The Birdcage cover art

The Birdcage

The spellbinding new mystery from the author of Sunday Times bestseller and Richard and Judy pick The Glass House

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The Birdcage

By: Eve Chase
Narrated by: Aurora Dawson-Hunte, Taj Atwall
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The new novel from the author of Sunday Times bestseller and Richard and Judy Pick The Glass House

Some secrets need to be set free . . .

Lauren, Kat and Flora are half-sisters who share a famous artist father - and a terrible secret.

Over the years they've grown into wildly different lives. But an invitation to Rock Point, the Cornish cliff house where they once sat for their father's most celebrated painting, Girls and Birdcage, reunites them.

Rock Point is a beautiful, windswept place, thick with secrets, electrically charged with the events of the summer - twenty years before - that the family daren't discuss. And there is someone in the shadows watching their every move. Someone who remembers the girls in the painting - and what they did.

An emotional mystery full of dark secrets and twists, transporting the reader to the rugged remote landscape of north Cornwall.

'Eve Chase does it again! A bittersweet, beautifully written, slow burn family drama with a killer kick in the closing chapters. I loved every word of it' Lisa Jewell, bestselling author of The Night She Disappeared

'Gorgeously written, atmospheric and twisty . . . I devoured it!' Claire Douglas, bestselling author of The Couple at No. 9

'Immersive, tense and ultimately redemptive, while I was reading, it held me completely in its grip' Sarah Vaughan, bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal

'I loved it . . . engrossing, gripping and layered' Gillian McAllister, bestselling author of That Night

© Eve Chase 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Family Life Genre Fiction Gothic Historical Horror Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction Scary Fiction Exciting

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Critic reviews

Eve Chase does it again! The Birdcage is glorious; a bittersweet, beautifully written, slow burn family drama with a killer kick in the closing chapters. I loved every word of it (Lisa Jewell, bestselling author of The Night She Disappeared)
Eve Chase is one of my favourite authors and I fell in love with The Birdcage. A gorgeously written, atmospheric and twisty story of sisters and secrets set on the Cornish coast. Eve Chase's books never fail to make me cry. I devoured it! (Claire Douglas, bestselling author of The Couple at No. 9)
Eve Chase never disappoints. The far west of Cornwall is evoked in all its wild and mystical glory in this lyrical and propulsive family drama about three sisters whose lives have been overshadowed by a tragic secret on the eve of the 1999 eclipse. Chase conjures up a bohemian, artistic world filled with damaged daughters and their charismatic, largely absent and narcissistic father. Immersive, tense and ultimately redemptive, while I was reading, it held me completely in its grip. (Sarah Vaughan, bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal)
Atmospheric and twisty: think Daphne Du Maurier for the modern day
I loved it . . . engrossing, gripping and layered (Gillian McAllister, bestselling author of That Night)
Atmospheric and beautifully written. I absolutely loved it. (Jane Fallon, bestselling author of Worst Idea Ever)
Beautiful, page-turning, with believable characters you root for, this will sweep you away. I loved it (Katie Fforde, bestselling author of Wedding Season)
I loved this atmospheric story about families and secrets
The Birdcage is a show-stopping novel - beautifully written and atmospheric, with a cast of fascinating, brilliantly realised characters whose story kept me absolutely gripped. Eve Chase has an extraordinary talent - she's one of the only writers I would drop anything for (Rosie Walsh, bestselling author of The Man Who Didn't Call)
A beautifully written-mystery in an evocative Cornish setting at the time of the eclipse. Stunning (Catherine Cooper, bestselling author of The Chalet)
All stars
Most relevant
A delightful read with intrigue and drama. Wonderfully vivid descriptions transport you back & forth through time in this story centred around three sisters. Would highly recommend.

Beautifully written & performed

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Great story, based in a great location. I loved the characters and it had a great ending!

Great story

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I'm not sure if it was the writing, the narration, or both; but I found this book so full of clichés and stereotypes. For me, the narration was over the top and the characters just became characatures. Sorry.

Cliché after cliché

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Very very slow, overly descriptive. Only getting to the point in the last hour or two… not for me.

Something and nothing!

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Hate when you pre-order a book by an author whose work you have loved in the past and it falls flat despite many attemps to love it.
I have a mixed history with Eve Chase - I adored "The vanishing of Audrey Wilde", could not even get into "The Glass House" despite numerous attemps and much hopefull patience and although I did like parts of "Black rabbit Hall" the animal cruelty just left such a horrible taste in my mouth it ruined the whole thing for me.
Should I have preordered "The Birdcage" after such a mixed bag of feelings for Eve Chase's books?
In this case definitely not.
In part it was the narration which spoiled it for me as two of the sisters - Cat and Laurel sounded very similar to me and I found the accent very grating.
I did however enjoy the Flora narration and looking at the credits it seems like Cat and Laurel were indeed voiced by the same narrator which would be fine if all three were in the same accent but 2 narrators for three characters just seems designed to confuse and muddy the waters of a complicated structure.
I loved the premise, the famous bohemian portrait painter, his three daughters from three different women and all the emotions such a set up could not help but fail to produce.
I loved the idea of the then/now structure and the mystery of what happened at the eclipse in Cornwall.
So far so good as a story outline but oh dear it did not deliver.
Flora, now a fat obsessed mum under pressure with a toddler, then a rare beauty who had no idea of her allure.
Cat, now a health app mogul, then a wild swimmer.
Laurel, always feeling like an outcast then and now as a late comer to the family circle. Now struggling with anxiety and phobias.
That is all I know about the sisters after reading and rereading chapters as kept losing concentration and even so this is somewhat hazy so might not be 100% accurate.
Another exciting element which fails to launch is the flame haired nanny/art assistant who now has gone a bit to seed.
She was my favourite character but I cannot even remember her name at this stage which speaks volumes - I want to say Maggie???
And there you have it - fabulous outline for a book but in execution I just could not seem to care.
Thanks in part to the narration I really did not care for Cat or Laurel and Flora was just depressing with a lot ofovuation/baby planning angst and struggling with a feisty toddler and a dull husband.
YAWN!
I did love Bertha the parrot but the poor bird could not carry the whole story.
I never found out about the anonymous notes or what happened at the eclipse though I do have my suspicions that somebody died.
Lost the will to listen as the monotony was just overwhelming.
Perhaps if it had just been Charlie the painter, his bird loving mum, the titian nanny, all the many women from his past and Bertha the parrot it might have made for a better book as those sisters were as dull as ditch water and seemed just very one dimensional.
This is a return for me.

Tale of three sisters - could not seem to care ...

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