Zero at the Bone

Zero at the Bone by Mary Willis Walker won the Agatha Award for best first novel in 1991. I read The Red Scream by this author last year and liked it, though I don't generally like that type story. This one is different, not as grim somehow, even though there is a serial killer involved. It is like The Red Scream in the way it effectively intertwines the main character's personal life and minor characters with the mystery.

from the back of the book:

Katherine Driscoll is just three weeks away from disaster: foreclosure on her home and business, even the sale of her beloved dog. She has no hope of raising the $91,000 she so desperately needs - until the father she hasn't seen for thirty years writes to her, offering her enough money to solve her problems...if she will do one thing in return.

But Katherine may never learn what that is. When she arrives in Austin, she is hours too late: her father has died in a bizarre accident. As she sifts through the cryptic notes he left behind, she finds herself caught up in terrible family secrets - and a deadly illicit trade. The more she learns, the more determined she becomes to prove her father's death was no accident. In doing so, Katherine will make a bitter enemy - one desperate enough to kill...and perhaps, kill again.

I like the way this book was written, the variety of the characters, the way information about the animals and the animal trade business was shared in a fairly natural manner rather than a cold info-dump....