Randy Wayne WhiteBesprekingen

Another good, very readable story by Randy Wayne White, and the first of the Hawker series written under the name of Carl Ramm (1984) that I have read. This is full-on He-Man stuff, heavy on the far-right cop / military mentality where all liberal, politicians, and the media are bad. In today’s world those Americans are... well, I’ll leave it at that since I figure everyone has figured it out, same guys but they are much more open about who they are and how they feel.

Lots of action. Lots of killing. Lots of explosions. Same RWW south Florida themes and settings. "Hawk" is way ahead of the curve when it comes to taking on the bad guys, and he does so in spectacular fashion. If you like RWW and / or action stories then you should like this one.½

Having read a fair number of Randy Wayne White books I wasn't sure how I was going to like my first "Randy Striker". But not only was I pleasantly surprised, this might be my favorite RWW to date.

The introduction by White in my later edition is quite illuminating, and now I know the basic backstory of the Doc Ford series, how all that developed. I have also now come full circle from when I read my first RWW and Tomlinson jumped out as a likeness of John Steinbeck (to Fords resemblance to Ed Ricketts); I don't believe I was previously aware of the writer H. M. Tomlinson.

Cuban Death-Lift may have been a bit uneven writing-wise, but I still found all the characters and story to my liking. And it didn't seem to have any unnecessary filler or drama. Okay, the name "Dusky MacMorgan" could use some work, but I enjoyed it all nonetheless. This was a good, fast read.½

I think that this was my favorite Doc Ford book to date; a solid 4-stars if not the 4.5 I gave it. I am not sure if the beginning of the story was fully explained or not, and the ending had a "to be continued" quality, but I felt this book progressed better than many of the others. I like all the Randy Wayne White characters, but Marion can be a whiny little bitch at times, and he didn't have a lot of time to do so in this one; I don't recall any particular, tangential philosophizing, and only a very little commiserating on his woman problems, problems he is generally guaranteed to make in each book in the series.

The storyline wasn't too over the top, maybe a bit out there, and most events worked as put forth. There was crazy good storylines developing around all of the residents of Dinkins Bay that was a real added benefit. Again, this was a really good one.½

This was another good one from Randy Wayne White. He is such a good writer, and I enjoyed the story while it was on a more or less straight trajectory. (The whole orange / biotech thing was superb.) But then it got way too convoluted. Both Hannah Smith and the bad "guys" ended up having to do a myriad of dumb and dangerous things to make it work so Hannah could end up in isolated and deadly places. That's where I lost some enthusiasm. Sure, it made the book more nail-biting and thriller-like, but also added a lot more than its fair share of dumb.

I feel like I have read a ton of RWW by now, but this may be my first in the Hannah Smith series. And because RWW is such a fine writer I was surprised when Hannah was using the exact same voice as Marion "Doc" Ford; way too similar and I would say an oversight on the part of the author. Still, a good, fast read.½

Mystery in the mangroves

Some craziness here with Tomlinson channeling the past and a monstrous man channeling an evil ancestor.
Ightening in more ways than one.
J did find myself confused by uncertainties from time to time but most come clear.

From the Doc Ford books that I have read to date, I believe that this one is my favorite. Marion was much less of a drama queen than he is in most of the books; Doc is always portrayed as a man's man, a studly stud, but generally he is commiserating forever on all his woman woes and that wasn't the case this time. Also, the backstory was quite good; a bit much with ALL of the "Black Widow" threads (and the spider does make a messy web) leading back to Doc and his goddaughter Shay, but still good.

Cool and interesting elements of geography and explorer history thrown in too like:

"The plaque says this map was drawn in 1507."

"That’s right. The Waldseemuller map" There was a smile in her voice. "It's not the original, of course. Notice something unusual about it?"

"Yes. It shows the western coast of South America, and the Baja Peninsula. Hudson Bay, too. All fairly accurate. I'm trying to remember my fifth-grade history -"

"Excellent catch, Dr. Ford. You're thinking of Magellan. He didn't reach the Pacific Coast until decades later, and he never really explored it. And explorer Henry Hudson didn't arrive in the Americas until a hundred years later."

I said, "So the map couldn't have been made in 1507."

