Customer Reviews

Cuban Death-Lift

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Being a huge RWW fan and having run out of Doc Ford books to read I have been reading these re-published Dusky MacMorgan books. The third in the series is much like the first two- good action, interesting characters but a rather simple and predictable plot. One can clearly see that Randy was devloping and honing the skills that would serve him well and boost him to the top of the action-mystery-thriller genre in the Doc Ford books.
I enjoyed Cuban Death Lift and am happy I read it. Good entertainment.

There are many ways to categorize fiction. One category I'd like to propose is "disposable" fiction. Disposable fiction is made up of those (relatively) cheap paperbacks filled with stories that are almost pure action; it tends to be brief (rarely more than 250 pages), simply written and usually targeted to a very specific demographic: Harlequin-style romances for women and adventure fiction for men. Many of the writers who produce disposable fiction are borderline hacks, churning out potboilers quickly and with little creativity; they often need to adhere to strict formulas and have little control over the direction of the stories.

Randy Wayne White started out his career as a disposable fiction writer. The difference is that White is a good writer, and even in his early books, his gifts shine through. His Dusky MacMorgan books will never be mistaken for great literature (as even he admits in his introduction), but they are entertaining.

In the third MacMorgan book, Cuban Death-Lift, Dusky is recruited by a federal agent buddy nicknamed Stormin' Norman (this was written, by the way, long before a real Stormin' Norman would come to prominence in the Gulf War of the early 1990s). Norm wants charter captain Dusky to transport a CIA agent to Cuba in the middle of the Mariel Boatlift.

The agent turns out to be beautiful Androsa Santarun, a Cuban-American charged with smuggling a double agent off the island. Two things are certain: there will be lots of killing occurring before the mission is done and Dusky and Androsa will end up in bed together. White knows exactly what his target audience (men) expects: sex and action. He actually has his own nickname for this type of fiction that I will leave to the reader to discover.

I read this book in just a couple of hours, which seems about right. Cuban Death-Lift is not exactly one of those books that needs months to finish. As with the first two books, this is a fun story, and it gives a good glimpse of the better Randy Wayne White that would develop later.

Yes, I know. It's a dumb title for this review because Randy Wayne White wrote the thing. Why should he have to read it? Well, why INDEED!

If he could inject this much action and excitement into his Doc Ford series we'd all be the beneficiaries...including him.

I believe this is the third book in this series and all I can say is that I enjoyed the heck out of it. Very easy to read. Not a lot of characters to remember. Never dull. Even a little sex thrown into the mix.

Try it, you'll like it.

Read all of his books and he hasn't put out a bad one yet...can't wait for a new one.

Rick Magers
[...]

Good early book by Randy Wayne White. Dusky MacMorgan has some similarities to Doc Ford. Maybe Randy should team them up in a future book. The book is easy to follow and doesn't have too many charcters to have to learn.

Even though the names were different (author and hero) the background foundation for Doc Ford is unmistakable and fun to read. Can't wait to read "The Deadlier Sex" as the follow-up to this great begining for Randy (Striker) Wayne White. I also enjoyed White's present day introduction to this book.

White proves he has always had a knack for spinning a great story even when he was a relative beginner. Whether writing about Doc Ford or some other Travis McGee type hero his stories always entertain me.

This was a fast & furious romp through a very interesting time in our history. Randy was very young so some of the plot moves slow and other elements are a bit hurried. Still his attention to the facts and the twists of plot are brilliant albeit the characters are a tad shallow. A good read in a "potato chip" kind of way. Light, not a full meal, but you can't eat just one!

Randy Wayne White, writing as Randy Stryker (see Sgt. Stryker,aka John Wayne) is learning to be a great writer in this series of books. He keeps the historical data reasonably accurate, paints an interesting perspective of the Mariel Boatlift, and his stories hold the reader's attention. Although Cuban Death Lift is predictable, it is still a good read. It is here that we discover where Mr. White found Doc Ford's sidekick, Tomlinson.

Fact #1 I am a big RWW fan. Fact #2 Randy Striker's ( aka RWW) books are not mentioned on the White web site. I read Hellhound's and M. Carolls' review of this book and decided to put it on my songline. If Randy wrote it I'm a goin' to read it.