Mesozoic Murder (Ansel Phoenix Mysteries, 1) - Softcover

Gentry, Christine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590580869 ISBN 13: 9781590580868

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2004

Synopsis

Ansel Phoenix draws dinosaurs for magazines, books, and museum displays. But one morning, digging with students out in the field, she unearths the body of colleague and ex-lover Nick Capos. Shocked and grieved over the murder, and not trusting the Big Toe police who've an axe to grind with her father, Ansel decides to investigate what Capos had been doing during the last few months of his life. She soon suspects he was working on a secret, possibly illegal project worth killing for. Her list of possible suspects grows by the hour as someone starts stalking her across the Montana landscape - a master predator who will stop at nothing. Why is Nick's fossil collection missing and why had he developed a recent interest in Baltic amber?

Ansel must also deal with the challenges of her own half-Anglo, half-Blackfoot heritage; with her ranching family and the changes threatening their rural community; and with more than one Mesozoic mystery....

About this title

About the Author:

Christine Gentry lives in Florida and has been writing and working in the book world for 20 years, publishing magazine articles, fiction and nonfiction books. She has also taught freelance writing and police report writing to law enforcement officials. Carnosaur Crimes is her second Ansel Phoenix mystery.

From Publishers Weekly:

Sometimes it seems as if there's almost too much meat on Gentry's debut, a juicy Montana mystery introducing Ansel Phoenix, who draws dinosaurs for a living. To her Indian heritage (she's half-Blackfoot), Ansel adds artistic skills and scientific knowledge plus professional standing as president of the Pangaea Society, "a non-profit, community-based organization devoted to the study of fossils." A traumatic childhood incident has left Ansel sensitive to slights over her Indian blood but proud of her heritage. On a fossil-hunting field trip with a group of students, Ansel finds the grave of a recently murdered colleague and former lover, Nick Capos. Unwilling to reveal her past involvement and distrustful of the police, Ansel decides on her own to try to solve Capos's murder. The author grounds the story in plenty of science (nothing too complicated) and Native American culture and lore. As Ansel learns more about the victim, she also begins uncovering disquieting facts about other members of the Pangaea Society. Her unwelcome investigations lead to warnings, threats and ultimately physical abuse. Gentry's appealing heroine, who gets ample opportunity to display her resourcefulness and fortitude, and the intriguing milieu in which she operates, should ensure both a warm reception and a speedy encore.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1590580869
• ISBN 13: 9781590580868
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432