"But it was - it's been well documented. The maps on that wall represent some of history's great mysteries. That's what Sir James claims, anyway. The Stuttgart Map, for instance, is from the sixteenth century. It shows Antarctica in incredible detail - two hundred and fifty years before western explorers had laid eyes on it. Not only that, it's the Antarctic as it would appear without ice. I checked for myself. It’s true."

I compared the map to the world globe that sat beside a leather reading chair. She was right about the accuracy. The map was dated 1535.

"How can that be?"

The woman shrugged.½

This should have been titled: Ford Needlessly Gets a Bunch More People Killed Volume 17.

For whatever reason this book was all about Doc overthinking everything every millisecond of the entire book, and 85% or more of the words were related to Doc overthinking. He's figuring and surmising and remembering and deliberating and speculating and cogitating and pondering... and he's mostly wrong about Every. Single. Thing. I mean, he could have just stopped, looked around, figured out the quickest way to keep things from spiraling out of control, but nope, Ford just figured the best plan of action was to sit there figuring and then engineer a situation that repeatedly goes from bad to worse to much, much worse etc.

Towards the end of the book is this line (page 290 out of 315): "But it was something I couldn’t think about now." Huh? Why not? That's all you’ve been doing the entire book, thinking and mulling nonessential matters. The entire story takes place over 12 or 18 hours, and it didn't have to be horrible except it was because it all took place up inside Doc’s head.

The story is like one of those kids movies where the preteen juvenile delinquent outfoxes and runs circles around the adult. I lost track of how many times Ford got himself captured and killed solely because he was being a dumbass.½

This is my first Randy Wayne White book and I'd heard so many good things about history writing I decided to give it a go. what he's created is a not quite likable gaudy woman who can't se to get past how she looks and who makes terrible choices when it comes to her safety. I'm not quite done with those one, but I'm betting some guy on a figurative white horse is going to have to ride up to save her sorry ass

Read it as a friend handed it off and it was about Sanibel. Just couldn’t get into the main character, etc. action packed but not for me

This is a review of the advanced copy “Gone” by Randy Wayne White for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

The book is a thriller and introduces a new heroine named Hannah Smith who is just as stubborn and capable as marine biologist Marion “Doc” Ford.

Hannah is sensitive and well-connected enough to extract some very personal information from local landowner Elka Whitney, savvy enough to zero in on Ms. Whitney’s handyman/boy toy, Ricky Meeks, as Olivia’s likeliest companion, and beautiful enough to snag an interview to be first mate of the Sybarite, a cruise ship that offers its well-heeled patrons an exceptional level of personal service.

The book does lack some suspense and surprise, but I hope that Hannah will be back next time with a meatier case.

Looking forward to his next book, this reviewer is recommending this book and rates the book with 4 out of 5 stars.

I didn't care much for this book in the Doc Ford series. Right from the outset Ford was off, Tomlinson was off, Sally was off, the new random character DeAntoni was a struggle to make sense of him, the Swami and his crew were just paper cutouts. About the only part of this book I found even remotely interesting was the bits about what it takes for a Native American tribe to be recognized by the US government as a tribe, a legal entity. But the Everglades parts weren't all that interesting, the over-development and destruction of Florida and the Everglades was boring, the Tribe of Egret Seminoles, Inc. was ho-hum. The whole story I found pretty flat and it took me forever to plow through it.

Too bad it didn't incorporate the Kalevala and Lemminkäinen Temple and hoard, or some other fantastical story instead of the relative pedestrian TV evangelist and / or everyday, run of the mill megachurch slimeball figure. Randy Wayne White knows how to wrap things and put the finishing touches in place so the ending was good, but far, far, far too much of the book was Ford being mindless... "mushin"... that's a Japanese word.

I can't say that I liked this book all that much, and because I thought that a lot of it would be based in Colombia and Panama I expected the opposite. But I do not think that it was due to the letdown. The entire book Ford is all up inside his head, and that is basically the entire story; him figuring and figuring and figuring with little to no information. He is analyzing himself, his uncle, his friends, people he has just met, people he hasn't met; and that gets boring if you ask me.

