Winter Study

From the vivid opening vista, high in craggy mountains, to the final haunting glimpse of a moonlit canyon, Nevada Barr's first mystery, Track of the Cat, instantly caught the attention of readers and reviewers. Its popularity gained it both an Agatha and an Anthony Award.

Marooned on Cumberland Island National Seashore off the coast of Georgia, Anna finds time weighing heavily as she waits out a 21-day assignment on fire detail. When the sudden plane crash in the inland palmetto thickets calls her and the other members of the fire crew to action, the flames are quickly extinguished. But suspicions smolder over the cause of the accident which killed both the pilot and his passenger, Cumberland's lone law enforcement ranger.

It’s an idyllic late-summer day in Saddlestring, Wyoming, and game warden Joe Pickett is fly-fishing with his two daughters when he stumbles upon the mutilated body of a moose. Whatever or whoever attacked the animal was ruthless: half the animal’s face has been sliced away, the skin peeled back from the flesh. Shaken by the sight, Joe starts to investigate what he hopes is an isolated incident.

Two hundred years ago a loyalist family fled to England to escape the American War of Independence and seemingly vanished into thin air. American genealogist Jefferson Tayte is hired to find out what happened, but it soon becomes apparent that a calculated killer is out to stop him.

When the entire village is invited to a garden party for a mysterious announcement, nobody expects it to end with a man being thrown to his death. In a race against the clock, Julia must juggle her blossoming romance with DI Brown whilst interpreting her lodger's strange behaviour to uncover the truth behind the untimely death. With members of her family in the frame, will Julia like what she discovers?