Night Kill

Zookeeper Iris Oakley is thrilled when her estranged husband quits drinking and vows to rededicate himself to their marriage. Cassandra Campbell provides the perfect voice for the passionate young woman, deftly capturing her emotions after her husband dies. Is she paranoid, or is someone really out to kill her? Campbell lightens or thickens her voice slightly for other characters but filters them all through Iris's own plaintive psyche, delicately adding nuances of uncertainty where appropriate. The entire production is washed with a layer of whining that, while occasionally annoying to the listener, comes across as realistic for a woman going through the loss of her husband, career uncertainty, and attacks on her life, all in the same week. R.L.L. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

July 7, 2008
Littlewood, a former zookeeper, knows a great deal about animal management and goes to some lengths to work her knowledge into her debut, but unfortunately, the behind-the-scenes details slow the pace and dilute the drama. Iris Oakley and her husband, Rick Douglas, are both keepers at a small zoo in Vancouver, Wash., where she works the big cats, he the reptiles. He drinks too much, they fight, she leaves. Then Rick's body turns up in the lion area, ripped to pieces. Unwilling to accept that this tragedy was an accident, Iris decides to find the truth about how Rick died and why. Soon she herself becomes the target of suspicious and increasingly threatening “accidents.” The plot, a mix of woman-in-jeopardy and standard amateur-sleuth conventions, will be familiar to most mystery readers. Still, the highly original setting is a plus.