The first in the King's Lake series after DC Smith has retired. His protege, Waters, is the primary detective character in the series.
A woman is found dead near the beach and caravan compound that DC Smith used to frequent. Waters is the primary investigating officer. Things are changing back at the police station. ( )

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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DCI Reeve was in the room now, accompanied inevitably by Detective Chief Superintended Allen. Another promotion, how was that possible—what did he actually do all day but get in the way of more junior officers trying to solve crimes and bring about convictions. Waters stopped that train of thought. Over time, we all become our fathers and mothers, that's a sort of natural process. But surely we don't all become our first Detective Sergeant as well.

WHAT'S SONGBIRD ABOUT?
It's the first murder that's fallen under the jurisdiction of King's Lake since Chris Waters was promoted to Detective Sergeant, and it's time for him to step up.

There's been a killing at a caravan site that's well-known to Waters, and he knows the manager. This will both work for and against him, but early on it gives him some confidence—he knows this area and doesn't have to learn anything about his surroundings. He needs all the confidence he can get.

DI Terek and DCI Reeve take the lead on this investigation (Reeve's much more hands-on than her predecessor, and things are better for it). Some very convincing evidence leads them to focus on a suspect early, and they go about building their case.

For reasons he can explain, and some that remain ineffable, Chris Waters doesn't believe in their suspect's guilt and Waters follows his mentor's example and sniffs around a little himself. He doesn't have the relationship with his superiors that DC Smith did, though, so he has to be careful about it. Thankfully, Serena Butler (when she's not giving him grief over his promotion), agrees with him and the two are able to come up with some compelling reasons to look elsewhere for the guilty man.

PASSING THE BATON
It's a tricky thing that Grainger tries here—the series protagonist is gone, and yet it continues. It reminded me of when Kyra Sedgwick's Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson left The Closer and the show became Major Crimes, and the team was then led by Mary McDonnell's Capt. Sharon Raydor. The tone shifted, the characters got to grow and develop in different ways, the team functioned differently, and the approach they took to closing cases changed, too. But the show still worked.

Grainger's always kept a broad view of the characters while focusing on DC Smith in the past—now we spend a little more time with everyone, but the focus is on Chris. That alone will change how things go—Chris has less experience to draw upon, he's not quite as jaded (but he's getting there), and generally sees things differently. The introduction of Cara Freeman and her methods to the mix also changes things (sure, she's been around for a while, but we really see her at work here).

So the series continues, it just looks and feels a little different. But the core of the storytelling seems like it's going to persevere.

GILDART JACKSON'S NARRATION
It's a subtle thing, but I thought I picked up a little change in the narration—it's got less of "DC's voice" but it's still distinct from other books that Jackson's narrated. Maybe it's all in my head, but I think I can tell the difference in his approach to the books. It doesn't matter, Jackson's voice and characterizations bring me to King's Lake Central they bring the world to life. Another great job by Jackson.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT SONGBIRD?
Okay, the initial suspect was clearly innocent—and it took far, far too long for someone to figure out where the evidence that implicated him came from—it was maddening yelling at my phone, waiting for them to get there. But it was satisfying very satisfying when they finally put two and two together.

And for readers of procedurals, the guilty party was pretty clear all along—but getting to the motive and then working the case so that they had evidence to arrest, that was great. Watching Waters and the rest carry on Smith's mission was exactly what a fan wants—and the new DCI in charge of the Murder Squad, Cara Freeman has her own style and pace that makes for a pleasant new dynamic.

The plot part of this novel wasn't Grainger at his best, but it was close enough (so close). But the heart of this book was on the transitions—the team moving on from DC, the further establishment of the Murder Squad, Waters transitioning to DS (and people getting used to that), DC transitioning to his new life—plus some personal stuff that I don't want to spoil. And Grainger absolutely nailed it.

As this is a transition point—it's a great time to jump in. Yeah, there's a lot of backstory, but none of it is necessary to get 98% of this book.

This had to be a tricky needle to thread for the series (singular or plural, take your pick), and Songbird pulled it off. I'm not at all surprised to see it, but I'm very pleased. ( )

This is a bit weird: nothing at all happens, and yet I couldn't stop listening. I was really fascinated with the story and the characters.

A small point: there are lots of references to events and people from the past. When I bought the book, I had no idea that it is a spin-off from another crime series by the author.
However, what is relevant to this story is explained well enough, so I could look past the allusions to previous events I know nothing about.

The narration was great, and I now bought the sequel which was published (as audio) only five days ago. ( )

I finished this one a few days ago and then had to set it aside to think about it -- something I often have to do with books in this series.

The mystery is a good one, and while there were a few red herrings that I figured out very quickly, I didn't answer the main mystery any faster than the detectives did themselves.

I'm still not convinced about the change in main characters for the series. And without the normal "main", I felt that at least the first half of the book lacked a central pivot point. Which, I suppose, is a polite way of saying I experienced it as being all over the place. I even found myself easily setting the book aside to be picked up "later". I don't think I've ever willingly done that with one of Grainger's books before. Things settled down and moved forward for me in the second half of the book --with the help of some of the more senior officers.

Am I not connecting with the new detective (even though I really enjoyed his story when he was the side-kick) because I am old and he is young and inexperienced and a bit shallow (which is a complement to Peter Grainger's writing if I am feeling the character's youth to that extent)? His feet, and even legs from the knees down, are very clay. And he needs a good swat to the side of his head as far as the women in his life are concerned. Really! Where is his mother?

Despite my ambivalence about parts of the story, it still received 4 stars which means that I will (and have) gone back to re-read parts of it. That is more than I can say about the previous book in the series. And I'll certainly read any other stories Peter comes up with. This is one of my "very most favorite" series of the last decade.

Still, just hmmm, gonna have to keep thinking about why I felt the way I did as I was reading it. (less) ( )