The Man With Pointy Teeth by M. Juanita Taylor

**This book was received as a free advanced readers copy***

This was an interesting book and I have to say that I enjoyed it. It was certainly unique, and the characters were likable. There were a few flaws, but overall I found it well written and exciting.

Caitlin has a pretty enjoyable life. She works in an ichthyology department, volunteers at the zoo, and is a student who loves to work on art. But the most exciting of these is probably volunteering at the zoo in their night study of the wild dogs. Strange things start happening and before Caitlin can make sense of what's going on, there are the murders of animals and people and she thinks that someone may be stalking her. Despite all this she's found a new love interest too and it makes it tough for her to concentrate on the danger surrounding her. Caitlin better worry though, because what's stalking her may not be completely human.

I liked Caitlin as a character. She was believable but somewhat flighty at times and not always the best decision maker. But hey, that's extremely real, no ones perfect. Her friends too were varied and interesting although I would have liked more background and description on Tom, her boyfriend. Eddie was a pretty great character as well even though he seemed to do some unbelievable things once in awhile. He was unique though and I liked his personality best of all.

The writing was very clear and descriptive. Taylor falls into the trap of being overly descriptive every now and then but it doesn't greatly detract from the novel and the majority of the writing benefits from the clarity. I certainly learned a lot more about the zoo than I ever knew before and was especially pleased to see mention of a silkie chicken (even if it did have more flying prowess than my silkies possess) and actually any mention of the silkie chicken I found immensely enjoyable. The only real major flaw that I could find was that the pacing was a bit rushed to the end and almost made me feel like the ending was incomplete. It was complete in all normal senses, it just felt like there should be more. It was an exciting read and there were a lot of things going on but it was well contained in the plot so it kept you reading and wanting more.

Not a bad book. Has great elements of animals, excitement and mystery.

The Man With Pointy Teeth
Copyright 2010
224 pages