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Book Reviews Book reviews by Bookpage Osprey Island   Thisbe Nissen   Knopf   Hardcover, 279pp  $24.00   Add To Cart   In the summer of 1988, Osprey Island's lodge seems the perfect if slightly seedy hideaway for weary New Yorkers. The Chizeks, owners of the lodge for decades, find their routine preseason prep work derailed by the fiery death of alcoholic Lorna Squire, the slovenly head of housekeeping. Lorna's seriously unstable, equally boozy husband, Lance - mean under the best of circumstances - gives in to the kind of mindless cruelty that is cinematic in its execution. Caught in the crosshairs is the Squires's little boy, Squee, who instinctively seeks protection and comfort from Roddy, the lodge's maintenance man. Unfortunately, Roddy's tentative dance of romance with the Chizeks's daughter serves as a lightning rod for Lance's fury. Roddy's mother, Eden, keeper of island secrets, is at the heart of this fragile balance, which goes sadly askew. Incendiary tensions, fueled by grief, alcoholism, and island insularity, build to levels so intolerable that one has to fight the urge to read with one eye closed even while tearing through the pages toward the shocking conclusion. Nissen (The Good People of New York) is the kind of writer who sends the reader compulsively in search of everything else she has written. Highly recommended. Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI MD Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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