"Gator Aide" is Speart's first book. Rachel Porter has given up her acting career and moved to New Orleans to join the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency. This is a male dominated society so they send her to the swamp to catch poachers hoping she will quit. Then a hooker is found dead and in the bathroom is an alligator chained to the bathtub; he's also dead. This book has good action and very enjoyable characters.
The second book "Tortoise Trouble" is just as enjoyable. Rachel has transferred to the Nevada desert. Three hundred and fifty endangered tortoises have disappeared from the federal hatching site. A landowner's skeleton is found and Rachael's house is bombed.
I look forward to the next in this series.
The second book is "Tortoise Soup" not "Tortoise Trouble". These are great reads, (despite some rather negative reviews locally). Hope to find a third offering, soon. Also, she needs to move the location back to Louisiana--didn't seem as comfortable with the western setting.
I just read "Gator Aide," and hope to move onto her second book.
I enjoyed it, but I will say that the book cover and general impression of the book is a bit misleading! Being a wuss, I expected a light-hearted, humorous romp through the swamps with the various characters, and found it in fact quite dark. I don't know how "light" I thought it was going to be, but the neo-nazi hatred, psychotic slasher and political corruption was quite something. And her lead man was a far cry from your typical, perfect romantic interest. (I did have a hard time buying how easily THAT resolved itself at the end!)I guess that's what might set the tone for the book--no easy solutions for tough reality.
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