Endangered Species

In the fifth installment of this award-winning series, Anna struggles to untangle one of the most unusual—and complex—puzzles of her career. Marooned on Cumberland Island National Seashore off the coast of Georgia, Anna finds time weighing heavily while she waits out a twenty-one day assignment on fire detail.

When a 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 smoulder over the cause of the accident, which killed both the pilot and his passenger, Cumberland's lone law enforcement ranger. The tightly knit island society begins to seethe with hushed accusations. As tensions escalate, Anna and her crew find themselves pressed into service.

Though the "experts" are called in to evaluate the crash, Anna can't let the investigation rest solely in their hands. Her inquiry causes her to stumble into shady dealings that question the integrity—and honor—of her own crew. Like most national parks and seashores, Cumberland Island boasts its share of treasures: endangered loggerhead turtles, hunted illegally for their valuable shells and delicate eggs; rich beachfront property; fertile marshland and shrimping waters—and a particular source of wealth of which the Park Service is unaware.

Yet the island has no fences or alarm systems to guard its cherished goods, only the eyes and ears of a handful of determined rangers. Will protecting the island come at a price even Anna is unwilling to pay?