Tropical birds in a smuggled suitcase. Expensive. Beautiful. Dead. But for field biologist Robyn Devara, this latest grim reminder of the illegal trade in endangered species includes an unexpected surprise—one of the birds is unknown to science.
Hot on the trail of the mysterious macaw, Robyn finds herself stationed at an isolated field camp in the Costa Rican jungle, where she must deal with a research team that includes a former wildlife trafficker, his angry nemesis, sundry wide-eyed graduate students, and a university professor who seems to think that grad students fall below paramecia on the academic tree of life. All this as well as shifty maintenance workers, a sexy project leader, and a shadowy group of armed poachers with itchy trigger fingers.
It's certainly an exciting change from routine paperwork. Exciting, that is, until communication with the outside world is cut off, deadly snakes start slithering into cabins, and members of the field team begin to die...