We do get more of Ford’s mysterious background filled in, but the story is about a disappeared woman, the ex-wife of a former friend Doc would die for, and nothing much about finding her... beyond speculating, and speculating, and then speculating some more. What solid, factual information there is available, Doc doesn't spend any time running down because all of his time is wasted on speculation and figuring. WTH.

To sum up: 90% of the book is Ford talking about himself, 10% (at most) is him actually trying to do anything useful but the results are largely idiotic and nothing remotely what you'd call successful, and then he gets everyone of any importance is killed. This was Randy Wayne White’s idea of a good story...???

I should add that the 20-30 characters in this story are well-created, finely crafted beings and personalities. Maybe that was for future use in future books, but in this novel was just a lot of words that didn't lend themselves to this story; all of that didn't seem necessary.

I really, really like the Randy Wayne White Doc Ford series; the writing is exceptionally good, the characters are always generally great particularly the mains, the stories well thought out and entertaining, the lives of the people good, the interpersonal relationships great, etc. The Heat Islands has all of that.

The only thing I find myself disliking is the coincidences and chain of events that have to coincide to pull the story all together, it always becomes a bit too much of a stretch.

I just like these books too damn much. I guess I disappoint myself when it starts out at 5-stars then drops to 4-1/2 to 4 to... whatever. Fine reading so I can't totally slam it, but at times even 3-1/2 stars might seem too high.½

My mother was a huge fan of Randy Wayne White. She passed away in 2018 and since then I have tried to make it my goal to read at least one book a year by an author than was a favorite of hers. Randy Wayne White won the December lottery. This one had so much going on that it was a bit hard to keep up. There was an attractive lawyer, a disaster and rescue at sea, Dinkin's Bay parties, Coast Guard lore, drunken bigshot actors, dog fights, drug and human smugglers, wicked, bad-tempered Columbians, a very large Albino, mysterious mid-easterners, an I.R.A. bomber on the run, headhunters who were paid by some government assassins, midnight raids, a jungle adventure and four different women in bed with Doc Ford. Ho White managed to put all this together and write something that you could actually keep up with and understand is way beyond my reasoning. He started with the capsizing of a small dive boat nearly 50 miles out at sea. The nightmare of spending days lost at sea waiting for the Coast Guard to find you unfolds with what I interpreted to be realism. Doc Ford decides to continue the investigation long after the authorities have given up. I couldn't really judge the scenes in the jungles of Columbia, I thought bordered on improbability. You have to wonder how all these pieces and parts came together so conveniently. I also have to wonder at my 95-year-old mother reading this...but I guess i read some things she had to wonder about also.

11/14/22

It’s been longer than it should have been since I have read any of White’s books. Although published in 2015 I suspect it was first written in the early 80’s. There are the anachronisms like the dial up modem, 48K computer and compuserve. He also arms Hawker with a Randall knife. He had also given that to a different hero in some of his first books published under the pen name ‘Striker’ in the early 80’s. Likely he polished this some before its 2015 publication but it reflects a much less subtle style than his Doc Ford novels.
That said it was quite a romp.

This was a good one owing to the central character 14-year-old Will "Pony" Chaser. He's whip-smart, tough as nails, and snarky. Hailing from an Indian reservation in Oklahoma, here is an example of his take on residents in this newfound home after being shipped off to Minnesota:

**********

[Their] "Faces might crack if they smiled and not because of the damn windchill factor - windchill being Minnesotans' way of bragging about their shitty weather while sounding smart enough to move south if they wanted.

Great Falls registered the lowest temperature in the nation this morning, 30° below, not counting windchill.

They were proud of that?"

**********

Will Chaser’s foster grandfather Otto "Bull" Guttersen was pretty good value too.

Otherwise, the story is convoluted, and contains a lot of weird premises; of course, that all centers around Randy Wayne White’s Number One evil place Cuba.

Marion "Doc" Ford does his usual number pinballing around various locales and crossing paths with all the other characters, and then ultimately stumbles around long enough to save the day as well as solve several old mysteries much like Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt.

Tomlinson doesn't factor too much into this book (although we do learn a lot more about him and his past), and the other new or old characters are more of a passing reference.

