For Fish and Wildlife Agent Venus Diamond, it's the perfect day to investigate a murder. It's foggy and raining on the Olympic Peninsula, Venus's eccentric mother is having trouble with her adopted son Timmy, and her fiance has just broken off their engagement - by E-mail, no less. What better distraction from this sudden mayhem than a crime scene? So Venus hops the department chopper up the coast from Seattle (stowing her Harley for the return trip) to the village of Fern, Washington, home to a rather snooty spa catering to Seattle's affluent, the corporate offices of the exclusive Avalon parfumerie, and an ecological preserve. In the preserve, near the meadow Avalon uses to cultivate blue poppies for their fragrance, a security guard has discovered the body of a lepidopterist. Upon investigating, Venus finds that a motley crew of suspicious characters exploit the preserve for their own selfish reasons, and any one of them could have popped the butterfly collector for witnessing something he shouldn't have. It's up to Venus to find out which one did the deed.

Bookcrossing: n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.
- from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary

Welcome to BookCrossing!

Thank you for picking up this book. Please make a journal entry on the BookCrossing site (www.bookcrossing.com) to let me know that this book has found a good home with you. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (its free). If you join, please consider indicating that you were referred by Tribefan. I hope you enjoy the book. You can make another journal entry with your comments when you’ve finished reading. Whenever you’re ready to send it on its way, make a journal entry if you are giving or sending this book to a known person, or release notes if you are leaving it “in the wild” again for anyone to catch. Then watch its journey. You’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry. It’s all confidential (you’re known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free.