MINNIE and the MANATEES

Book excerpt: Fifty-seven-year-old Minnie Zuccarelli has always been a law-abiding citizen. But when Minnie sees a callous neighbor, Jimmy Simm, endanger a manatee and her baby, her fighting instincts are aroused. At three o'clock in the morning she creeps along the waterway toward Simm's boat, with a knife in her pocket. The consequences of her rash act are not what she expects, and Minnie begins to fear the moment the police will arrive at her door. Further complicating her life, Minnie is attracted to a man who is keeping an astounding secret. Both situations jolt Minnie from the lethargy which she slid into after her divorce, and she learns that a life without risks is only half a life.