Miss Shelf
New Member
I finished this book last night. Like the blurb on the front cover, it reminds me a lot of Carl Hiaasen's books, but this one is set in New Jersey and centers around a housing development and endangered timber rattlesnakes. A self-centered housewife who has just moved into a "McMansion"-a huge, expensive house-with her husband and eight-year-old son, has her handyman kill a rattlesnake that's wandered onto her patio just as she's setting up for a tea party. The handyman tells her that the snake is endangered but she ignores him, but the snake has a tracking device implanted, and the naturalist who helps track the snakes finds the dead snake in the woman's trash, setting off a chain of events that culminate in the downfall of the developer who builds the houses. The kicker is that the developer knew the area was a habitat for rattlesnakes but lied to get the houses built.
I think the book was pretty good, lots of funny parts and insights, and it's hard to believe rattlesnakes are endangered, that was a revelation. I could sympathize-if a rattlesnake was threatening me, I'd certainly kill it too.
I think the book was pretty good, lots of funny parts and insights, and it's hard to believe rattlesnakes are endangered, that was a revelation. I could sympathize-if a rattlesnake was threatening me, I'd certainly kill it too.