Crime fiction is one of the most popular genres worldwide. It caters for a variety of audiences: readers who launch themselves into an intense competition with the detective for who is going to identify the villain first; those who enjoy being thrilled from the comfort of their armchairs; and those who like to be immersed in the social and political issues that arise from confronting investigations. Author of the acclaimed The Mother (2022), Walkley Award-winning journalist and social commentator Jane Caro returns with a second crime novel, Lyrebird, that will appeal to crime fiction enthusiasts interested in delving into major issues of our times, such as gender violence and climate change. The titular bird first appears in the Prologue, when student ornithologist Jessica Weston films its mating dance and song in the remote New South Wales Barrington Tops National Park. Suddenly, a lyrebird mimics an unknown woman screaming for her life in what sounds like Spanish. Terrified, Weston goes to the nearest police station but nobody accepts her video as evidence that a crime has been committed, apart from a junior police detective, Megan Blaxland, who is then asked to close the case. The ‘lyrebird case’ is ignored for twenty years until a landslip reveals a woman’s skeleton in the Burraga Swamps, exactly where the lyrebird danced. Now a retired senior sergeant, Blaxland returns to the police force as a consultant to reopen the case. Blaxland teams up with her original partner, Philip Arlott, and a small team of eager young cops. She is also helped by Weston, who, in the meantime, has become a biology professor and is also the mother of a rebellious daughter, fifteen-year-old climate activist Sheridan. Soon, other bodies are discovered in the Burraga Swamps and the search for a possible serial killer exposes horrific crimes, such as illegal sex work and human trafficking, as bushfires close in on the investigators and suspects.