Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Beautiful Animals
Lawrence Osborne
Review by Priscilla Comen
Beautiful Animals
Lawrence Osborne
Review by Priscilla Comen
Beautiful Animals by Lawrence Osborne is about two young women who meet on the Greek island of Hydra, and feel they enhance one another’s existence. Naomi lives with her father and step-mother, Phame, and their servant, Carissa. They own several houses on the island. Naomi has been fired from her job as a lawyer at a big firm in Athens, and her father is upset by this. Sam is on vacation with her parents. These are the “beautiful animals” of the title.
They find a man lying in a crevasse of the other side of the island and bring him food and other supplies. He is an Arab, and they keep him a secret from their families. They rent a hut on the mountain for him from a shepherd. The women are excited about this new adventure in their lives. Naomi dreams of being alone in their Hydta house and in their London apartment too. She and Sam both think of killing their parents. Naomi dreams up a different plan, and tells it to Faoud, the Arab. She wants him to rob her parents of their money, jewelry, and art work. She will leave the door open with Carissa’s help. He can take her father’s car because he never locks it. Naomi believes her father deserves this calamity, and it will help Faoud to get away to freedom. But Naomi’s plan goes awry.
Author Osborne, who lives in Bangkok, reels us in to a gripping story set against the beauty of the Aegean Sea, the Greek islands, the lush vineyards, and the hot days. When Carissa phones Naomi to come home, Naomi finds her father and step-mother dead on the floor. She, Carissa, and Sam bury them in the garden. They go to town as if nothing has happened. Faoud takes the car and the ferry to the mainland. The story continues. Rockhold, a friend of Naomi’s father from his army days, comes to visit him, alarmed that he hasn’t heard from him in weeks. And Carissa begins to blackmail Naomi, asking for more money to keep quiet about the dead bodies. Faoud, in a city far away, buys an expensive pair of shoes with Naomi’s father’s charge card.
Will Faoud be caught because of this purchase? Will the truth come out about the two girls and the buried bodies? Find this intriguing story on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
They find a man lying in a crevasse of the other side of the island and bring him food and other supplies. He is an Arab, and they keep him a secret from their families. They rent a hut on the mountain for him from a shepherd. The women are excited about this new adventure in their lives. Naomi dreams of being alone in their Hydta house and in their London apartment too. She and Sam both think of killing their parents. Naomi dreams up a different plan, and tells it to Faoud, the Arab. She wants him to rob her parents of their money, jewelry, and art work. She will leave the door open with Carissa’s help. He can take her father’s car because he never locks it. Naomi believes her father deserves this calamity, and it will help Faoud to get away to freedom. But Naomi’s plan goes awry.
Author Osborne, who lives in Bangkok, reels us in to a gripping story set against the beauty of the Aegean Sea, the Greek islands, the lush vineyards, and the hot days. When Carissa phones Naomi to come home, Naomi finds her father and step-mother dead on the floor. She, Carissa, and Sam bury them in the garden. They go to town as if nothing has happened. Faoud takes the car and the ferry to the mainland. The story continues. Rockhold, a friend of Naomi’s father from his army days, comes to visit him, alarmed that he hasn’t heard from him in weeks. And Carissa begins to blackmail Naomi, asking for more money to keep quiet about the dead bodies. Faoud, in a city far away, buys an expensive pair of shoes with Naomi’s father’s charge card.
Will Faoud be caught because of this purchase? Will the truth come out about the two girls and the buried bodies? Find this intriguing story on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.