Anyway, this was so engaging that it must have been one of my fastest reads ever.½

This book started off really good, really solid; the first chapter with Tomlinson and Doc being Tomlinson and Doc was quintessential Tomlinson and Doc. But then the story quickly went downhill with a lot of drama and dysfunction. I hate the whole... she's a strong and intelligent woman who then shows that she is really none of those things, she's a basket case. Or, at least, Randy Wayne White tries – unsuccessfully – to walk a thin line between being people exceptionally talented and professional while at the same time being emotional and personal wrecks. Just picks some character traits and stick with them. Marion Ford too, the guy is either Jason Bourne on steroids or constantly tripping over his own feet (and should be dead many times over).

Ultimately I never really cared for this story. I liked parts, sure, but in general I just didn't think it was very good. I can deal with good guy(s) win and bad guys get fucked, but too much Rambo BS and far-fetchedness for me.½

Too much bad drama and dysfunction in this Doc Ford book for my liking. The plot was a bit thick and not terribly interesting. I thought that the characters were a bit off in this one as well.

But it is well-written and in places very smartly written so it is a solid 3-1/2 to 4 stars... and I will give it the bump up.

Readable thriller in the Men's Adventure vein, with a hero whose a bit like a cross between Mack Bolan and Travis McGee. Quality wise it probably sits about midway between those to series, fun enough but nothing special.

Doc Ford has his hands full in this mystery with missing Native American artifacts, a hurricane, and a psychotic wealthy businessman. It seemed to drag a but in the middle, but it's still an enjoyable mystery.½

This was one of the better Randy Wayne White novels that I have read. He is a really gifted writer. The first chapter was superb, and the hook was set. The ending was good too.

At some point though, he starts to add too much tangential stuff, the purpose of which seems to be only to fill out the book, which to me only bogs down the story; get on with it already. It becomes too much about the characters' lives as if there is not enough story to tell. I don't think half the book should be about Doc's insecurities.

And then there is always the... come on, Doc, open your eyes! A smarter man would just listen to what people tell him. Instead, Doc will make a whole slew of mysterious inferences which make little sense other than to portray Ford as invincible. Reality check, at some point Doc cannot see the forest for the trees; that's where I get caught out. So it seems like every time I am high on the story... it goes too far off the rails and then I’m like... meh, it's okay... and I want to downgrade it. In this case, I'll keep it at 4-stars rather than downgrade it to 3-1/2. I really enjoy reading the Doc Ford books, but I am not sure what will get me over the hump to find them much better than average or really great.

A quick and entertaining read... and what I am now realizing is a typical Randy Wayne White novel. He creates very good characters and his mains, Doc and Tomlinson, are like family so with a new book you’re always keen to know what they have gotten up to now. That said, there is nothing really special going on with this story even if the entire story was about someone and / or situations that were supposed to be entirely special.

White prides himself on his research and fact-finding, but to me none of that is particularly important. As illuminating as a geode in an alligator stomach is, it is just an odd piece within the story; maybe it is a clue relative to something, but hardly necessary. It's fiction. And it is obviously fiction when all the smart people are instantly on the same page, and the dumb people are on the same level of development and all have the same vocation. In the real world, if you researched it, the smart people (the very, very few in number) and the dumb people would be evenly spread throughout the book. Anyway, it gets old when the smart people make multiple smart leaps forward in solving the crime, but then get stupid when in pursuit of the criminals. That seems to be the trend here.

I have read 5-6 Marian Ford novels by now, and in this one I learned that Doc's secret job is finding people. I'm not sure if this is the first book that I have read that it was presented in, or if the books are that forgettable. That is the impression that I am starting to get about this author; I can tell you the general premise and what is going to happen, to whom, and when because they are generally all the same. Not in a bad way, just in a 60 minute TV program way. They are a quick bit of entertainment; a simple rehash of Doc and Tomlinson in a different setting, but still worth reading.

Reread, previously read it in the 90's around the time of it's release. Something like the Travis Mcgee novels updated for the 90's.

Doc Ford discovers his friend hanging from a tree and has to try to rescue the dead man's son from South America. There is action, suspense, a mystery involved in this story. I liked the characters.