Mangrove Lightning

January 30, 2017
At issue in bestseller White’s entertaining, if less than compelling, 24th novel featuring marine biologist and sometime government agent Marion “Doc” Ford (after 2016’s Deep Blue) is the fate of Florida Everglades property owned by retired fishing guide Tootsie Barlow. Barlow’s property is near Marco Island, which during Prohibition was the site of a war between bootleggers, such illegal activities as human smuggling (mostly Chinese), and the 1925 disappearance of Deputy J.H. Cox, who may have murdered a woman a few years earlier, along with his whole family. Barlow’s ancestors were involved in the bootlegging battle, and Doc’s sometime lover, Hannah Smith, is a descendant of the murder victim. Now Barlow’s few remaining relatives are meeting with fatal accidents, and Doc and his “boat bum hipster pal,” Tomlinson, head to Marco Island to investigate. There they confront a number of human monsters controlled by a most unlikely mastermind, who takes an interest in Hannah that’s something of a stretch in this fragmented adventure. Author tour. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.

March 1, 2017
A 24th adventure for Marion "Doc" Ford (Deep Blue, 2016, etc.) interrupts his pursuit of a child pornographer to take him into even murkier waters: a kidnapping apparently haunted by a similar crime nearly a century ago.Back during Prohibition, as an opening Author's Note obligingly recounts, crusading real-life Deputy John Henry Cox briefly made headlines by disappearing along with his whole family in the middle of his investigation of a bootlegging ring that had made it clear that his attentions weren't welcome. The case was never closed, and it's mostly been forgotten--except by Tootsie Barlow, a noted fishing guide who's convinced that his late father Albert's involvement in the bootlegging is somehow responsible for his own family's considerable troubles. Tootsie's 17-year-old niece, Gracie, has vanished as completely as Deputy Cox; in fact, as Tootsie doesn't yet know, she's been kidnapped by an unlovely duo who include Ivy Lambeth, the daughter of legendary smuggler Walter Lambeth, and someone who may or may not be Ivy's nephew Slaten, the tattoo artist Gracie's chosen as her unsuitable boyfriend. Doc's off in the Bahamas on the trail of child porn merchant Jimmy Lutz, and although he promises to return home to Sanibel Island in response to his buddy Tomlinson's urgent phone call about the Barlow family's woes, he doesn't even get out of Lutz's hotel before another entanglement pops up, this one featuring Lady Gillian Cobourg, an unacknowledged relative of the royal family whom Doc needs to rescue from a fate worse than death. What will have become of Gracie Barlow by the time he gets home? White comes up with a novel way to re-examine historical crimes: reincarnate the criminals as fictional present-day killers. It's a crazy idea, and some crazy developments trail in its wake, but it works better than you might expect.

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March 1, 2017
White's twenty-fourth Doc Ford novel showcases the elements that have enabled this long-running series to jump from genre favorite to perennial best-seller: a quirky, ever-endearing cast, especially the mercurial Tomlinson, the philosophical hippie hedonist whose cavorting is set against the more serious pursuits of straight-man-hero Ford; the focus on Florida's endangered environment; and, of course, White's natural facility for old-school action. This episode begins with Ford on one of his periodic black-ops capers, but the main story involves another of White's favorite themes: strange goings-on in some of Florida's most remote locales. Tomlinson, of course, embraces any supernatural vibe anywhere, while biologist Ford looks for the scientific explanation. So it is in the matter of Tootsie Barlow, legendary fishing guide, who claims his family is cursed by something that happened deep in the Everglades. There's something there for sure, something for both Tomlinson and Ford to sink their teeth into, plus there's a spectacular face-off at the end between Ford and an incarnation of pure evil that will have fans remembering some of John D. MacDonald's grisliest villains. Hugely entertaining, especially for longtime fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

October 15, 2016

Doc Ford scratches his head when revered charter captain Tootsie Barlow protests that attacks on his extended family result from a curse dating to a 1925 multiple murder in which the family played an unfortunate part. But when he and his friend Tomlinson start tracking the attacks, they're nearly killed. Doc's 24th outing.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.