Buy new:
$10.99$10.99
$3.99
delivery:
Feb 7 - 13
Ships from: LOGOFAT Sold by: LOGOFAT
Buy used: $4.95
Other Sellers on Amazon
FREE Shipping
Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
+ $7.36 shipping
93% positive over last 12 months

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.


Did Not Survive (Zoo Mysteries, 2) Paperback – June 30, 2012
Price | New from | Used from |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial |
MP3 CD, Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $19.46 | — |
Enhance your purchase
Iris Oakley, pregnant and still recovering from her husband's murder, wants only to carry on as a keeper at Finley Memorial Zoo in Vancouver, Washington. But she is confronted by a terrifying situation: alone and with no elephant expertise, she must rescue her boss, Kevin Wallace, from being mauled by a zoo elephant. Though she gets him to safety, he dies of his injuries. No one understands why reliable old Damrey attacked the foreman, and Iris inadvertently misdirects the investigation. As zoo staff descend into anxiety and animosity, the welfare of the animals is threatened, as well as the lives of keepers. Rattled coworkers nominate Iris to find out what's going on. She finds a surprising number of motives to kill the foreman, but Damrey, the elephant, doesn't have one.
Despite the distraction of trying to construct her new life as a single mother, Iris discovers that the elephant keepers are locked in a bitter feud, the new veterinarian is keeping secrets, and an old flame still hates Wallace. New-born clouded leopard cubs cheer up the troubled staff, but even that has its dark side. Adding to the chaos, animal rights activists are picketing the zoo. They want the elephants sent to a sanctuary, but is that a better option for them than the improved exhibit that is on the drawing board? Why isn't that exhibit under construction as planned? A new foreman shows up with alarming ideas, the police keep dropping by, and animals are disappearing into thin air...
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPoisoned Pen Press
- Publication dateJune 30, 2012
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.68 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-101590587472
- ISBN-13978-1590587478
![]() |
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Zookeeper Iris Oakley, who lost her husband in her first outing (2008's Night Kill), returns to Finley Memorial Zoo near Vancouver, Wash., for a second harrowing adventure that meshes the complexities of animal care and human failings. Early one morning, Iris discovers her boss, Kevin Wallace, face down in the elephant enclosure, apparently being mauled. What first appears to be a dreadful accident is revealed by autopsy to be a murder and merely the first incident to bedevil the little zoo. Although she's six months pregnant, several colleagues suggest that Iris should look into other disturbing events, including the theft of a zoo van and the body of a tiger. Fascinating details of zoo life--the impending birth of clouded leopards, collecting urine samples from elephants--lend color. Man again proves to be the most dangerous animal, and Iris needs all her cunning to discover the rogue behind the violence in a follow-up that should win Littlewood more fans." --Publishers Weekly
“Mystery mavens may pick out the killer early on, but a wealth of behind-the-scenes detail smoothly integrated into the puzzle makes this a promising debut.” --Kirkus Reviews of Night Kill
“A debut from former zookeeper Ann Littlewood, it convincingly and affectionately evokes its animal-friendly setting. Call it a zoo cozy.” --The Seattle Times of Night Kill
“Mystery mavens may pick out the killer early on, but a wealth of behind-the-scenes detail smoothly integrated into the puzzle makes this a promising debut.” --Kirkus Reviews of N
About the Author
Ann Littlewood is the author of Night Kill, the first in the Iris Oakley Zoo-Dunnit series. She worked for the Oregon Zoo for 12 years as a zookeeper before a career in business writing with Kaiser Permanente. Ann lives in Portland, Oregon, across the river from Vancouver, Washington, the home of the fictional Finley Memorial Zoo. She is a life-long environmentalist and a volunteer with the Audubon Society of Portland.
