Knifepoint by Alex van Tol 113 pages

Orca soundings strive for filling a high interest/ low vocabulary niche for struggling readers. Many of them I find rather lame and pretty unappealing to their target audience. They tend to be shelf sitters. Not this book. The writing is as sharp and gripping as the book jacket and title hints. Jill signs up for what she expects to be a perfect summer job, working on a horse ranch. All too late, she discovers that the hours are long, the pay is lousy and her co-workers are lazy. After a spat with her boss, she rashly agrees to take a lone rider on a mountain ride. Out on the trail, she discovers that she is the prisoner of a psychopath. van Tol packs a lot of action and tension in this fast read. Why limit this to poor readers? Horse lovers and survival junkies will enjoy this book, too.