A Murder of Crows

A stranger walks into Winifred Baxter's apothecary and buys elderflower capsules he plainly doesn't need. He asks careful questions about the old Wexford family. And when he leaves, there is a playing card on the counter - the three of clubs, the same one Copernicus brought her last winter and that she has never been able to explain.

By the next morning the crows have come. Nine of them, then more, in a silent row along the church roof, and the old people of Pelican Cove begin to mutter the ...