The Mangrove Coast (A Doc Ford Novel)

White's books for adults never cease to amaze me. I love continuing character because usually after finishing a good read I long to "hear from the character again" & I can do so with Randy Wayne White. Intrigue & the off beat characters jumping in & out of Doc Ford's life are riveting & I often ready his books by the sea. This title was a bit different as Doc travel using his former & undocumented past career skills for good reason. A good read but my least fave of White's.

I am delighted to have discovered Randy Wayne White. My love for Florida aside, he is a stunningly good writer. I have only read 70 pages of "Mangrove", but I am amazed at how good it is. I would not compare him with Carl Hiassen, Phillip Wylie, or John D. MacDonald because the only conclusion I could reach would be that he ranks evenly with them.

Note: I made some Mormon reader angry over my negative reviews of books written by Mormons out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews. Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks In this novel, Doc Ford is up to more adventures and a lifestyle that appeals to men. I mean, he's not married, he lives in the stilt house in Florida, has a lot of friends (some quirky like Tomlinson, a wonderful character), and he has a lot of lady friends. Doc Ford's background is mirky, a lot of it spent on secret missions for a CIA type of organization. The average man will get lost most of White's novels, sailing away with him on some grand adventure. I've enjoyed all of Randy Wayne White's novels. If you're not in the mood to read, then get them on CD. Ron McLarty does a super job with Tomlinson's voice! He makes him sound like Jack Nicholson--very funny. Tomlinson is a strung-out hippy type, whose ramblings contain surprising bits of wisdom. A very compelling character and friend of Doc Ford.

Doc Ford is Marion Ford, Ph.D., a Harrison Ford type marine biologist who lives alone in a stilt cabin on Sanibel Island. Ford is footloose and fancy free until - in each book - his peace and tranquillity is disturbed by a very attractive damsel in distress. On and off again Ford has been haunted by the death of spook pal Bobby Richardson, who died in an explosion in Cambodia during the post-Vietnam War days. It was a meaningless tragedy, the result of a land mine that destroyed a good friend and left a beautiful wife and a child to fend for themselves back home. When the grown-up daughter, twenty-five-year-old Amanda, contacts Ford, quoting a letter from her father in which he said Ford would always be there in an emergency, Ford can hardly turn her away. He couldn't anyway, she's a damsel in distress, after all. Amada's mother, Gail Richardson Calloway, has been deserted by her second husband and gone off to Colombia, apparently but unbelievably of her own free will, with a very unsavory character, Then second husband, Frank Calloway, is found dead soon after her disappearance and now Gail's bank accounts are being methodically depleted. Amanda wants Ford to help search for her mother and to bring her back home. Ford flies off to Colombia to find Bobby's widow, then tracks and follows her to Panama. Along the way he manages to get into fights to the death with some pretty tough dudes in this action-packed thriller that I simply couldn't get enough off. At times the story seemed a bit of a clichè, but you what, it's been over a week since I finished the book and I'm still thinking about it. That really says something about a story.

(Please don't read the last paragraph first, though) I first started reading Randy Wayne White's books because I love Sanibel/Captiva Islands. His characters are so real and his plots so intriguing, I found myself rationing how much I read each day because I didn't want it to end. I still feel like an insider when I catch his little references or inside jokes about the islands. Club Nautico, Randy?

THE MANGROVE COAST is the sixth of Randy Wayne White's Doc Ford series and it is the fastest, most compelling and most intense book in this absolutely wonderful series about a Florida marine biologist and his hipster friend Tomlinson. But if you are a woman be warned in advance: This book is going to scare the h--- out of you and you'll never feel the same about meeting new Internet friends again. (Frankly, it may be for the best). Many have said this before me: If you like John D. McDonald's Travis McGee, you will absolutely love Doc Ford. Ford is just as big and loveable, but he has more layers and seems even more dangerous.SJM

Why am I sleepy? Don't tell my students but I stayed up all night finishing The Mangrove Coast. One of the most stunning and surprising endings in mystery fiction in my opinion. Fans of the Internet will love this book. I'm still reeling! When marine biologist, Doc Ford, is contacted by the daughter of a dead war buddy, he begins a dark journey that puts him on the trail of an Internet sexual predator. Ford follows the trail (along with his uncle, Tucker Gatrell -- a classic character) to Colombia and then Panama where the reader not only learns a lot about the Panama Canal but is also swept along on a genuinely wild ride full of suspense. Women on-line who have developed warm and maybe even intimate E-mail friendships will never be the same after reading this book. A bookstore friend loaned me a review copy of The Mangrove Coast and she promised me that I wouldn't be able to put it down. She was right! I only hope Mr. White's other books are nearly as good. I suspect I am among the first of many new fans of this wonderful Florida writer -- D.A.Hinkle