Come Death and High Water — Ann Cleeves

Was it a case of murder by committee at the Gillibry Island Bird Observatory Trust?

The members of the executive committee had gathered for a typical weekend of amiable wrangling and serious bird-watching. They had hardly expected Charlie Todd, who owned the island, to announce that he planned to sell it. A sale would mean the end of the Observatory...and of all that, for some of them, made life worth living.

A fire in Charlie Todd's cottage added to their distress. And when, next morning, after a fierce storm, they found Charlie dead in a bird hide, their pleasant September weekend assumed a dangerous new face.

The last committee member, George Palmer-Jones, amateur detective and former home Office staffer, arrived just in time to confirm what the rest suspected: that most of them had reason to hate Charlie Todd and one of them had almost certainly killed him. And would almost certainly kill again....