Nature Girl
Carl Hiaasen
Alfred A. Knopf
c/o Random House
1745 Broadway, 17th floor, New York, NY 10019
9780307262998 $25.95 www.aaknopf.com www.randomhouse.com 1-800-726-0600

Sammy Tigertail, half-white, half-Seminole, has yet to find his place in the world. Raised by his white father, Sammy returned to the Seminole reservation at a young age, where he has since tried to fit in. Sammy has a failed work history as an alligator wrestler, and now he's trying his luck with the tourist industry. When Sammy takes his first vacationer on an airboat ride, the man dies from a heart attack. Sammy panics and dumps the man's body into the water, then goes into hiding on Dismal Key. His first night there, Sammy scares a group of college students off the island, but one young woman refuses to leave.

Honey Santana is a strong woman determined to raise her son to be a good man in a corrupt world in Southern Florida. Honey hears song lyrics in her head and is prone to an obsessive need to make a point. When Boyd Shreave, a telemarketer who hasn't done an honest day's labor in his life, interrupts her dinner one night, his rude response to her attempt to tell him he's calling at a bad time prompts Honey to take action. Honey lures Boyd to Florida with promises of a major investment in land, where she intends to teach him a lesson in civility. Boyd arrives with his mistress, Eugenie, and the three embark on a kayak ride through Ten Thousand Islands. Unknown to Boyd is that his wife has hired a private investigator to trail her husband and catch him in the act. Honey also has a man after her, Piejack, her former employer with a bandaged hand and mismatched fingers, who's been lusting after Honey and is determined to make her his.

Throw into this wild mix Honey's levelheaded son, Fry, and her ex-husband, Perry, a former drug runner who is still in love with Honey. The two have come to rescue Honey from Piejack, which leads to one hilarious romp through the Everglades with characters bumping into and chasing one another all over the island.

On par with Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen delivers a fun read, with wacky, outside-the-box characters and a laugh-out-loud plot. The story moves quickly and is vastly entertaining throughout, so much so that the reader will not be quite ready to put the book down at the end. This must-read is highly recommended.