John McCarthy writes:
Alumna Linda Lombardi (PhD 1991) has published her first mystery novel, The Eye of the Sloth. You can read the first chapter and preorder it at her website,http://www.lindalombardi.com. The blurb follows:
Everyone comes to the zoo to see the charming yearly ritual of elephants playfully stomping pumpkins at Halloween. Small mammal keeper Hannah usually thinks it'’s not fair— -- why do the big animals get all the attention? But this year the fun turns deadly: Victor, lover of charismatic zoo director Allison, is found dead in the elephant yard— -- where he'’d been left with a pumpkin carved to fit his head.
Just when Hannah'’s feeling lucky to be in the background, Allison
reveals her plan to distract the media from the murder: it'’s a
celebration of the new wombat that she promised to the Small Mammal
House. Now Hannah’'s swept into the spotlight and into the middle of some mysterious conflict between Allison and her boss Chris, with whom she'’s trying halfheartedly not to fall in love.
But the real trouble begins when she discovers that her favorite sloth
has been kidnapped -- —obviously an inside job— -- and then she and Chris are threatened as well. Desperate to find her sloth, Hannah finds out almost too late whom she should have trusted.
At the zoo, everyday decisions— -- from the treatment of a sick animal, to how a keeper handles a dangerous predator— -- can have life-and-death
consequences. What better setting for a mystery?