Product details
- Publisher : Poisoned Pen Press (June 30, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1590587472
- ISBN-13 : 978-1590587478
- Item Weight : 12 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.68 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #5,864,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #84,494 in Women Sleuths (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Ann Littlewood has abandoned a number of careers, among them zoo keeper at the Oregon Zoo and publication manager in a health care information technology department. Currently she writes fiction (sometimes "award-winning") and has published a mystery series--the Iris Oakley "zoo-dunnits" from Poisoned Pen Press.
Her latest venture is into literary fiction, a novella told in seven short stories set in a wildlife rehabilitation center. Keep an eye out for "The Owl on the Road to Medford: Stories of Blacktails, Birds, and a Broken Heart", published for Kindle.
Ann is a confirmed tree-hugger, duck-squeezer, and fern-licker, often found at climate change rallies and native plant events. Her bubble is located in Portland, Oregon, where she resides with a husband and a small but hairy dog.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
As in the first book, the mystery is the death of a zookeeper. An elephant is the initial primary suspect this time, but it is fairly quickly determined to be a human murderer. There are a number of situations swirling around that may or may not be related to the murder: conflict between crew members (past and present), new crew members with past secrets, things disappearing from around the zoo, and anti-zoo activists picketing the zoo. I did not pick out the culprit on my own, but when the who-dun-it was revealed, I realized I hadn't paid attention to clues that were there all along.
"Finley Memorial Zoo is a small zoo near Vancouver, Washington." Protagonist Iris Oakley sees Kevin Wallace being mauled by Damrey the elephant---the only witness to what police subsequently investigate as a possible homicide. Iris is asked to conduct an informal investigation but keeps evidence info to herself, sort of a detective calculator tallying anomalies, instead of numbers. When zoo staffers ask if she thinks police can learn if Wallace was murdered instead of an accidental death, she says, "Sure they will. They do it in an hour on TV." Surprisingly, many have cause to kill likeable Wallace.
Oakley's "six-months pregnant belly" and her "husband's death six months ago" complicate an amateur investigation at Finley Zoo, as she rounds up the "zoosual" suspects. Pregnancy hormones know only two words: Feed me! "A chicken burger and carton of milk later, I came up for air." Co-worker Linda opines of the snarf: "Hyenas after they pull down a zebra." Or feeding time at the... No, don't go there!
When Oakley's co-workers load Rajah the tiger's body into a van, to take to the zoo's vet for necropsy, Raj pulls a Lazarus and alarmingly comes to life. The zoo crew "bailed out like your hair was on fire," and "explored the concept of undead tigers in a zombie zoo." Feeling safe in the commissary, with Oakley pregnantly craving comfort food "like piranhas and a wounded tapir," they discuss strange happenings and a newly appointed Prussian zoo-meister. When they return, the van is gone, Rajah too. With the bizarre goings-on at Finley, is it possible that a tiger hotwired the van? However, Damrey and the other elephant, Nakri, command the center of attention, sort of like an 8,000-pound gorilla in the room. The titular lack of survival indeed is a sad commentary about society, but many mysteries are solved by following the money trail.
Matters are complicated for the unlikely detective, when outspoken anti-zoo activist Bill "Thor" Thorson crashes zoo employees' celebration at their favorite watering hole, the Vulture's Roost. Office politics play out in surprising turns of events. Someone is setting up zoo employees to be fired, and each who is has cause to kill Wallace---six months after Oakley's husband was murdered at the same zoo.
This bestseller-quality novel is more than murder, mayhem and mystery. There's another M---message. Oakley recalls the painful memory of her husband's death and the life that grows inside her: "Damrey still tugged at her invisible chain, the chain that had scarred her leg. My chain had begun to fall away. I could imagine that someday the scar might fade."
With this Oakley installment readers learn more about zoos (and the complex human element that manages them) than those with annual zoo passes and daily visits. So, put on your pith helmet for this richly written safari through a profoundly excellent mystery that Littlewood calls a zoo-dunit.
---Reviewed by L. Dean Murphy
![]() |