The Crow Trap by Ann Cleaves is another book in the piggy bank of the classics of the English detective. However, unlike many colleagues in the genre, in this work, Ann Cleaves is most interested not only in the crime itself and the procedure for exposing the killer, but also in a detailed analysis of the events that led to the disaster.The writer focuses on three very dissimilar women - Rachel, Ann and Grace. They find it difficult to get along, but they are forced to spend several weeks in the same house in the green hills and windy wastelands of Northern England, checking the area intended for development for rare specimens of plants and animals.The work is interrupted by the murder of one of them. Detective Vera Stanhope, who came to investigate the case, does not want them to leave the house in the hills: she believes that the killer will still return and it is easier to catch him with live bait. Is the victim's death related to an environmental audit, or is someone from the local village settling old scores with women? The fates of the main characters turn out to be intricately intertwined, and they need to have time to figure out these connections in order to understand the logic of the killer. However, to do this in a cottage in the desert hills, which they cannot leave like crows in a trap, is not at all easy ...