Randy Wayne White

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.… (meer)

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.… (meer)

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.… (meer)

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.… (meer)