Don’t open the cage!

Review by: Profile Editorial Team, 15/09/2022

 

Ava has been released from prison after a very long sentence. We don’t know what she did, but it’s bad enough for her to be given a new identity on release.

Caged Little Birds is a first-person account of Ava’s life on the outside.

As we follow Ava’s journey through resettlement – getting used to the internet, setting up home in a new town, starting to develop a relationship with her affable neighbour, Bill – we share in her anxieties over her identity being discovered. What would Bill think if he knew what she had done?  And what was she accused of? Tantalising glimpses are dotted through the book, a trail of breadcrumbs for the reader to follow.

The tension starts to ramp when Ava discovers that somebody out there has tracked her down. Somebody knows what she did. As we wait for the axe to fall, other wheels start coming off, building the tension and driving the story towards an unnerving climax.

Along the way we discover what she was accused of, and understand why a fresh identity is so necessary. We also learn what Ava is really capable of.

The pacing of the book is excellent – it keeps the reader turning the pages without showing its hand too early. A taut, suspenseful psychological thriller which keeps the reader entertained to the last page. Recommended.

Posted in: crime-thrillers-mystery