At Sydney's Royal Prince Albert Zoo, fear is mounting. First a curator is found dead in a giraffe enclosure, then three endangered animals - part of a controversial shipment from Burma - are brutally slaughtered.

TV producer Nikiya Adams arrives at the zoo to research a new British series and is instantly plunged into a web of danger. Ten years ago she fell in love with the zoo's director, Dr James Rivers - but now the pair must put their feelings aside to face deadly intrigue and an unknown killer.

Trapped in the zoo at night, they find themselves being hunted - and Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' takes on a terrible meaning ...

Against the fascinating background of the operations of a major zoo, Alan Mills crafts an enthralling story of conspiracy, terror and the struggle to protect endangered species.

Alan Mills was born in England but migrated to Australia at the age of 23. He has worked as a research assistant in criminal psychology in a British maximum security prison; a sideshow barker in a travelling carnival; a scriptwriter for a TV cop series; a high school teacher; a bookshop manager; an English instructor at the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo; an odd-job man in a lion safari park; a forestry worker; a time keeper on a railroad construction project in north-west Australia; and a copywriter and creative director in advertising agencies. A black belt in karate with a Masters in English literature, Mills currently lives in Sydney.

Interview by Stuart Beaton.