Endangered: A Zoo Mystery

An animal rescue mission kick starts Littlewood’s engaging third “zoo-dunit” starring spunky Vancouver, Wash., zookeeper Iris Oakley (after 2010’s Did Not Survive). At the behest of Iris’s boss at the Finley Memorial Zoo, Iris and co-worker Denny Stellar head to a desolate meth lab/pot farm recently busted by the DEA, where they find dozens of poorly cared-for exotic birds and endangered tortoises, what looks to be the inventory for a wildlife smuggling operation. Then Iris makes a truly shocking discovery: a murdered teenage girl. Though many single parents with full-time jobs would be happy to let the authorities hunt those responsible, Iris isn’t one of them—and her snooping quickly puts both her and her toddler son in jeopardy. Iris’s attempts to find romance lend some human interest, but Littlewood, herself a onetime zookeeper, remains most compelling when focusing on creatures of the furred and feathered variety. (July)