For over thirty years, nature writer Robert Finch has tramped the sandy, wooded reaches of Cape Cod's natural landscape. Over that time, the Cape has changed, as developers have encroached ever further on beach, marsh, wood, and meadow. The essays collected in Special Places were written in 1998-2002 to focus attention on the Cape Cod Land Bank Act, which authorized Cape towns to use a small portion of their property taxes to acquire open space and conserve it. Not a guide in the usual sense, the twenty-four pieces in Finch's new book are an invitation to explore and cherish some of these properties, from Bourne to Provincetown, and on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Finch himself views this work as "an introduction, such as one might make between mutual friends with the hope of encouraging deeper acquaintance." While it is intended for those who make a home on the Cape, in season or year-round, Special Places will be treasured by all those who value the wildness that was and is New England, andby those who appreciate a master stylist.