Who knew bird-egg trafficking would make a fascinating topic for a crime novel? Apparently Belinda Bauer did, as her first release since 2021's Exit is an extraordinary, funny story about people who steal and deal rare bird eggs.
The Impossible Thing follows two timelines 100 years apart. In the 1920s, little Celie Sheppard, a poor six-year-old child living on a farm, decides she wants omelets. Since her single mom can barely afford rent and food, Celie asks their farmhand to dangle her dangerously off a cliff so she can grab eggs freshly laid by guillemots perched under the overhang. When she comes up with a bright red egg--something the world has never seen--a broker pays her handsomely for it so he can sell it to one of his egg-collecting clients.
In the present, Patrick Fort (the winning protagonist from Bauer's excellent Rubbernecker) finds his friend Weird Nick and Weird Nick's mom tied up in their house after a robbery. The only item stolen was an egg in a fancy wooden box Weird Nick had found in the attic. As the chapters unfold, the links between Celie, Patrick, and Weird Nick become clear.
Bauer (The Beautiful Dead; Snap) has an inimitable, captivating voice that pivots between breathtaking sadness and utter hilarity. For instance, because Celie's mother struggles to pay rent every month, the little girl believes the landlord is named "Mr. Bastard--first name, That." Celie and Patrick are scrappy, endearing protagonists, and falling in love with them is a very possible thing. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, reviewer and freelance editor at The Edit Ninja