First published 1998
Twelve-year-old Joseph Coyne vanishes without a trace. Detective Parker promises the boy's family he will bring Joseph home alive. He fails to keep that promise. When a second child disappears under identical conditions, Parker follows the evidence to a decrepit house with an attached aviary. The caged finches draw neighborhood boys like magnets, but the yard's mysterious owner has darker intentions for his young visitors. Parker becomes convinced the killer is already choosing his third target, a child the detective knows personally. Racing against time, he teams up with a child psychologist to decode the predator's psychology and expose a terrible secret. Parker must solve the case before another family loses their son forever.
Genres: mystery, crime, detective, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: race-against-time, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Yard
340 pages · Hardcover · Hodder & Stoughton
Content warnings: child-death