As an armchair traveler, I hadn’t planned to visit Sanibel, FL so soon after reading Randy Wayne White’s Sanibel Flats, but there’s no better escapism than a mystery set in a place I’d like to be in. And so I pick up Seduced, also by Randy Wayne White, also set on Sanibel Island.
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That a crazy mother—that of heroine and narrator Hannah Smith, a fishing guide turned sleuth—emerges within the first few pages is just about perfect.
Because what can make you feel better about reading yourself through a pandemic than a plotline with a colorful parent, a dead married lover, really big snakes, and endangered orange groves?
Juicy Plotline
As in his other works, Randy Wayne White wastes no time drawing readers in with Seduced. Readers of a certain age—the so-called sandwich generation—will appreciate Hannah Smith’s efforts to juggle her career with her efforts to keep her out-there mother happy but in check. Things go awry early on when a high-powered but married lover dies in flagrante delicto. Such a shame that his money-loving spouse happens to have a skeleton in her closet. And things very quickly get complicated from there.
What Makes This Book Perfect for a Pandemic
As Hannah tries to cover up the inconvenient death of her mother’s well-connected boyfriend, casualties mount and any number of prospectively malevolent actors present themselves. Figuring who the bad guys or gals are takes readers through quite a few pages. Along the way, we learn a bit about the competitiveness of the orange industry, the impact of invasive animals and plants in Florida, and some Florida history not covered sufficiently in the K-12 years. How easily so many of us forget, or never even learned, that the Spanish had claimed Florida long before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock.
Plus, in Randy Wayne White’s book Seduced, a disease is taking out the citrus trees, and all sorts of experts are looking for a cure. Up until the very end, a reader isn’t quite sure who to believe on this one.
In sum, the plotline of Seduced by Randy Wayne White pretty much makes for perfect reading during the time of the coronavirus.
A Great Line for the Great Pause
“Stop wasting time, take back what is yours.”
Places Visited in This Book
Favorite West-Coast-of-Florida places that make an appearance in Seduced include Sanibel, of course, but also Marco Island. A charming little church on Captiva Island called Captiva-by-the-Sea also gets a mention and possibly more.
You Might Also Like
If you liked Randy Wayne White’s book Seduced, you might also like these books:
Sanibel Flats by Randy Wayne White. This one features recurring character Doc Ford, who juggles a gig as a marine biologist with a bit of sleuthing of his own.
Warlock by Jim Harrison. Visit Key West and a time past and see how the main character—Warlock—adapts to a new job of his own, obtained after a trying time.
A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz chronicles an American history many of us don’t know enough about that involves a little more Spanish, a little more Florida, and a bit less deification of the Pilgrims.
—Lori Tripoli
Lori Tripoli is the editor and publisher of Bashful Adventurer. Based in the New York City vicinity, she writes about travel for a variety of publications. Contact Lori at loritripoli @ bashfuladventurer.com.
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