The Man Who Invented Florida (Dead Letter Mysteries) [Paperback]

Randy Wayne White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1997

294 pp.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (March 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312953984
• ISBN-13: 978-0312953980
• ASIN: B001ISZQ8O
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,749,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Randy Wayne White is the author of sixteen previous Doc Ford novels and four collections of nonfiction. He lives in an old house built on an Indian mound in Pineland, Florida.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A different Doc Ford tale, February 14, 2004

By 

Chris Callahan (Asheville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man Who Invented Florida (Dead Letter Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

One reviewer posted that "even an average Doc Ford story is better than most". While that's certainly true, I'm not sure this is an "average" Doc Ford story--it's just different.

Because it's barely about Doc Ford. Oh sure he appears here and there and sort of rescues the situation at the end. But the story is really about Doc's uncle and his Indian friend/co hort.

Which by the way, does make this the funniest in the Doc Ford series.

Having read every one of the 10 Doc Ford books as of end of 2003, here's my list of how they all rate, (drum roll, please):

(5 stars)
Captiva
Twelve Mile Limit
Shark River
The Heat Islands
Ten Thousand Islands
Sanibal Flats (the first in the series)

The following are the 4 stars in the series--great stories, but I wouldn't recommend them as a first read of the author:

Everglades
The Man Who Invented Florida
North of Havana
The Mangrove Coast

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A big yawn in the sunshine state, January 13, 2007

By 

R. W. Peter "Old guy who reads" (Beaumont,Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Man Who Invented Florida (Dead Letter Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book starts slow and decelerates from there. Based on the reviews on the back cover I was expecting a captivating read, what a disappointment.
I found the storyline as engrossing as watching the weather channel. I wanted to give it a fair chance, so I read it all the way through. That's 5 hours of my life I'll never get back.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DOC FORD - OK, A LITTLE LESS OF HIM, December 6, 2009

By 

James L. Woolridge "Wooly in PSL, FL." (Sunny Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man Who Invented Florida (Dead Letter Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Doc Ford books are some of my favorite beach reads. I like Randy Wayne White's characters and his ecology lessons. That said this is the third in the Ford series and no doubt the book that has less Doc and Tomlinson, his pal, and we get Ford's Uncle Tucker Gatrell and his friend Joseph Egret. The story about a fountain of youth is really laugh out loud funny. Great characters, and humor, alas, less Doc. I still recommend it and if you are reading the set of Doc's books, three is a must. By the by, read the books in order.