A SUPERIOR DEATH
By Nevada Barr
Texas park ranger Anna Pigeon (Track of the Cat, 1993) proves she's much more than a regional specialist when she's reassigned to the frigid North Shore of Lake Superior and hears two divers' tales of finding six bodies in the Kamloops, a sunken 1927 wreck where there are supposed to be only five. Who could've killed dive concessionaire Denny Castle on his honeymoon night--and what was he doing down there anyway? With his on-again-off-again lover Donna Butkus missing (her ranger husband Scotty's story that she's visiting her sick sister is no match for flaky Tinker and Damien Coggins-Clarke's accusation that he's killed and eaten her), the field is almost too rich: his young widow Jo, aggrieved Scotty, Denny's diving partners (and heirs) Hawk and Holly Bradshaw, whatever mysterious man innkeeper Patience Bradshaw's daughter Carrie Ann is making time with--all of them with variously guilty secrets of their own. But the final revelation of culprit and motive will surprise all but the most alert readers. A crackling good mystery, fleshed out by a detective and a supporting cast far more human than they need to be.