Nature Girl

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Nature Girl

Carl Hiaasen

Alfred A. Knopf: 2006, 306 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Nature Girl is a satire set in Florida that features a comical cast of bizarre characters.  After being interrupted at her dinner table by a sales call one too many times, Honey Santana goes to extreme lengths to teach the uncouth telemarketer, Boyd Shreave, a lesson.  Certainly her obsession has nothing to do with the fact that she's off her meds.  Meanwhile, Sammy Tigertail, a one-half Seminole Indian, is on the lam after a tourist dies of a heart attack while on Sammy's airboat tour of the Everglades.  Add in Honey's stalker, Louis Piejack, and her ex-husband, Perry Skinner, set the whole thing on a remote Everglades island, and you've got the makings of a standard Hiaasen story.  While the story was definitely over the top at times, it was entertaining, and I will definitely keep the author in mind next time I'm looking for a light beach read.

The Girl Next Door

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The Girl Next Door

Jack Ketchum

Leisure Books: 1989. 370 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

When Meg and Susan's parents die in an accident, they are sent to live with their aunt Ruth in New Jersey in the 1950's.  Ruth, a single mother who has three sons of her own, is none too happy with having to take in the girls.  Ruth's pathological hatred of Meg steadily increases, and she enlists her sons and other neighborhood children to help her in teaching Meg a lesson about what it means to be a woman.  This book is definitely not for the faint of heart, as it graphically depicts torture and abuse, both physical and psychological.  Perhaps most disturbing is that this book is based on the true story of Sylvia Likens, a 16 year old girl who was tortured and murdered by her caretaker in Indiana in 1965.  I hesitate in recommending this book, as it is truly horrifying, but it does provide a thought-provoking portrait of true evil.  

The Inner Circle

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The Inner Circle (Culper Ring #1)

Brad Meltzer

Grand Central Publishing: 2011, 449 pages

Reviewed by Ellen Dickman

This book was an enjoyable read if you like suspenseful action.  Beecher White, the main character, is an archivist who has a passion for his work in the National Archives, but it would probably be described as an ordinary, if not typically boring, job.  His life is turned upside down when an old friend, Clementine Kaye, asks him for assistance locating an archival file.  In a mishap, Beecher is thrown into a national security issue that has him solving messages and codes in an effort to protect his own life as well as creating new and unexpected alliances.  The story has many twists and turns and unexpected outcomes as Beecher questions friendships, co-workers, and even the President of the United States.