BOOK CAPSULES

“Baja Florida”

By Bob Morris (Minotaur, $24.99)

While most Florida mystery writers keep their novels tightly focused on the Sunshine State, Bob Morris takes a different route. Each of the Orlando author’s five novels start in Central Florida and then quickly move to the Bahamas. To those of us who live down here, the Bahamas often seems like an extension of the Sunshine State.

It certainly seems that way to Zack Chasteen, who sees the Bahamas, spread over more than 3,000 islands, cays and inlets, as “Baja Florida” and the perfect place to hide. Zack, a new father and husband, reluctantly leaves his family in Central Florida to find Jen, the estranged daughter of his old friend Mickey Ryser, a dying millionaire. Jen is missing and no one has heard from her or the college friends who were making the trek to the Bahamas in her new sailboat. The private detective Mickey hired also appears to be missing.

Zack’s search involves modern-day pirates who prey on private yachts and the Bahamian criminals who work with them.

“Baja” works as a nail-biting thriller as well as a novel about loyalty and friendship. Morris keeps the action brisk as he island-hops. His affection for the Bahamas shines as he showcases the islands’ history and scenery and gives an insider’s view of the hidden Bahamas.

Zack is an appealing hero, an all-around nice guy until those he cares about are threatened. But in this day of iPhones, Facebook and YouTube, it seems unlikely that no one seems to have a recent photo of Jen. Still, the action is solid enough to make “Baja” a smooth glide across the Atlantic.

Oline H. Cogdill, Sun Sentinel

“PACE: The 12-Minute Fitness Revolution”

Al Sears, M.D. (Wellness Research & Consulting, Inc., $24.95)

You’re hitting the gym four to five times a week. You’re dutifully doing the elliptical trainer or treadmill for an hour at a time. But all those long, boring workouts do nothing to strengthen your heart or slim your waistline. Do enough cardio and aerobics and you’ll get old before your time.

In “PACE.: The 12-Minute Fitness Revolution,” Al Sears, M.D., of Royal Palm Beach Fla., shows why the exercise rules you’ve followed for years are the ones you need to ignore. (Your lungs shrink with age, and each time you practice extended, endurance-related cardio, you’re making them even smaller and weaker).

With extensive work rehabilitating overweight and diabetic patients, Sears has designed PACE, or — “Progressively Accelerating Cardiopulmonary Exertion” - that lets you burn fat and strengthen your heart and lungs and why 12 minutes of activity a day is all you need to reclaim maximum health.

PRNewswire

“Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang”

By Chelsea Handler (Grand Central Publishing, $25.99)

Chelsea Handler spins a series of gut-busting tales in her completely outrageous, laugh-out-loud book, “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang.”

Fans of Handler, a standup comedian and host of E! television’s “Chelsea Lately,” are treated to a plunge down the rabbit hole with the follow-up to her best-seller, “Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea.”

“Bang Bang” adds new dimension to the definition of dysfunction, and it’s hard to tell whether her outlandish stories are designed more to amuse herself or her fans.

Handler can bend the truth with greater ease than a pro weightlifter. She convinced “Lately” staff writer Heather McDonald that she had been hired to write a comedic screenplay recalling the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle.

The book’s strength lies in the passages about family. Her portrayals of her home life are chaotic and likely exaggerated, but so much fun to read. While her relationship with her siblings is tumultuous, it’s also loving and fun, garnished with a little absurdity. It’s a different twist on what makes a happy household, but it’s an effective one.

Ryan McLendon, Associated Press