In Fuzz, author Mary Roach looks at the various ways nature “breaks the law”.

Mary travels the world to look into a variety of instances when the natural world oversteps its bounds. From murderous animals and the crime scenes they leave in their wake to bears breaking and entering to pick-pocket monkeys, all the way to trees with criminal intent – Roach covers a wide spectrum of law-breaking in her new book.

In true Mary Roach fashion, the subject matter is tackled with equally intense detail and light-hearted comedy. Ever wonder what happens when a drunken buffoon challenges a herd of eighteen elephants to a fight? Nothing good, I can assure you. What about trying to buy poisonous plants online? Be prepared to maybe answer some questions from the FBI.

I mostly enjoyed this book, but I will admit that I had a difficult time staying focused at points. There’s a lot of information in here and I find that there are moments where I felt it didn’t flow all that well. That might be more on me than the writer as Roach designed each chapter to lead into the next so the transition from subject to subject isn’t as jarring. I almost feel like each topic could almost have a book written on it alone – especially the chapters on “danger-trees” and the murderous leopards in India.

Fans of Roach will no doubt enjoy this one. There were moments that had me laughing out loud as only Mary Roach could make something like a rat infestation of over 3,000 rats funny.