A SUPERIOR DEATH

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.