Bird begins in Brooklyn where Catherine was last seen. Soon he is dodging killers in Virginia and has teamed up with a gay couple, who make a living as hitmen. That follows up with a tip from a Creole psychic that takes Bird to the Louisiana Bayou where he must confront the notorious serial killer, The Traveling Man. Cops do poetry and reference college professors. Professionally lethal hitmen are gay or impotent.
Psychic phenomena move the dark tale forward.
Yet with all that upheaval to the sub-genre norm, the story line works due to the fact that the characters feel authentic.