Captiva (A Doc Ford Novel)

I loved Sanibel Flats, but found Heat Islands and Man who Invented Florida, so-so. I had purchased Captiva with the other three or probably wouldn't have read it. What a come back for Doc Ford. I think this is the best of the first four books. Great characters, familiar places, wild action and inventive ending. Now I've ordered the next three in the series.

There's a war brewing in Central Florida between the Mullet Fishermen and the Deep Sea Sports Fishermen. The Mullet Fisherman are sore because of a new net ban and they're taking their frustrations out on the Sports Fishermen whom they think voted for the ban. Doc Ford tries to remain neutral, but when his friends are caught in the crossfire of an angler civil war, he takes the law into his own hands and goes out for revenge!A very satisfying story with an unexpected ending.

Randy Wayne White played in the Senior Baseball League, writes a column for Outside magazine & some terrific fishing stories (Batfishing in the Rain Forest: Strange Tales of Travel & Fishing) and is the author of the outstanding Doc Ford novels. Not bad... Doc Ford is a marine biologist who formerly held a somewhat shadowy position in US Intelligence. This installment of the series finds Doc & his burn-out hippie friend Tomlinson investigating the death of explosion victim Jimmy Darroux. This leads them to Jimmy's delectable widow Hannah and a feud between sport fisherman and net fishermen over a pending netting ban. As the violence escalates, noone is safe & Doc's moral compunctions are challenged and then shattered. If you haven't discovered this great writer & wonderful series yet, I urge you to give them a read. The cover blurbs comparing him to John D. MacDonald, Carl Hiassen & Elmore Leonard are well deserved. GRADE: A

Randy Wayne White spins a great yarn in "Captiva," a tale of treachery and adventure woven with the kind of science and social detail that compels another turn of the page. Fishing afficianados and friends of the Gulf Coast will fall into this one in minutes, pulled along by the depth of complex characters White paints across the mangrove islands and shallow bays in this once sleepy part of Florida that is today its fastest growing area. The rip currents between now-banned net fishermen, sport fishing, entrepeneurs and developers boil with snapping freshness under this new writer's deft touch. Living at the center of generational change in the "heat islands," White - - a veteran guide himself -- grabs your attention on page one and doesn't let go through a fast-paced panorama of Florida's at once laid-back and flat-out coastal culture. Devotion to facts in the fiction and a keen view of human turmoil make this a wonderful summer read for snowbirds back on their northern beaches