Poppy McVie: Operation Tropical Affair

Armed with a shiny new U.S. Wildlife Service badge, Poppy McVie's on a mission to save all critters, great and small. That is, if she can keep her nose out of trouble, her sass in check, and her wild red hair pinned under that damn mountie hat. Plucked from training, she's sent undercover to Costa Rica to infiltrate a wildlife trafficking ring. Finally, her chance to make a real difference. When her new partner, Agent Dalton, orders her to be a good "wife" and stay out of his way, her first impulse is a swift kick to the groin. But no-a little yogic breathing-she's got this. Doing some reconnaissance of her own, Poppy hooks up with Noah Kingston, a sexy animal rights activist who shares her penchant for fine wine. With the help of his van-surfing friends and a one-armed monkey, Poppy plunges into the sordid underworld of black market wildlife trade, risking her badge-and her life-to exact her own kind of justice, Poppy-style.

About the Author :
Born and raised in Michigan, I spent summers at the lake, swimming, catching frogs, and chasing fireflies, winters building things out of cardboard and construction paper, writing stories, and dreaming of faraway places. Since I didn't make honors English in High School, I thought I couldn't write. So I started hanging out in the art room. The day I borrowed a camera, my love affair with photography began. Long before the birth of the pixel, I was exposing real silver halides to light and marveling at the magic of an image appearing on paper under a red light. After college, I freelanced in commercial photography studios. During the long days of rigging strobes, one story haunted me. As happens in life though, before I could put it to words, I was possessed by another dream-to be a wildlife photographer. I trekked through the woods to find loons, grizzly bears, whales, and moose. Then, for six years, I put my heart and soul into publishing a nature magazine, Whisper in the Woods. But it was not meant to be my magnum opus. This time, my attention was drawn skyward. I'd always been fascinated by the aurora borealis, shimmering in the night sky, but now my focus went beyond, to the cosmos, to wonder about our place in the universe. In the spring of 2010, I sat down at the computer, started typing words, and breathed life into a curious boy named Kiran. Together, in our quest for truth, Kiran and I have explored the mind and spirit. Our journey has taken us to places of new perspective. Alas, the answers always seem just beyond our grasp, as elusive as a firefly on a warm autumn night. Most recently, my focus has shifted to more pressing issues-imperiled wildlife. With the Poppy McVie series, I hope to bring some light into the shadowy underworld of black market wildlife trade, where millions of wild animals are captured or slaughtered annually to fund organized crime. IT. MUST. STOP.