The Naming of the Birds

O’Donnell writes a sequel to the Victorian London–set The House on Vesper Sands. Sergeant Gideon Bliss has now worked with Inspector Henry Cutter for 13 months, and he can see that Cutter’s upset after receiving a note; instead of his usual outbursts, he has become silent and withdrawn. Regardless, Bliss and Cutter begin looking into a series of murders of retired civil servants, all of whom have been killed in unusual, gruesome ways. Cutter seems to have a scattershot way of investigating, sending Bliss to search archives and records going back 20 years, even as the killer they are seeking claims new victims. Their journalist ally, Octavia Hillingdon, deploys her own research skills to discover a key monument and a fire at an orphanage. Cutter, Bliss, and Hillingdon are followed as they investigate, and shadowy government departments try to interfere. Despite violence and danger, Cutter is determined to find answers, although identifying the killer might not lead to justice.