HABITAT

Another wild and wooly chapter in the life of Venus Diamond, an agent with the Department of the Interior—Fish and Wildlife division. Strange things are happening at Breedhaven Laboratory, a research center on Helix Island, off the coast of Washington State. The work there is centered on the saving of endangered species and is largely the province of world-renowned Dr. Hannah Strindberg. Years of collecting and freezing the DNA of threatened species has produced a kind of ark for the future. Then Hannah dies, in a Seattle restaurant fire—almost certainly arson—along with other scientists celebrating the passage of a treaty aiding their cause. Hannah’s close friend and working colleague Oly Olsen calls on Venus to investigate, even though she is still on leave after her marriage to environmentalist Richard Winters. Venus protests but undertakes the job, beginning a search for the motive behind Hannah’s death and some other mysterious happenings on the island. Breedhaven has a board of trustees: island dwellers often opposed to the laboratory’s goings-on. Venus soon uncovers the agent at work for a foreign country—trying to find Hannah’s ark and her decoding materials. Ulterior motives and betrayals of trust abound, and what has happened to the genetically pure Borneo Bay kittens? There’s more—much more—as Venus manages to survive in this grossly overstuffed saga, bearing no trace of the crispness and clarity present (in small amounts) in previous outings. (Wildcrafters, 1998, etc.)