The Deadlier Sex (A Dusky MacMorgan Novel)

Long before Randy Wayne White carved out his own niche in mystery fiction with his Doc Ford novels, he had written a series of adventure novels under the pseudonym Randy Striker. These Dusky MacMorgan books were never intended to be great literature, but instead throwaway thrillers geared towards principally towards men: there was lots of action and lots of beautiful women. The Deadlier Sex is the fourth MacMorgan book to be re-released. The story opens with ex-SEAL MacMorgan and his distinctly Irish friend Westy O'Davis on a boating trip (like MacMorgan, Davis is an adventurer who occasionally gets mixed up in covert operations). One evening, they fish a woman out of the sea, and they've barely revived her when a nearby boat explodes. This watercraft had been carrying drugs, and the just-rescued Barbara was the smugglers' prisoner and plaything. As it turns out, there have been several drug boats mysteriously exploding lately, creating a Coast Guard investigation and arousing MacMorgan's curiosity. First, however, they drop off Barbara at an island solely occupied by women, mostly females escaping from abusive relationships. Are these women somehow tangled up with the explosions? It also turns out that most of the women are lesbians, which in "men's" fiction like this, usually only occurs to women who have been abused; typically, the love of a good man (the hero) can cure this supposed ailment (for another example, refer to Pussy Galore in Ian Fleming's Goldfinger). White doesn't fully play into these stereotypes, but he also knows what his audience expects, so if you are expecting the progressive views of the Doc Ford novels, they are only partially to be found. While not the caliber of his later works, The Deadlier Sex is still a lot of fun to read. Even in a series which constrained White's creativity, he had enough talent to make his MacMorgan books entertaining. Although there are references to previous books, this story also stands alone, so if you are looking for a good, quick read, this might be worth looking at.