Helpful Score: 3
Another Doc Ford installment. Great series! Be sure to read in order though...it makes a difference!
Helpful Score: 2
The Doc Ford books are an excellent series by Randy Wayne White. Based in the Florida Keys and entertaining from beginning to end.
Helpful Score: 2
first book of his series with Doc Ford very very good
Helpful Score: 1
A good read in the male action exotic location genre. A few good insights into Sanibel Island for tourists.
Helpful Score: 1
First Doc Ford mystery.
Helpful Score: 1
Great story lots of atmosphere.
Helpful Score: 1
First in the Doc Ford series. I have read only one of the recent books before this, and it's nice to get some background on the characters and see them start to develop.
Helpful Score: 1
First time I've read Randy Wayne White and I have to read them all!
Helpful Score: 1
I am madly in love with deep south authors. Probably because I live here myself. This is a new author for me and one I will definitely start reading on a regular basis...plenty of suspense and information on his area and expertise.
Helpful Score: 1
Doc Ford is sometimes compared to Travis McGee but nobody has ever compared Tomlinson to Meyer. And I enjoyed the history of Central America, which was based on fact, if not precisely each detail.
Helpful Score: 1
Randy Wayne White is John D.MacDonald born again.
Helpful Score: 1
Radny6 Wane White's writing style is easy to read and follow. The plot and characters come to life and are very plausible. Good read.
I love this entire series about Doc Ford and the unusual characters at Dinkins Bay in Sanibel. The stories are fast paced and well-crafted. Doc Ford and his friends are people you can care about, and they develop further as the series progresses. The books also paint an accurate picture of the lovely island of Sanibel, which is well worth a visit. Randy Wayne White is part owner of a restaurant on the island called "Doc Ford's", great place to eat.
Set on Sanibel, this mystery is the first of a series of books about Doc Ford. this over the top mystery is fun and easy to read.the violence is graphic but kept to a minimum.
doc is called by an old friend for help getting back his kidnapped son in central america,now the "fun" begins.
doc is called by an old friend for help getting back his kidnapped son in central america,now the "fun" begins.
This book has been compared to those of John D. MacDonald, which is why I got it. It is set in Florida and he goes after missing things. The similarity ends there. The writing is didactic making it hard to trudge through.
Great reading!
First book in the Doc Ford series. Good characters. Nicely written, but obvious plot twist.
The Doc Ford character is a winner.
I've enjoyed Randy Wayne White ever since a fellow patron in the library stacks asked if I knew his work. I did not and have since read 4 or 5.
Finally having book #1 about Doc Ford is a delight. Now I see where all the travel, twists and turns started. I'm meeting new characters at the same time Doc meets them. Heady stuff.
I now will seek the first novels by some of my other favorite authors. It's a good quest.
Finally having book #1 about Doc Ford is a delight. Now I see where all the travel, twists and turns started. I'm meeting new characters at the same time Doc meets them. Heady stuff.
I now will seek the first novels by some of my other favorite authors. It's a good quest.
Someone recommended this series to me some time ago and I finally got around to reading this first Doc Ford novel. Doc is an ex-CIA agent and marine biologist who has retired on Sanibel Island on the west coast of Florida. (I remember visiting Sanibel a few years ago on a family vacation where we were amazed by the amount of beautiful seashells scattered along its beaches.)
In this novel, Doc is visited by his old friend Rafe Hollins, who tells him that his son has been abducted in the Central American country of Masagua and he wants Doc to help rescue him. Doc agrees to meet Rafe on another small island but when he goes there he finds Rafe hanging from a tree. Did Rafe commit suicide or was he murdered? Doc sets out to find the answer as well as to try and rescue Rafe's son in Masagua. Along the way, we meet the colorful characters who also live on Sanibel, including Tomlinson, a free-spirit hippie type, who agrees to go with Doc to Masagua on the rescue mission. The boy is being held by a group of radicals that have been smuggling Mayan artifacts and want to take over the Masaguan government. Overall, this was a good action thriller and included a twist at the end that I didn't see coming. In addition, White gives a good history lesson about the conquest of the Mayans in Central America and does an excellent job of describing how it feels to live among the boaters on Sanibel. I'll be reading more in this series.
In this novel, Doc is visited by his old friend Rafe Hollins, who tells him that his son has been abducted in the Central American country of Masagua and he wants Doc to help rescue him. Doc agrees to meet Rafe on another small island but when he goes there he finds Rafe hanging from a tree. Did Rafe commit suicide or was he murdered? Doc sets out to find the answer as well as to try and rescue Rafe's son in Masagua. Along the way, we meet the colorful characters who also live on Sanibel, including Tomlinson, a free-spirit hippie type, who agrees to go with Doc to Masagua on the rescue mission. The boy is being held by a group of radicals that have been smuggling Mayan artifacts and want to take over the Masaguan government. Overall, this was a good action thriller and included a twist at the end that I didn't see coming. In addition, White gives a good history lesson about the conquest of the Mayans in Central America and does an excellent job of describing how it feels to live among the boaters on Sanibel. I'll be reading more in this series.
Okay. The plot of this book, after reading the first chapter, seems very intriguing. I would have loved to finish it, because it seemed to be one of those books that would be a page turner. But, alas, I threw it down after one chapter as I just do not like to read novels laced with profanity. A little bit here and there, ok, but not multiple times on one page. As I am an avid reader of cozy mysteries this book does not fit in that category. I was on vacation in Florida a couple years ago and we went to Sanibel Island,(if you have never been there, I can tell you it is beautiful!), so the title of the book intrigued me. I know there are many, many people who enjoy Randy Wayne White's work, but this is just a personal opinion about book's contents I hold and certainly do not intend to offend anyone because of my personal interests.
This was a good read. Lots of twists and surprises that kept me off balance right to the end. And the action was non-stop.
I was looking for a Jack Reacher substitute now that Lee Child has become so successful and lost his edge. Let's see, Reacher was ex-Army MP investigator....Doc Ford is ex-intelligence operative....Reacher left military service to lead a totally different life as a hobo and free-lance problem solver....Doc left government service to become a marine biologist and free-lance problem solver...and.....that's about where the similarities end.
Doc Ford leads a quieter life, uses his brains more than his fists, has a wide circle of quirky and endearing friends,and pretty much sticks to the Gulf Coast of Florida to have his adventures. Like Travis McGee, the hero of 23 John MacDonald stories, Doc abhors the assault of population growth and profit-oriented developers on his home state. But he keeps his tree hugging under control while dealing with the world as it is to help his friends and fight the evil-doers. He has an appeal all his own and makes an acceptable alternative, if not replacement, for Jack Reacher.
I plan to read more of the Doc Ford series.
Doc Ford leads a quieter life, uses his brains more than his fists, has a wide circle of quirky and endearing friends,and pretty much sticks to the Gulf Coast of Florida to have his adventures. Like Travis McGee, the hero of 23 John MacDonald stories, Doc abhors the assault of population growth and profit-oriented developers on his home state. But he keeps his tree hugging under control while dealing with the world as it is to help his friends and fight the evil-doers. He has an appeal all his own and makes an acceptable alternative, if not replacement, for Jack Reacher.
I plan to read more of the Doc Ford series.
Did not finish it
