Tiger's Palette — Jacqueline Fiedler

A ZOO FULL OF CAGEY CREATURES AM SKETCHY CLUES

With a habit of looking everywhere except where she's going, thirty-one-year-old wildlife artist Caroline Canfield knows one thing for sure: accidents have a way of finding her. So after her free-spirited former mentor, Anthony Chirico, plunges to his suspicious death from a scaffold, Caroline initially turns down the chance to finish his jungle mural at the Fox Valley Zoo. Aware of Tony's penchant for leaving hidden messages in his work, Caroline starts to wonder if his fall was no accident--and when she finds Tony's assistant with a knife in his throat, she gets the point that someone desperately wants to keep the zoo's new exhibit from opening.

Spurred by her desire to know the truth and uncover the secrets of the mural, Caroline reluctantly accepts the Fox Valley Zoo commission. But working at the zoo isn't a walk in the park--animals are being threatened and "accidents" start happening with alarming frequency. If Caroline doesn't put the pieces of the puzzle together soon, she may never get out of this jungle alive.