Customer Reviews

Dead Silence (Doc Ford)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I own all Randy's books and am a HUGE fan. A new RWW book is like Christmas to me. This one is not good. It doesn't even read like a book of his. No humor whatsoever and it doesn't flow well for me. No fun characters we all know and love, no stilt house, no time on the water, no historical tidbits about Florida, etc, etc.
I'll continue to buy his books but lately, I've been disappointed more often than not.

I have been a fan of Randy Wayne White since his non-fiction collection _Batfishing in the Rainforest_, and have been an avid reader of his Doc Ford series since its first novel _Sanibel Flats_ was published in the early 1990's. Therefore it is with a heavy heart that I give _Dead Silence_ 2 stars.

Long gone are the diatribes against developers, snow-birds, con-men and crooks that lured me to the series. The banter between trippy, hippie Tomlinson, a perennial favorite and the more serious, scientific Ford, once the highlight of the story now feels like a long married couple going through the motions. The last few books by White have fallen farther and farther afield, as Ford is pulled to more exotic locations in Latin America, the plot lines getting thinner and thinner, the action more fantastic (as in fantasy), the romantic laisons more unbelievable.

In _Dead Silence_, Ford interrupts the kidnapping of a United States Senator, who instead take a teen-ager visiting New York having won an essay contest. The story becomes increasingly bizzare, as threads of Tomlinson's wealthy family in the Hamptons intersect with Ford's dark past as a covert operator. The action is tense, the kidnapped boy buried alive as Ford is literally engaged in a race against time - if the ransom demands of the kidnappers are not met, the kidnapped boy will suffocate. As an added plot twist, White imagines a Cuba following the death of Castro, his secret files (and secret wealth collected over the last 40 years of his reign) are the bartering chips with which the Senator, Ford and the kidnappers haggle over. Add references to secret fraternities at Yale and you have a sense of just how far over the top (and how far astray from where the series began) White has come. To be fair, White's writing is taut - the action sequences are well written, and the struggle Ford has with getting in touch with his "right brain" is good - but this Doc Ford is a shadow of who he once was.

As an earlier reviewer remarked, perhaps Ford is a burnt-out hero. I won't go that far, as I continue to hope that the character and stories will be salvaged. I wonder if White's "Randy Striker" persona isn't bleeding into the writing of the Ford series - I hope not. While I will continue to read White's Doc Ford books, I can't recommend this one to any but the die-hard fan.

I am a RWW fan, having read all the Doc Ford series but this one does not even resemble White's writing. It's almost like someone who flunked introductory mystery writing wrote it. It has multiple story lines, started but never developed or finished, nightmarish violence and too many undefined and unfinished characters. All the charm and uniqueness of the Islands, the characters of the Marina are missing. Tomlinson is unrecognizable. Randy should have quit while he was ahead.

The recent Doc Ford books are ok, but nothing special. His books involving Florida, the ocean, and fish and credible bad guys (as opposed to larger-than-life Bond-type villains) were better. The older books had a bit of back-story giving Doc Ford a bit of mystery and, perhaps, a reason for his world weariness, but that's all and it was enough. He made his living selling specimen fish to schools. Lately, fish, the sea, Dinkins Cove, Captiva Island and Florida are barely mentioned. Suddenly he is a secret agent again with a renewed license to kill. I'm disappointed. I knew he was smart enough to take care of sharks. I'm sorry that he wasn't smart enough to keep from jumping one. So long, Doc.

I've been a fan of the Doc Ford series from its inception, but I wonder if that franchise might not have run its course. There's residual entertainment value here, in spite of annoying problems with the book. That is, Tomlinson's personality has become fuzzily amorphous, Ford seems ever more morally ambiguous, and too many characters are tediously portrayed as obsessed with getting laid even while catastrophic events are whirling around them. Add a couple of non-believable and expendable characters and an inconsistently paced plot, and we are presented with a product that does not meet White's usual standard. Too bad. The series was fun while it lasted. I did appreciate the accolades given to Bill Marquardt at the end of the novel, though. Once upon a time Bill was an acquaintance of mine.

