An Old Betrayal in Sing Like a Canary

Retired police officer Marjorie Pierce has come to Lanzarote with unfinished business in Isobel Blackthorn's Sing Like a Canary. She is looking for Billy Mackenzie, a man connected to a grievance from her working life. A chance encounter with a letter bearing his adopted name gives that search an unexpected direction.

Recognition creates a new risk

In the opening, Marjorie recognizes a signature she has not forgotten. The letter belongs to another woman's conversation and history, so recognizing it does not mean Marjorie can openly ask every question she wants answered.

Her own decision to introduce herself under a false name complicates the exchange. A former investigator is now managing an identity she has improvised, while trying to gather information without revealing her purpose. That makes trust a problem in her behavior as well as in the man she wants to find.

A holiday setting with private motives

The café and the island's visitors give Marjorie's search a setting where an apparently casual meeting can carry significance. The interest lies in what each person chooses to disclose and what Marjorie believes she can infer from it.

Marjorie's experience helps her recognize the signature, but recognition has not made the encounter easy to manage. Her improvised name now sits beside the alias she has identified in the letter. Pursuing Billy means deciding what to reveal while her own personal stake makes an apparently casual conversation difficult to keep casual.