Iris Oakley, a young zookeeper at Finley Memorial Zoo in Vancouver, Washington, hopes to reconcile with her newly-sober husband, Rick. But when he’s found dead drunk—and just plain dead—in the lion exhibit, a paralyzing mix of grief and anger at his betrayal keeps Iris from asking the tough questions. But soon Iris realizes this “accident” doesn’t make sense for a lot of reasons.
Zoo staff help and hinder, offering disconcerting theories and scraps of information. After a near-fatal accident with a tiger, Iris loses her job as feline keeper and must transfer to a new area, birds. As she begins to figure out that Rick’s death was not as simple as it seemed, she encounters more deadly accidents.
In the end, her intimate knowledge of the zoo—animals and humans—leads her to the truth. Then she must survive to prove it.
About Ann
