Jean Zimmerman's Savage Girl
I had some mixed feelings about this book. It starts off in media res, in the 1870s, with a young man being discovered at a crime scene, determined to take the blame, although he's not sure he actually did it. Then it flashes back to his family on a trip out west for rich people reasons, where they discover the so-called Savage Girl being displayed. His father determines to bring her back out east and turn her into a debutante, for some nature vs nurture reason (this is never really gone into) (neither is the feral child thing). Various men who express an interest in her are found dead along the way. Is he the killer? Is she? I liked how ambiguous this was, until the neatly resolves ending, which was pretty annoying. Zimmerman does toss in some nice references to historical figures of the day, though (Henry James and the Woodhull sisters were of specific interest to this reader). I've been reading this off and on for like a week--the narrative voice is pretty compelling, but the story bogs down a little in the middle, and I was really not into the end. But I can see why other readers would like it. B.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.
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