"The Tail-Eaters" is the sixth book in Anna Starobinets' "Beastly Crimes" series. The Far Forest is beset by an epidemic of a new, unknown bite virus. Doctor Rook unsuccessfully fights for the animals' health: there is no cure for the virus, the prognosis for the sick is grim, and precautions like tying tails don't work. All signs point to the virus being of artificial origin. Who is the evil genius responsible for the beastly epidemic? The animals' lives depend on the answer to this question: the one who created the disease must know the secret of how to cure it. The Police Badgers pursue the criminal, risking their own skin. But the bite virus is also pursuing them — like the monster Tail-Eater from the children's counting rhyme.