Vanishing Edge

This offbeat series launch from Kells (Girl Underwater) introduces an appealing crimefighting team. Curmudgeonly chief ranger Rick Corrigan has what he calls a situation at an abandoned luxury campsite perched above a lake in California’s Sequoia National Park. To look into the case, Corrigan teams Felicity Harland, a fledgling agent with the Investigations Services Bureau (in essence the FBI for the National Parks), with Ferdinand “Hux” Huxley, the ranger who discovered the abandoned campsite. When the body of TV star Tatum Delancey turns up in the lake, Felicity and Hux begin searching for Tatum’s male camping companion—not her husband—and try to determine whether she fell or was pushed to her death. As they hike through difficult terrain, they encounter a daunting number of false clues. Along the way, Felicity learns to rely on Hux’s talent for finding people, while he respects how she’s pushing herself to recover from a broken back but is “stubborn as hell.” Sharply drawn characters and striking descriptions of park scenery more than compensate for less than assured plotting. Fans of Scott Graham’s National Parks mysteries will want to check this one out. Agent: Beth Miller, Writers House. (Nov.)