Australian author Wendy James.

When the end of her relationship coincides with learning her father is ill, journalist Jo Sharpe reluctantly returns to her home town of Arthurville in western New South Wales to take up a position at the town’s local newspaper. Her father, a grumpy alcoholic, bitter about his wife’s desertion over twenty years ago, hasn’t changed much but the town, in the grip of drought, is in obvious decline.

One of Jo A Little Bird is an intriguing, character-driven mystery from Australian author Wendy James.

When the end of her relationship coincides with learning her father is ill, journalist Jo Sharpe reluctantly returns to her home town of Arthurville in western New South Wales to take up a position at the town’s local newspaper. Her father, a grumpy alcoholic, bitter about his wife’s desertion over twenty years ago, hasn’t changed much but the town, in the grip of drought, is in obvious decline.

One of Jo’s first assignments for the Arthurville Chronicle, which is really not more than a community newsletter, takes her to Pembroke, her wealthy grandmothers estate on the outskirts of town. The Beaufort’s are little more than strangers to Jo, given they disowned her mother, Miranda aka Merry when she married Jo’s working class father, and failed to reach out even after Merry vanished, taking Jo’s baby sister Amy with her, in 1995.

Confronted with her past, Jo is motivated to re-examine her mother’s disappearance, and makes a shocking discovery that changes everything.

Shifting between the past and present, as Merry’s history unfolds, exposing her frame of mind prior to her disappearance, Jo’s narrative, set in 2018, is related in the first person.

Jo is a well-developed, likeable character. She presents as resilient, smart and determined, though her vulnerabilities, stemming from her mother’s abandonment, her father’s neglect, and the collapse of her long term romantic relationship, are evident.

The small community of Arthurville is realistically portrayed, a conservative rural town affected by drought and the subsequent economic downturn. Of its residents I was fond of local vicar Shep, with whom Jo rekindles a relationship, as well as the teens he is mentoring.

Jo’s investigation begins as she reconnects with the people from her past, most notably her mother’s friend, Kirsty, who provides Jo with some information that prompts her to look at Merry’s disappearance differently. While I felt the pacing was a little slow through the first half of the novel, there is a gradual increase of tension during the second half. I really liked the way the mystery played out, I thought James’ plotting was clever, and I was anxious to understand Merry and Amy’s fate.

A slow-burning, but gripping domestic thriller, I enjoyed A Little Bird. ...more

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Nov 27, 2021 Tien rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-author, for-review, australia, net-galley, kindle

This is the first time I have read this author even as her name sounds vaguely familiar, I just haven't read any of her previous books. A Little Bird is a story set in a small Australian community where, on the surface, nothing terrible ever happened. Yet, as we follow our journalist protagonist, Jo Sharpe, as she returned to her hometown and searched for reasons her mother left town when she was a little girl.

I found A Little Bird to be very easy and riveting read; easily likeable protagonist, ...more

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Dec 02, 2021 Bree T rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, australian, mystery, rural-lit, crime, family, aww2021

This has all the best elements of Australian rural crime

Josephine is returning to the small, dusty drought-prone place where she grew up. It wasn’t a particularly happy childhood, after her mother and baby sister vanished never to be seen again when Jo was around 8 years old. What was a missing persons investigation was closed when Jo’s father received a letter from her mother saying she wasn’t returning and after that, it was just assumed she’d left of her own volition. Jo has had to live with This has all the best elements of Australian rural crime

Josephine is returning to the small, dusty drought-prone place where she grew up. It wasn’t a particularly happy childhood, after her mother and baby sister vanished never to be seen again when Jo was around 8 years old. What was a missing persons investigation was closed when Jo’s father received a letter from her mother saying she wasn’t returning and after that, it was just assumed she’d left of her own volition. Jo has had to live with the fact that her mother took her sister with her but not her, her whole life. Her father turned to the bottle and Jo left town as soon as she finished school and hasn’t been back much. Until now.

She’s been offered a job to take over the local flagging newspaper, a mysterious benefactor paying for her employment. The catch is, she can only report positive stories and news. Whoever funds the paper isn’t interested in crime or bad happenings. It’s good times only – the bigger papers in the bigger cities can handle anything dark. Jo finds this….odd but goes with it. She covers local school events, functions, feel-good community stories but in being back in town, the disappearance of her mother and her sister is always on her mind.

Jo is a tough, independent type of character. She practically had to raise herself, she’s been on her own for a long time. Her relationship with her father is rough but not unsalvageable although the two of them have a lot of baggage and things to work through but they’re not the types to sit down and air it all out. Being back in her hometown is complex for Jo, there are all sorts of memories to confront. A lot of people she knows still live there and sometimes that’s good…..sometimes, not so.

Quite unintentionally, Jo discovers some things that make her realise that her mother’s leaving might not be as straightforward as it seems all those years ago and why none of her attempts to find her have ever been successful. Jo wants answers because I think that anyone in her position would want to know if their mother had chosen to leave them behind, in such a way. Or had they been a victim of something that meant that they weren’t able to return. A lot of Jo’s character has been shaped by her mother leaving and the story is excellent at showing the reader this without going into long inner monologues from Jo.

I also really enjoyed the character of Jo’s father. Mick Sharpe is a complicated character – a very young father, who attracted a girl from a very different background to his. A girl that then disappeared when they were still only in their mid-20s, leaving Mick a single father to Jo. He didn’t cope well with that and made mistakes but not through lack of caring about Jo or not wanting to be there, I don’t think. He’s always lived close to the poverty line, worked a hard physical job for not much financial reward and found solace in drink. He was a tough, reticent, very rural-Aussie-man type of character who does not do well talking about his feelings and often avoids things but still has ways of showing that he does care quite deeply for Jo and was very shook by the disappearance of his wife and baby daughter.

I found this incredibly engaging from the first page. I really wanted to know what had happened to Jo’s mother and sister and felt like this book did such an amazing job of showcasing the small town, the difference between some of the bigger properties with wealth behind them and those who have much less. Jo’s feelings about her return come across well as do her feelings about her father and her childhood. I also loved her connection with someone she knew when she was still living there and was hoping that’d play out in a particular way.

***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more

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