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. ( )

As always, another great thriller by Randy Wayne White. If you are missing the stories of the great John D. McDonald then this author is a good replacement. ( )