Blue Poppy

A passionate and knowledgeable environmentalist sensibility governs Moody's second tale (after Rain Dance). Fish and Wildlife agent Venus Diamond works outside of Seattle and is called to investigate when a biologist is shot to death on government land leased to a perfumery that cultivates Tibetan blue poppies. As Venus begins to look into the man's death, she learns that, on the same day, a chef at a nearby resort died from eating a poisonous root--a suspicious demise for one who who routinely used wild ingredients in his menus. Are the deaths related? Her boss doesn't really care, since he's getting federal pressure to clear the scientist's murder quickly so the sale of the leased land can go through. As the poppies come into bloom, the perfumery gets ready to launch its annual national ad campaign with the picture of a supermodel taken in the colorful field. But the model is shot dead as she poses amid the flowers. The solution arrives by a somewhat disappointing route when a peripheral character comes forward and tells all. But Moody is good not only at describing landscape but also at evoking her heroine's love of it. Venus observes people illegally harvesting flora in a government-owned valley, a crime she describes as stripping the valley of ""its Van Gogh cloak, the rape of pointillism."" This solid mystery is enhanced with graceful digressions into such topics as the lifecycle of the endangered Dungeness silverspot butterfly and Northwest American Indian legends. (Aug.)