I downloaded this book to my Kindle despite the negative reviews of regular Randy Wayne White readers because sometimes I have found books to be moderate, relaxing reads despite negative reviews. Not in this case! I would have to rank this as tied for the worst book I've ever read, right up there with "Play it Again, Spam" by Tamar Myers.

First problem, when viewed on my Kindle, there was double-spacing between paragraphs, and each paragraph was only a sentence or two long. So it was incredibly disjointed and difficult to read.

Secondly, it seems as if White took every modicum of an idea he ever had for a book, put them all in a bag, shook the bag, and pulled out any old 15 or 20 items. There are so many inadequate transitions in the book, so many episodes that aren't related to the ones before or after, so many characters that are just touched on briefly and never developed.

Third, this book could never be understood by anyone who has not read most of the previous Doc Ford books. References to Harrington, Joe Egret, Tomlinson's exploits, and other past events are obscure, even though I have read every single previous RWW Doc Ford episode.

Fourth, one little reference, to PERBCOTT, made me long for the days when White took the care to develop the Dinkin's Bay crew and talk about their lives and activities. Nothing like that here, not even the routine description of Doc's house and lab that is usually included.

Fifth, this book reads as if an editor never once took a look at it.

Sixth, it seems as if White has fallen prey to the "make the tough guy ever tougher" syndrome. Instead of focusing on Doc Ford's very interesting personality; White, in this book, is just like every cheap thrill writer -he has Doc defeat the villains in increasingly ludicrous ways. So unlikely, so unnecessary for those who really like Doc.

Seventh, it seems like White rose to some challenges by someone in his life, namely: how many characters and how many locales can you introduce? How many loose ends can you leave? How abruptly can you end a book? None of it adds up. Too bad.

The burnt-out hero is a staple in action-adventure novels. Lately there seem to be a lot of burnt-out authors, going through the motions to churn out the requisite, formulaic annual volume of their hero's adventure. Long time champ in the category, Robert Parker, has been joined recently by such previous greats as Lee Child, Vince Flynn, and now Randy Wayne White.

"Dead Silence" reads like a plot line designed by a Hollywood committee, fleshed out by a team of contract writers. We have the required number of twists and turns and the required evil doers, and our hero toughs it out to triumph. But the twists and turns in the plot are improbable (especially the big ending, which I will not disclose, but was the most improbable of all), and the characters are uninteresting. If you are a Doc Ford fan, wait and pick up a used paperback copy. If you are not, pick up some of the earlier books in the series for some good reading.

I LOVED!!! THE OLD DOC FORD BOOKS- IT WAS AS IF I WAS AN ACTUAL RESIDENT OF DINKENS BAY- TOMLINSON, JETH, ECT- WERE PART OF MY FAMILY- THE LAST 4 OR SO DOC FORD BOOKS, ALL OF WHICH I HAVE READ- ARE NOW VERY CONFUSING AND WORSE- MAKE THE READER FEEL VERY DISTANT FROM A CHARACTER WE HAVE COME TO LOVE- PLEASE!!!RWW- BRING DOC BACK HOME- AND STOP TRYING TO BE CLIVE CUSSLER/DAN BROWN/BRAD THOR- ALL GREAT WRITERS- BUT YOU ARE NOT THEM- AND DOC FORD IS NO LONGER DOC FORD- SO END THE SERIES OR BRING IT BACK HOME- WE MISS OUR FRIENDS FROM DINKINS BAY.

When I read Sanibel Flats when it first came out, I knew I had found an author I was going to follow. Doc Ford has been a different and fascinating main character, and I'd like to keep reading about him, but not in the direction he's gone in the last few books. I'm claustrophobic, so the premise of burying someone alive was a rough one for me, but because it was Doc Ford, I kept going through Dead Silence. As in recent books in this series, it was too violent for me. Sanibel is a wonderful setting and the author does a great job in that environment. Maybe it's time for the author to relax and take some time off and let Doc Ford be the Doc Ford we found so intriguing.

Not the author's fault, but a lot of typos. One example: widow for window

I usually pick up Mr. Whites books and finish them in a day or two. This book is just not keeping my attention like his previous books. I am liking his first books more than this one by a landslide.