Price, Charlie Desert Angel, 240 pgs. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. $12.63 Language – PG (0 swears, some street-like slang); Mature Content – PG13, Violence: PG13; Life has been hard for Angel – all 14 years. Her mother has drifted from one man to another dragging Angel along with her. Their life together has not been easy. When Angel’s mother hooked up with Scotty it was good at first. The yelling and abuse to her mother started after three weeks. Scotty came to Angel’s bedroom after four weeks. Angel would hide when Scotty started drinking and using drugs to try to find a safe place. One night things went too far. When morning came Angel knew something was wrong, her mother was gone. Scotty is a hunter; he is a poacher; he deals guns, and does other things outside the law; he has a temper. They lived out in the desert near the Joshua Tree National Park, alone in a trailer. Angel follows Scotty’s truck tracks and discovers her mother buried in a shallow grave and she knows she is next. She is a witness to his crime. She heads back to the trailer to get some things to survive as she tries to escape. Scotty catches her, ties her up, and burns the trailer with her in it. She barely escapes and is now being hunted by the hunter, Scotty. Angel is forced to find help with some of the desert people who give more than it would seem possible as they try to protect Angel. It all comes down to a final stand – Angel against Scotty. The story is an unimaginable tale of survival and wits. I thought the story moved well at first and at the end but bogged down a bit in the middle. While the subject matter was mature it was not dealt with in a graphic manner. It is a good character study of the hunter and his prey. While I liked the story overall I didn't think it as good as his The Interrogation of Gabriel James. HS – OPTIONAL. Reviewer: W. Child - Cyprus High Library Media Specialist
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