For once, operations at the enormous zoo/theme park appear to be running smoothly (except for the occasional herring-related mishap in the penguin exhibit) and Teddy Fitzroy is finally able to give detective work a rest. But then a local lion is accused of killing a famous dog--and the dog's owner, an inflammatory radio host, goes on a crusade to have the cat declared a nuisance so it can be hunted. However, there's evidence that the lion might have...

Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden -- especially one like Joe who won't take bribes or look the other way -- is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind Joe's state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he's had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile...