Big Trouble

 

By Dave Barry

Arthur Herk finds out his employer is trying to have him killed the night the bullet misses and takes out his new TV. It happened the same night that Matt Arnold was trying to "kill" with a water gun his classmate, Jenny, who is Arthur's step-daughter. But when Matt squirted Jenny, her mom tackled him and started beating him up because the water gun looked like a real gun.

The police are called and the bullet hole is discovered and Arthur realizes he is in Big Trouble. So he comes up with a plan that involves buying a missile from a couple of shady Russians. But the buy is interrupted by two inept robbers who mistake Arthur for a drug kingpin and the missile for a hiding place full of drugs. Actually, the missile isn't a missile and if the two FBI agents tracking it can't get possession of it, everybody in the whole metro area is also in Big Trouble.

This was a fun read, full of silliness and suspense. Of course, Dave Barry isn't going to explode Miami, he's not that kind of author. Spreading death and misery is not his thing. Even so, it was really engaging to see how he manages to rescue the hero and bring the bad guys to justice. Except for the two hired killers who botched taking out Arthur in the first place. They get to go back to New Jersey and they have no intention of every coming back to Florida in the future.

Check out the review by Publishers Weekly.

Double Whammy

By Carl Hiaasen

R.J. Decker used to work for a large Florida newspaper as a photographer. But he got into trouble and landed in jail. After prison, he was jobless and wifeless and found work as an insurance investigator. 

Dennis Gault, wealthy man who wants to make a name for himself in the bass fishing tournament circles, hires R.J. to investigate Dickie Lockhart, a big name in the bass fishing world. Gault believes Lockhart has been cheating, planting prize-winning fish in the lakes during tournaments. He wants R.J. to get photos of Lockhart planting fish.

Lockhart's home base is in Harney County, Florida (not a real place). So R.J. heads there and does some sleuthing. A former associate from the newspaper also lives there, Ott Pickney. Ott dismisses Gault's claims that Lockhart is a cheater. But he does advise R.J. to hire a local man, Skink, to serve as a guide in the area. Ott also is the one who tells R.J. about the recent death of another pro-bass fisherman locally, Bobby Clinch. 

But after thinking about what R.J. told him, Ott decides to take a closer look at the remains of Clinch's bass boat. While doing so, he is found by a couple of thugs who take him into the woods and kill him. R.J. and Skink find Ott's body sunk in a lake. They are discovered by the thugs and Skink shoots and kills one of them. R.J. thinks Lockhart is behind the murders of Bobby and Ott and he and Skink head to Louisiana to catch Lockhart cheating at a big bass tournament there. But things don't pan out quite as they planned. They don't find Lockhart cheating, although they do find fish being planted. And the morning after the tournament, R.J. finds Lockhart dead. He is worried that Skink killed Lockhart because Skink had threatened to do exactly that. So instead of staying in Louisiana, R.J. drives back to Florida. Only to discover that he is being blamed for death of Lockhart. And that Skink had nothing to do with Lockhart's death.

This was a pretty good read. Unfortunately, like most of Hiaasen's Florida novels, it has some pretty gruesome scenes in it. The dog head business is pretty rank and Skink loses one of his eyes to a rather graphic beating. I always find that aspect of Hiaasen's stories a bit hard to take. But besides that, it was a pretty entertaining story and it is the first appearance of Hiaasen's recurring character, Skink, a wild man who lives off road kill and has no fixed home in the later novels and who used to be the governor of Florida.

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Best. State. Ever.

 

By Dave Barry

Barry travels around his home state of Florida and reports on some of the more out-of-the-way attractions. 

As a fan of Dave Barry, this book is right up there as one of his funniest, which is saying a lot because he really is an amazing, funny wonderful writer. His books never disappoint. Here are a few of the jokes I encountered that made me laugh out loud: 

"The Fountain of Youth is purely mythical, like the Easter Bunny, or edible vegan food."

 

"As an aging Boomer . . . if they really are having wild sex up there [The Villages], I say more power to them. It's good for people our age to have sex. It upsets the children."

 

 . . ." I shot my brother Phil with it [BB gun] at a fairly close range and he did not die. In my defense, I had a good reason for shooting Phil; namely, I wanted to find out what happens if you shoot somebody with a BB gun. (Answer: He tells your mother,)"

It a fun book and almost makes me want to visit Florida. Almost.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Native Tongue

 

By Carl Hiaasen

The Amazing Kingdom of Thrills has made Francis X. Kingsbury of South Florida a wealthy man. But Francis, or Frankie the Ferret as he is known to some folks up north who would really like to track him down, has dreams of rivaling the big Florida amusement parks. So he is building a golf course next to his park. Never mind that he is tearing down critical habitat and uprooting native trees and plants. Never mind that his golf course plans to dump waste water near one of the few coral reefs in the area.

Still there are a few people who would like to keep a least a bit of Florida environmentally healthy. One of them is Skink, the ex-governor and current wild man who lives in the back country and eats road kill. The other is Joe Winder who likes fishing off that reef that Frankie's development is threatening and who happens to work for Frankie in the park's public relations department. 

When a park employee turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, Winder senses a cover-up that centers around the park's star exhibit: the last two living Blue-Tongued Mango Voles, who are in a captive breeding program intended to bring the voles back from the brink of extinction, similar to the Dusky Seaside Sparrow program at Disney World: Washington Post article.. (Frankie has a bug in his ear about Disney World and fancies himself a rival to the giant park in Orlando.) Unfortunately the two voles get kidnapped by an environmental group who wants to use them to blackmail Frankie into halting the golf course development. 

Another entry in Hiaasen's Florida saga, this one seemed more cohesive to me than some of his other novels. The plot is less convoluted and doesn't seem to have so many sidetracks that can make the reader feel a bit lost at times. Skink, of course, makes his usual appearance, acting in this story as a kind of deus ex machina, enacting justice on baddies and moving behind the scenes. 

I liked this story a lot. It was not so complex as some of his stories can be and everything wraps up very nicely. He even includes a fun afterword where we get to see how the various characters (who are not killed off) end up. Very enjoyable story.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Stormy Weather

By Carl Hiaasen

A killer hurricane has blasted through Florida, shattering buildings and lives. But to some, the resultant chaos is merely a golden opportunity to make some money.
One of those opportunists is Max Lamb. On his honeymoon in Orlando with his wife, Bonnie, Max has grabbed his video camera and headed into the danger zone to get video of the disaster, with a view to selling the footage to the networks. Unfortunately, he runs afoul of Skink, one of Hiaasen's recurring characters. Skink is a big, scary swamp thing and he grabs Max and sticks a shock collar on his neck and hauls him out into the back country. Where he proceeds to shock Max into abject compliance.
Also looking to score are Edie Marsh and a thuggish fellow called Snapper. After their first scam fails, they hook up with distressed homeowner, Tony Torres. Tony's house is severely damaged and he wants a quick settlement from the insurance company. Since his wife is joint owner of the house and she has run off with her boyfriend, Tony can't get the insurance check without her signature. Naturally, given that she has run off, Tony is not willing to share the settlement with her. So Edie will pretend to be Mrs, Torres and, when the check arrives, they will split the funds three ways and then split. And the real Mrs. Torres gets screwed out of her fair share.
Tony was a trailer salesman. The trailers he sold were supposed to be hurricane resistant. But they weren't and people died. One of those people was the mother of a mobster from up north, Ira Jackson. He tracks down Tony and kills him. Which leaves Edie and Snapper in the lurch. When the adjuster shows up, Snapper tries to pass himself off as Torres. But the adjuster quickly figures out that they are scammers. Edie seduces him and talks him into joining the scam, once again to split the money three ways.
Meanwhile Max is still being tormented by Skink and Bonnie has come to the hurricane zone looking for him. She got on phone call from him letting her know he had been taken but that the crazy man who grabbed him is not asking for any kind of ransom. Bonnie falls in with a local man, a young drifter who is living off a large insurance settlement from when he nearly died in a commercial plane crash.
And then there is the policeman, Jim Tile, whose policewoman girlfriend gets beaten up by Snapper. Tile is friends with Skink. He enlists Skink in tracking down Snapper and things just get more and more complicated from there.

I guess this was an OK read. There are so many characters coming and going, it is a bit hard to keep track of it all. It is also supposed to be very funny but I didn't find so. According to the blurbs on the cover, it is "hysterically funny" (USA Today), has "hilarious, black humor" (Wall Street Journal), and is "howlingly funny" (Cosmopolitan). I guess those blurbers are more easily amused than I am.
Also, I have never been a big fan of the recurring character, Skink. He's creepy. I'm getting tired of him.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Razor Girl

By Carl Hiaasen

Buck Nance is a reality TV show star doing an appearance at a club in Key West when his racist and homophobic comments and jokes upset the patrons and send Buck fleeing into the night. His agent, Lane, is usually there to keep Buck safe and happy, but Lane is a no-show. In fact, Lane has been kidnapped.
While driving to join Buck at the club, Lane was in an accident that was really an on-purpose. Rear-ended by a pretty young woman, Merry Mansfield, Lane lets her hitch a ride in his car and he soon finds himself kidnapped. But it turns out to be a case of mistaken identity, wrong man, wrong car.
Merry's accomplice plans to murder Lane just to get rid of him but Merry lets him go free (he is  quickly kidnapped again by a local whack-o). She and her accomplice then proceed to kidnap the correct man, who has run afoul of some East Coast gangsters.
Meanwhile, Andrew Yancy, ex-cop and current health inspector, is alarmed to find the empty lot next to his house is under assault by people who plan to build a large house on it and block off his view. This is not acceptable and Yancy is determined to go the limit to scare the potential new neighbors away. He gets drawn into the Buck and Lane fiasco when Buck's shaved off beard is discovered in the kitchen off a local restaurant.  And once again, Yancy is hoping to get his police job back if he can prove himself to the sheriff and solve the mystery of Buck and Lane's disappearance. Which leads him into the conniving arms of little miss rear-ender, Merry Mansfield.

A very satisfying story, a complex plot but told in an easy to follow style, sort of amusing in a twisted kind of way, the only thing I didn't like about it was Merry Mansfield who sends Yancy's lover from the first Yancy novel, Bad Monkey, packing. Merry Mansfield is just Hiaasen's Florida Man in a sexy female package and she set my teeth on edge.

Tricky Business

By Dave Barry

Extravaganza of the Seas is a cruise ship whose main purpose is to deliver drugs to organized crime boss, Lou Tarrant. Its cover is that of a floating casino, taking its passengers out beyond the three mile limit and out of the jurisdiction of the government.
Wally and his band members have a steady job performing on the ship. These guys, all competent musicians, have never hit the big time, to their disappointment. Wally has recently left his wife and moved in with his mom. He feels like his life is going nowhere good.
Fay also works on the ship as a cocktail waitress. Like Wally, she is also struggling and coping with life after marriage. She too has moved in with her mother.
Bobby Kemp is a sleazy businessman who owns the ship, but in name only. He purchased the ship, thinking it was a good investment. But then mobster Lou Tarrant muscled in on Bobby, revealing the true purpose of the trips out to the three mile limit, the transfer of money and drugs. In fact Tarrant muscled in on all Bobby's questionable businesses and this has made Bobby very unhappy. So unhappy that he has come up with a plan, a plan that he will put in force on a night when the Extravaganza of the Seas sails off into a dangerous tropical storm, loaded with its usual complement of devoted gamblers, Wally and the band, Fay the cocktail waitress and two old guys who have escaped from their retirement home. A good time will not be had by all.

This was a very entertaining story, although at one point I put it down when it got a little too gruesome for me. Lots of action, lots of humor, complicated plot and a satisfying ending add up to a very enjoyable read, except for that one really nasty part.
For another review see http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-399-14924-5.

Insane City

By Dave Barry

Seth and Tina are getting married in Miami. They are traveling separately from up north to Florida. Tina is traveling with her sister, Meghan. Seth is traveling with his three friends from college, Marty, Kevin and Big Steve.
Tina is beautiful, successful, a perfectionist and the daughter of a man worth billions. Seth still doesn't understand what she sees in him. Tina's parents, Mike and Marcia, don't understand it either and are not thrilled she has picked Seth.
Things start to go wrong from the get go. Seth arrives at the Miami airport to discover Tina in a confrontation with security who want to search her luggage because the drug dog alerted on it. Due to her father's connections, she wiggles out of the search and her sister's weed is not found. Tina and the sister head off to the hotel and Seth and his friends get in a separate cab and end up at the wrong hotel. They go to a bar and Seth passes out under the table. His friends think he has left and they go in pursuit of him. Seth wakes up and finds his friends gone and goes after them, aided by two strangers from the bar, Cyndi and Duane. Duane has a large albino snake draped around his shoulders. Cyndi and Duane agree to take Seth to his hotel but when they get there, a large woman is in Seth's suite. LaDawne is a stripper who was hired by Marty. She won't leave until she is paid and her menacing boyfriend Wesley shows up and he keeps raising the fee the longer LaDawne stays in Seth's suite. Seth leaves the suite in search of an ATM to get some cash to pay LaDawne. He finds Meghan outside smoking her weed and takes a couple puffs. It's strong stuff and combined with all the alcohol he drunk that night, it is too much. He forgets what he was supposed to be doing and falls asleep on the beach.
Seth wakes up on the beach just in time to rescue a Haitian woman and her baby and child. She had hired men to bring her to Florida from Haiti and they abandoned her and her kids in a rickety boat in the ocean. The boat filled up with water and the three were left clinging to it until it washed up near the beach where Seth was sleeping. The woman, Laurette, is leery of the authorities, fearing she will be deported back to Haiti, so she refuses to go to a hospital. A hotel worker helps Seth bring Laurette and her kids up to his suite and agrees to go search for Laurette's sister. LaDawne takes care of the refugees and sends Seth back out for baby formula and diapers. She gives him the keys to Wesley's car.
Using Wesley's car, Seth and Cyndi rescue his three hapless friends, who got rolled by some shady ladies, pick up Seth's parents, Rose and Sid, at the airport, and stop and buy the baby stuff. Cyndi's friend with the snake, Duane, has found Seth's bag that he left at the bar. In the bag is the wedding ring designed by Tina and made from tiny snippets of gold from her family's heirloom jewelry. It's a one of a kind ring and it is vital that Seth get it back. But Duane leaves the bag at a private zoo.
Seth arrives back at the hotel with his whole motley crew in tow just in time to meet friends of Tina's father, Wendell and Greta Corliss. Tina's father, Mike, belongs to an exclusive club, the Group of Eleven. But an even more exclusive club exists, the Group of Six. Mike desperately wants to belong to the Group of Six, of which Wendell is a member. Accordingly, Mike is sucking up to Wendell big time.
At the rehearsal dinner, Seth's mother unintentionally puts a box of pot brownies on the dessert tray. The waiter, thinking they are part of the dinner, serves them to everyone. Mike doesn't partake because he doesn't like chocolate. Seth and Cyndi leave before dessert to go get the Seth bag back. Wendell has three brownies and ends up buying two restaurants, a pizza joint and a Chinese food place because he has the munchies and the two places don't deliver after hours.
Seth is headed to the zoo with Cyndi to pick up his lost bag and, hopefully, the irreplaceable wedding ring.
Trevor, an orangutan, discovers Seth's bag and manages to drag to his cage.  He tears the bag to pieces and finds the red ring box. He finds Tina's scent on the box intriguing and hangs onto it.
Seth arrives at the zoo and finds the remains of his suitcase next to the cage. He spies the ring box but, in the darkness, fails to realize it is in the clutches of a now-sleeping Trevor. Seth goes into the cage to get the box only to be chased by Trevor. In his hurry to get away, Seth doesn't realize he didn't get the cage door shut securely. Trevor follows them to the parking lot, where they are confronted by the security guard who shoots at them and Seth and Cyndi flee in the car. But Trevor has climbed in the back seat.
Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Tina is becoming increasing exasperated at Seth, who seems to be more concerned about the Haitians than about their wedding. She turns to her father for help. But his help is just making things worse and the complications pile up.

This book is like watching a Warner Bros cartoon and suddenly an image of babies starving in Africa with flies walking on their faces appears on the screen.

For another review, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/in-insane-city-dave-barry-serves-up-quite-the-buffet-of-leftovers/2013/01/31/ef4442f0-6a36-11e2-95b3-272d604a10a3_story.html.

Shark Skin Suite

By Tim Dorsey

Serge Storms is a strange and dangerous man. Very intelligent and creative, he is a bad guy's worse nightmare. He toys with them and tortures them and eventually kills them, in twisted and sickening ways. But, really, Serge isn't a bad guy himself. He just prefers to cut out the middle man and be judge, jury and executioner all in one.
Meanwhile, young attorney (and former flame of Serge's) Brook Campanella has gotten her first big case involving the shenanigans of a large banking institution and mortgage foreclosures. She and another young attorney have brought a class action law suite against the bank. But their investigation gets a little too nosy and Brook's fellow attorney ends up dead. Fortunately for Brook, Serge Storms is about to walk back into her life and deal some street justice to the bad guys.

This was my first time reading a novel by Tim Dorsey and it seemed rather similar to the books written by Carl Hiaasen, some of which I have read. Dorsey's book had its amusing moments and also paints a vivid image of life in Florida. I did find the plot a bit hard to follow and I didn't care for the elaborate and creepy ways the hero, Serge, used to take out the bad guys. Too gruesome for me. Overall, I liked the book but not Serge's Rube Goldberg death contraptions.

For more, see http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2015/01/fresh-meat-shark-skin-suite-by-tim-dorsey-florida-serge-storm-series-neliza-drew.

Bad Monkey

By Carl Hiaasen

Andrew Yancy is an ex-cop. Not because he wants to be but because he did something really stupid: he sodomized his girlfriend's husband in public with a vacuum cleaner. That got him kicked out of the sheriff's department. Luckily for Yancy he was able to get a new job as Health Inspector of the local restaurants. Unluckily for Yancy, he discovers conditions in restaurant kitchens are so unwholesome and disturbing that he has totally lost his appetite and has become gaunt and skinny. For his own sake, he needs his old job  back before he wastes away to nothing. Rescue appears in the form of an unattached arm hooked by an angler. Because, despite the appearance that the owner of the arm was the victim of a shark attack, Yancy is certain that the arm's owner was murdered. If he can prove it he just might be able to get his old job with the sheriff's office back. But, since he is a character in a Hiaasen novel, Yancy is going to come up against a lot of weirdness including an ex-girlfriend who will resort to arson to win Yancy back; a sexy but a tad bit perverse new girlfriend who likes to do it on the autopsy table; a voodoo witch; a Medicare scammer and his wife; and the title character, the bad monkey who used to be a movie star but is now bald and addicted to fried foods and tobacco.

I really liked this story. Very readable, frequently funny with strange and unforgettable characters, including Driggs, the bad monkey. There really was nothing I didn't like about it including the ending where justice is served and all the bad guys get what they have coming to them. In fact, I think this is probably one of the most enjoyable of the Hiaasen's novels I have read.

For another review, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/books/carl-hiaasens-bad-monkey-features-a-cast-of-oddballs.html?_r=0.

Star Island

By Carl Hiaasen

Cherry Pye is a young pop star who has a serious drug and alcohol problem. Her favorite activity is getting trashed, so trashed that she often can't perform. Her excesses require frequent stints in rehab, which is not good for her image. So her handlers hired a lookalike as a stand in to cover up the seriousness of Cherry's addictions. The lookalike makes brief public appearances at parties and events while Cherry is confined to rehab.
Cherry is on the verge of releasing a new CD and is preparing for a concert in Miami. Once again, she overdoses on a crazy mixture of drugs, booze and birdseed, requiring a secret trip back to rehab. Her handlers smuggle her out of the back door of the hotel, while her double is taken out the front on a stretcher, posing as Cherry suffering from a violent attack of gastritis.
One of the score of photographers that chase after that winning celebrity candid shot is Claude Abbott. Abbott is a true fan of Cherry Pye's and, knowing her crash and burn lifestyle, he is pretty sure Cherry is about at the end of her road and he really wants to be there to cash in on her celebrity when she finally goes too far. He follows her to the rehab clinic and offers her a ride in his car when she sneaks away from the clinic. Together, they fly back to Florida and Cherry initiates sex with him (she is trashed and later doesn't remember the incident at all). But when they arrive in Florida, she drives off in a limo that has the bag containing Abbott's cameras and cell phone, leaving Abbott stranded.
Meanwhile, Cherry's double is having problems of her own. Since Cherry is supposed to be secured in rehab, the double, Ann, has been given some time off and has driven to the Florida Keys. But she crashes her rental car and finds herself captive of a strange loner called Skink. Skink used to be governor of Florida but the uncontrolled land development sent him off the deep end and he ran away, to live off the land in the swamps. He has grabbed Ann in an attempt to foil a development scheme and is using her as bait to lure the developer into his grasp. Ann eventually is released only to be captured by crazed photographer Abbott who thinks he is grabbing Cherry Pye. But when he finds out Ann is not who he thought,  he hits upon the idea of exchanging Ann for a one-day photo shoot with Cherry that he is sure will be the best work he has ever done and result in fame and acclaim and, of course, lots of money. But are Cherry's handlers all that worried about the fate of her double? Not so much, it turns out.

This was a pretty good story. Unlike some of his novels, this one does not have as many cruel and gruesome scenes, the gore limited to a shot-off finger, some ass-whipping with a weed-whacker, a spiny urchin applied to a man's testicles and one fatal shooting. That sounds like a lot, but compared to some of Hiaasen's books, it is quite toned down. It is also very entertaining and often amusing, although at times a bit chaotic. I enjoyed it and at the end of the novel he wraps up the lives of the main characters, letting you know how they ended up. That was fun and nice.

Nature Girl

By Carl Hiaasen

This books starts off wrong and keeps going wrong. At the start, a young Seminole is taking a man on a tour through the swamp. Somehow a snake falls on the man and he dies of a heart attack. So instead of reporting it to the authorities, he takes the man's body and sinks it in the ocean. So right off, the book makes no sense.
The main character, Honey Santana, is a nutcase. She hears music that isn't there and she has an over-developed sense of right and wrong that keeps landing her in trouble as she charges about on one-woman crusades to make the world safe for her son, Fry. She is supposed to be on medication but she doesn't take it and then lies about it. This headcase has custody of Fry which makes no sense. I wouldn't want this woman in charge of a baby turtle, much less a human child.
One evening, Honey gets a call from a telemarketer, Boyd Shreave. She gets upset at him because the guy calls right at the supper hour and he responds rudely. So she concocts a plan to lure this guy to Florida and teach him a lesson.
He takes the bait and travels to Florida with his lover, Eugenie Fonda, a woman with a dubious past. Honey takes Boyd and Eugenie on a camping trip in the swamp.
Meanwhile, the Seminole, Sammy Tigertail, is being haunted by the guy he dumped in the ocean. The dead man is unhappy and complains about being nibbled on by crabs and fish. To clear his head, Sammy too goes camping in the swamp. He also has a guilty conscience, and fears the cops are after him to question him about the man's disappearance. Somehow Sammy ends up sort of kidnapping a college girl who was in the area with some friends. That part of the plot didn't make any sense to me. If Sammy is trying to hide out and avoid trouble, why would he saddle himself with this loopy girl? (Just like Honey, this girl seems to live in a world of her own creation.)
Also in the swamp is a detective hired by Boyd's wife to get the goods on her errant husband. And Honey's horny ex-boss is there too, chasing after Honey. He tried to cop a feel and ended up with his fingers bitten off by crabs set on him by Honey's ex, who is still very protective of her. Another bit of stupidity in the book has the surgeon operating to reattach the digits during a power shortage and the ex-boss ends up with his pinky where his thumb should be and his thumb where a finger should be. This premise stretches credibility too far for me. No surgeon would do that, I pretty sure.
Somehow all these people, including Honey's ex and her son, Fry, end up on the same little island. Another point in the story that made no sense to me: Fry gets hurt and has a concussion and busted ribs. His father, instead of placing Fry with some responsible person to look after him, hauls him out in a boat into the swamp looking for Honey. This is just nuts. No responsible father would do that to a child suffering from a concussion and broken ribs. Anyways, people get hurt, people die, and Boyd remains a conceited ass.

Usually I really enjoy Hiaasen's stories but this one just had too many illogical events and too many coincidences. I didn't like the main character, Honey, because she is portrayed as a loving mom, but still endangers her child by refusing to take the medication that keeps her from losing touch with reality. That doesn't make her a good mom, that makes her a selfish and careless mom. Neither Honey or her ex-husband seemed to act like real parents. I just found a lot of the story unbelievable and too unrealistic and finally, uninteresting.

Review by W.R. Greer on Reviews of Books. com:   http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/nature_girl/review/.