North of Havana - Doc Ford, Bk 5 Author:Randy Wayne White Just as Marion "Doc" Ford is at the point of dramatically improving his acquaintance with his old friend Dewey Nye (she's already got half her underwear off), his phone rings, and his even older friend, dropout prophet Tomlinson, is squawking about how the trip his pickup Julia DeGlorio talked him into taking -- from Sanibel to an island north o... more »f Cuba -- turned sour when Tomlinson woke up to find they'd drifted into Cuban waters and were being held along with his beloved boat in lieu of storage charges.
Couldn't Doc drop whatever he was doing and sneak down to bail his buddy out? Of course he could, in a flash -- if it were only that simple. But Doc and Dewey haven't spent a whole night on the island before he realizes that Tomlinson hasn't been leveling with him. He's not just looking for cash for bail and bribes; he's gotten involved in a mind-bogglingly complex assassination plot, one whose tangled roots link a peyote-supplying Santeria priest, a family of unsuccessful assassins, and a fateful baseball game in which Doc, as catcher, once refused to let Fidel Castro throw anything but fastballs.
Maybe that's why Castro's now scouring the island for Doc -- but it doesn't begin to explain why Doc will be risking life and limb to prevent Castro's execution.« less
A really slow starter. I've stopped reading it for now. I MAY start reading it again - because I like the other Doc Ford books... I hope it gets better.
I have enjoyed most of the Doc Ford series that I have read so far, but North of Havana is not one of them. The departure to Cuba in aid of a friend is interesting in giving a picture of the decaying society under the dictatorship of Fidel Castro; but, the strange characters, aura of Santeria religion, and frequent deadly violence do not quite fit with the disjointed plot and improbable events in the story. I found it hard to stay interested and keep track of the sketchy characters populating the pages. My advice is to skip this book and move on down the list of Doc Ford titles