Marilyn Victor & Michael Allan Mallory, Death Roll

Death Roll

Marilyn Victor & Michael Allan Mallory

Five Star, May 2007, $25.95

ISBN: 159414544X

The Minnesota Valley Zoo hosts the Beastly Ball to raise public awareness and funding. However, as the staff escorts the visiting dignitaries to the newest exhibit, the Australian Walkabout Trail featuring Crocodile Island, the corpse of the disliked director Anthony Wright is found.

Police Detective Ole Sorenson arrests lead crocodile handler Johnny Ray "JR" Erling as the evidence strongly points to him, especially since he vanished soon after Wright's mutilated body was found in the habitat of Sebastian and Babe. Zookeeper Lavender "Snake" Jones and her spouse herpetologist Jeff believe otherwise; they investigate, but every clue the amateur sleuths uncover affirms the police belief that JR killed Wright.

Timing aside with the recent tragic death of the Crocodile Hunter as Jeff seems so much like Steve Irwin, this is a fine amateur sleuth in which Snake's investigation enables the audience to see what goes on behind the exhibits of a zoo. The deep look at a zoo is cleverly interwoven into the whodunit, but is so well done, the Minnesota Valley Zoo feels like a key character. Fans will enjoy this fine murder mystery in which every clue points toward JR being a killer hiding his illegal peddling of wild animals with only Snake and Jeff having doubts that are slowly vanishing with one clue after another.

Harriet Klausner