Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18189 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
White, who has always had the talent, moves firmly into the major leagues with his latest Doc Ford story (after Sanibel Flats) and its lavish panorama of cross-cultural and environmental issues played out passionately in south Florida. The Florida Keys uneasily contain rich pleasure seekers and subsistence-level fisherman; someplace in the turbulent middle, Doc, a biologist, and his existentialist buddy Tomlinson hang out. As a ban on net fishing engenders increasing debate, a man is blown apart when an explosion demolishes a jetty. The sultry voodoo-practicing widow soon has Doc and Tomlinson hopelessly spellbound; her host of admirers includes others with drug and land-development interests. By this point, the sweep of White's prose and the earnest intensity he brings to the ecological debate will likely blind readers to a story line with holes large enough for marlin to swim through. Tomlinson is fascinated by the socioeconomics of a small, insular key with nothing but fishing to support it, while Doc is more intrigued by the herbs the widow places in the hot tea they sip prior to bouts of strenuous lovemaking. The conclusion embraces some sinister business with drug smuggling and a minor miracle of modern medicine. While it isn't quite clear how White gets to drug cartels from the charred remains of a lazy brain-fried doper who liked hitting attractive, oversexed women, the whole weird trip, fueled by the author's thoroughly convincing re-creation of his chosen and much-loved world, is a blast.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The victim of an explosion at Dinkin's Bay Marina on Sanibel Island, commercial fisherman Jimmy Darroux mumbles, "Take care of Hannah" before he dies. Aging hippie Tomlinson, to whom Jimmy's words were addressed, enlists the aid of his best pal, Doc Ford, a former government agent turned seaside biologist. Burdened by a disconcerting tendency to see both sides of an issue, Doc recognizes that Jimmy's death is somehow tied to the friction between commercial and sport fishermen. He agrees to help find the mysterious Hannah, but his real motive is to derail a confrontation that could see many of his friends hurt. And hurt they are when the violence escalates. White's fourth Doc Ford novel gathers momentum slowly--its pace is not unlike the hypnotic rhythm of the surf--until the last 100 pages or so, when all hell breaks loose. Characters we have grown fond of meet bad ends, a truly evil villain is exposed, and Ford drops his intellectual guise: he's a born predator, and he exacts a horrible but just revenge. This is a top-shelf thriller written with poetic style and vision. Don't miss it. Wes Lukowsky

From Kirkus Reviews
In the seconds between touching off a homemade bomb in Dinkin's Bay and giving up the ghost, Jimmy Darroux asks ``Doc'' Ford's buddy Tomlinson to ``take care of Hannah.'' But when Ford and Tomlinson make the trip to nearby Sulphur Wells to see Jimmy's salty widow, it turns out she hated him and his abuse and is delighted he's dead (and she's not the only one). So what did he mean, and how can they take care of her? At her invitation, spacey mystic Tomlinson settles in to help her work on a book about her family, while marine biologist Ford wonders why the invitation didn't go to him. He wonders too whether Jimmy was killed because he got in the middle of a battle over the banning of net fishing, or because he knew too much about a ring of boat thieves--or because of Hannah herself. As he treads a wary line between the equally untrusting camps of commercial fishers and sports fishers, Ford finds himself drawn more and more to Hannah Smith Darroux, and more and more threatened by the friends and admirers who've ringed themselves around her, till all three of them--Ford, Hannah, and Tomlinson--are in danger. Having established his Carl Hiaasen credentials with The Man Who Invented Florida (1993), White sounds a more ruminative note in this mixture of James W. Hall and John D. MacDonald. Ford takes every chance to stop and smell the hibiscus, and fans of tangled Florida intrigue will want to join him. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Poor Follow-up to White's First Three Doc Ford Adventures
I have to agree with another reviewer that Captiva is also my least favorite Doc Ford novel in the series so far. The plot is interesting and the mood is still compelling, but switching to the "first person voice" just ruins it for me. I suppose the reason for doing so might have been to soften Doc Ford's character, but this method comes off clumsy at times and makes Doc seem phony. Doc didn't need any fluffing up anyway. This is a complete and terrible switch from the masterful "third-person" storytelling in the previous book, "The Man Who Invented Florida". I hope Randy returns to his earlier writing style in the next Doc Ford novel.

The Heart of Florida is in this Book
The thing that Randy Wayne White does best is to convey all the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of Florida. His stories are all about Marion "Doc" Ford, an ex-NSA agent currently living on Florida's Gulf Coast and trying to live a quiet life as a marine biologist. Even though he's trying to live the quiet life, it's just not in the cards. Every book finds him in the middle of a new mystery that he solves with class and wit.

However, anyone who thinks that these books are about Doc Ford and his adventures is wrong. Doc is a great central character, and his adventures are great reads. But Mr. White is ultimately not writing about Doc or his adventures. His central character is Florida itself, and the stories he writes provide vehicles for him to explore this magical place in greater and greater depth.

As a fishing guide himself, Mr. White knows Florida and it's evident in the care he takes to put the reader inside the skin of his characters. There's just no way to read a Doc Ford novel without feeling the oppressive heat or swarms of mosquitos, or getting a sense that you could actually dip your fingers into the waters of Dinkins Bay if you wanted. And this is the thing I love most about Mr. White's novels. You get to pretend, just for a little while, that you're actually living in Florida, running a skiff over the flats or casting a fly rod under the mango trees.

The plot of this particular story? It's about a brewing war between net fishermen and other groups who have voted to restrict net fishing in Florida. Acts of sabotage are happening up and down the coast, and the story opens with a bomb being set off at Dinkins Bay itself. Doc and his buddy Tomlinson do a bit of investigating and both become entangled with a lady who lives in a net fishing community and is one of the focal points of the conflict. In the course of this story, Doc falls deeply for this lady and we also see some very bad things happen to Tomlinson. Tomlinson's plight brings out the old NSA version of Doc, and we get a window into the life he used to lead when he worked for the government.

This book has one of the most clever and satisfying 'revenge moments' I've read when Doc finally confronts the main villain and we see him get what's coming to him. I laughed out loud when I figured out how Doc had gotten even with this person. Probably the best Doc Ford moment I've read so far.

This book rates 5 stars, both because I love Doc Ford and because I love Florida. As long as Randy Wayne White is writing, I don't much care what the plot is because I know it's going to take me where I want to be...the languid waters of Florida where the days are for fishing and the nights are for relaxing on the shore with a beer and a few good friends.

I can hear the Jimmy Buffett music playing in the background right now....

I think John McDonald would approve
Having been a John McDonald/Travis Magee fan for a long time I have always been sad at John's passing. His Travis Magee novels are always good reading. I was pleased to read a review of Mr White and his comparision to McDonald. Our hero lives in Captiva, is a retired government agent named Doc Ford who talents these days are turned to marine biology. His side kick is a "way out" cat from the 60's named Tomlinson. This story takes place in a marina in Florida where more than Doc's biology projects seem to be blowing up. In fact half the marina is now charcoal. It could turn into all out war between the netters and the sportfishermen over the netting ban, with Doc caught in the middle. Ford trys to keep a middle of the road lifestyle, but it turns personnel when somebody puts Tomlinson in the hospital near death. Doc is looking for payback - for a lot things. The book has a real good ending and leaves the reader trying to get inside of Doc's head to figure out how and why he does things. Story is a little slow in the beginning but picks up to an international ending. I look forward to reading more of Doc Ford from Randy Wayne White.