Randy Wayne White

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 show more 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. show less

This is one of Randy Wayne White’s books from the transitional period between sharp, lively stories and lusterless, slow death stories. This one has some life. And it’s a good Florida story, with all of the elements that make it one: water, sun, boats, weather both extreme and sublime, greed, corrupt and insane politicians and their wealthy fathers; general mayhem.

White, long before he tried writing the same book every year and became a restauranteur, was a master of the Gulf Coast show more updated John D. McDonald story. He has strong characters in Doc Ford and his friend Tomlinson and knows what makes Florida special and also what makes it so craven. At his best White can make you love the state and abhor those who ruin it in the name of greed. This is actually one of those books. show less

For some reason I like reading RWW. I think it is because they involve older characters who are generally doing interesting and adventurous things. However, overall they are always just okay reads.

I’d say my first problem is the excessive internal dialogs, at times it seems like that makes up 80% of the books. Instead of simply doing more stuff, it is an endless narrative of every last thought of every single character. And that can get confusing as the chapters jump back in time to pick show more up the thoughts of whomever from a few chapters back. So I find myself reading and then stopping... huh, what... what’s going on... oh, I get it, now we’re back to this point in the story and now have to find out what was going through that person’s mind at that point in time. Okay, got it.

Another thing I realized is that the stories are just way to complex. The elements of the stories are generally all good. And I get the feeling that RWW gets these great ideas and can’t give them up until they play out into these massive, convoluted stories. But every time, I can’t help but think... this would never happen (not even in fiction). The question is: why would anyone make it a thousand times harder than it has to be... except to fill out hundreds of pages... like, maybe, to add hundreds of pages internal dialogs! There are just too many moving parts making an implausible story even more implausible. That gets old.

And then there is Doc who, like a ninja, can kill 73 different ways just by looking at someone... but is always being bested by some toothless knuckle-dragger with an IQ in the low double digits. After a while I can’t help but think that the best thing that can happen is that Marion Ford finally dies... and good riddance! What I mean is that stupid stuff happening to drag out the story and add suspense doesn’t really do it for me. That’s why I like the RWW / Doc Ford books, but they always seem to leave me somewhat disappointed when I finish them. show less

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 show more 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. show less