posted on 26 Apr 2023

Clutch by M.G. Leonard

Award-winning children’s novelist, M.G. Leonard brings us a third instalment of the adventures of the bird-watching detectives that featured in the earlier books, Twitch and Spark.

It’s Spring in Aves Wood but Twitch’s excitement at this chance to watch his beloved birds nesting is about to be cruelly disrupted when he discovers the police are out in force to investigate the theft of a clutch of rare peregrine falcon eggs. The outraged Twitch immediately runs off to tell his best friend, Jack what has happened and between them the boys vow to protect all the other birds and catch the thief.

The two boys review who they think might be responsible for the outrage but it’s a big job because an annual fishing competition taking place in the local river has brought in a number of strangers and one particular outsider – Jed Butler – who is top of their list of suspects. Bird egg collectors are breaking the law but that doesn’t stop them – in fact it makes them more devious and so Twitch and Jack are going to need help and all the old bird detective gang needs to be called back together to help. Soon Twitch and Jack are joined by Ava, Tippi, Ozuru, Terry and Tara and all of them pledge to help Twitch and Jack fulfil their pledge to protect the birds and catch the thief.

As you might expect, there are plenty of twists and turns as the friends try to pin the cunning criminal down – but things are not quite as they seem at first and, it turns out, no-one can be trusted. Soon the stakes are raised even higher when a pair of rare spoonbills come to nest near the woods and the team realise that this will be a prime target for the egger: but the team are put firmly on the backfoot when Twitch himself becomes the police’s main suspect!

There’s something delightfully old-fashioned about this gang of bird-watchers because they can’t help but call to mind the adventures of the Famous Five or Secret Seven and the sense of comradeship is infectious. Leonard manages to weave into the story plenty of interesting information about birds, the joys of bird-watching in countryside settings and you’ll even discover information about competition fishing. But she does all of this without making it into a lecture or masking the pace and ingenuity of the mystery.

Published by Walker Books, you will be able to get this from your local independent bookshop. If they don’t have it on their shelves, they will be happy to order it for you at the bargain price of £7.99.

 

Terry Potter

April 2023