The Birdwatcher
- Judith D Collins
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Narrator: Gail Shalan
ISBN: 9780778368670
Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing | MIRA
Publication Date: 12/09/2025
Format: Other
My Rating: TBR
A Zibby's Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025!
From New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes a page-turning drama that explores the beauty of female friendship; the relationship between money, power, and sex; and the very human desire to protect the ones we love most.
When she is convicted of a double murder, Felicity Wild, a brilliant grad student turned high-priced escort, declares, “I may not be innocent, but I’m innocent of this.”
Reenie Bigelow never doubted it. A jury may have given Felicity a life sentence, but Reenie knows that her childhood best friend is not capable of murder. And so Reenie, a journalist, decides to use her deep connections to Felicity’s past to unravel the truth.
The more she uncovers, the more Reenie is convinced that the story the prosecution told is wrong, despite the puzzling fact that Felicity said not one single word in her own defense. But there's one thing Reenie knows for certain: Felicity would never lie.
Praise
“True to form, Mitchard delivers another masterful, multi-dimensional, riveting novel.”
—Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of We Are all Guilty Here
“The Birdwatcher is special, pushing the limits of friendship in a story that's as satisfying as it is heartbreaking, a compelling and insightful novel that readers won’t soon forget. I loved this book!”
—Karen Dionne, internationally bestselling author of The Marsh King’s Daughter
“As taut, compelling and unnerving as it is witty and compassionate, The Birdwatcher is one hell of a mystery. Mitchard illuminates friendship, romance and family with a bright and even tender light.”
—Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of In Love
“A deliciously dark novel with the kind of distinctive narrative voice every writer hopes to achieve.”
—Zibby Owens, bestselling author of Bookends
“A suspenseful, twisty, and page-turning drama. Fans of Jacquelyn Mitchard are going to love this one.”
—Lisa Genova, author of Still Alice
“Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Birdwatcher is at once a gripping mystery and a nuanced portrait of a complicated friendship. With her trademark insight and compassion, Mitchard explores the ways our pasts can both bind and betray us. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Adrienne Brodeur, bestselling author of Little Monsters
“Witty and insightful…[Mitchard] does an admirable job of creating a complex criminal scenario and portraying characters with nuanced feelings about old friendships, while also highlighting the interplay between sex, money, and power.”
—Kirkus
About the Author
Jacquelyn Mitchard is the New York Times bestselling author of 23 novels for adults and teenagers, and the recipient of Great Britain’s Talkabout prize, The Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards, and named to the short list for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was the inaugural selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club, with more than 3 million copies in print in 34 languages. It was later adapted into a major feature film starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Her novel Still Summer has also been adapted for a film still in production and her teen trilogy The Midnight Twins, is in development for a limited series by Kaleidoscope Entertainment. Her essay collection, The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, was drawn from her newspaper column syndicated by Tribune Media. Mitchard’s essays also have been published in magazines worldwide, widely anthologized, and incorporated into school curricula. She served on the Fiction jury for the 2003 National Book Awards and was editor-in-chief of Merit Press, a Young Adult imprint under the aegis of Simon and Schuster.
A Chicago native, Mitchard grew up the daughter of a plumber and a hardware store clerk who met as rodeo riders. She is a Distinguished Fellow at the Ragdale Foundation and a DeWitt Clinton Readers Digest Fellow at the MacDowell Colony. She has taught in MFA program for Creative Writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts, Miami University of Ohio and Western New England University and was a speechwriter for former U.S. Rep. and Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala. An avid Italian cook, she lives on Cape Cod with her husband and their nine children. Her newest novel, A Very Inconvenient Scandal, the story of Frankie Attleboro, an acclaimed young underwater photographer reeling from her mother’s shocking death, whose famous marine biologist father shatters the family by marrying Frankie’s best friend, is out from Mira/HarperCollins. WEBSITE
