Everyone in Reedmere knows what a line of crows on the church roof means. Edie Thorne knows better.

Edie has rung her last school bell. On the day she retires, her roof falls in. The next morning a painted cart, an old grey donkey and a note are waiting at her door: You alwayes said one day.

So she takes to the road with Arnold, a donkey with opinions, Inkwell, a cat nobody invited, and a life list of birds forty-six years out of date. A dry, very literal voice called Verdict has started counting again.

In Reedmere the bitterns have stopped booming. The villagers blame the crows. Edie suspects a person.

Before she's done there will be a wrecked sluice, a poisoned prize goose, a ruin that screams at night, and a stranger in a very good coat who asks one question too many about rare eggs.

Someone wants the birds quiet. Edie is stubborn enough to find out why.

Cozy mystery. Older sleuth, animal sidekicks, a LitRPG voice that counts every bird. Book 1 of The Life List Mysteries.