Traveling to Occo with his uncle to attend a mysterydom award ceremony, young Finn becomes skeptical of the author nominees as strange, life-threatening events keep occurring. Finn and his mystery writer uncle are off to exotic Occo, located between Lesser Occo and Morocco. Uncle Stoppard has been nominated for the most prestigious award in mysterydom: the Ruby Raven. The grand prize? One million dollars, as well as a dark, carved bird with real rubies for eyes and a ruby pendant dangling from its neck. Even with all of the excitement of Uncle Stoppard’s nomination, Finn starts getting nervous. There was a strange car that exploded just as they were leaving the airport, and a Moroccan cobra that was slithering in his room when he arrived…. Is it a coincidence? Or could one of the invited authors be too eager to win the bucks and the bird? Michael Dahl, the author of more than a dozen non?ction books, has also published poetry and plays. The Viking Claw is Dahl's fourth Finnegan Zwake mystery. The earlier titles in the series are The Horizontal Man, The Worm Tunnel, and The Ruby Raven. Dahl is also the author of Scooter Spies, a series of mysteries for younger readers, whose titles include The Wheels That Vanished and The Ghost That Barked. A theater director, actor, and comedian in Minneapolis, Dahl has a wide variety of unusual creatures in his household: Venus's-?ytraps, ?ddler crabs, African dwarf frogs, an elementary school teacher, and an Australian red-heeler named Gus. He can be e-mailed at ?nnswake@aol.com.