The Mangrove Coast (Doc Ford) [Hardcover]

Randy Wayne White (Author)

Book Description

Series: Doc Ford | Publication Date: September 28, 1998

Readers who still yearn for Travis McGee and wish the Busted Flush wasn't in permanent dry dock should hook up with Randy Wayne White's Doc Ford--a Travis McGee for The '90s. (The Orlando Sentinel). Randy Wayne White continues to produce the kind of novel that makes The Denver Post say, We'll always drop anything to read a new Randy Wayne White novel, and be glad we did. In The Mangrove Coast, the daughter of a dead war buddy calls Ford in distress. If you're ever really in trouble, his friend had written her, Ford's the one you can trust. And trouble is what she's got. Her mother's disappeared in Mexico without a trace, in the company of an unsavory companion, and her money's gone, too. Doc agrees to help, and finds himself in Baja, on the trail of a man more genuinely evil than any he has ever encountered. There's more to it than that, though--a third man whose shadowy presence brings death in its wake. For Doc, the mystery--and the danger--only deepens. In fact, solving the puzzle may turn out to be the most perilous thing of all. Filled with crackling prose and atmosphere, and some of the best characters in contemporary suspense, The Mangrove Coast is a triumph of inventive storytelling.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Randy White's mysteries are tailor-made for fans who've exhausted the novels of the late John D. MacDonald. White's series hero, Doc Ford, a marine biologist whose résumé includes a Vietnam-era stint with the Special Forces, is a somewhat cynical philosopher whose toughness masks a tender heart; he's a worthy successor to Travis McGee. In this fast-paced, well-written thriller, a nearly forgotten promise to a long-dead comrade gets Doc involved in a daughter's search for her mother. Gail Richardson's house is empty, and so are her bank accounts. Her daughter Amanda is sure that Gail's being held against her will by her would-be protector, Jackie Merlot, a mysterious man whose connections reach deep into Central and South America. The trail leads from Florida to Colombia and then to Panama, site of a private, heavily guarded retreat catering to the perverse tastes of the wealthy and powerful. Getting in takes all Doc's skill and cunning. Getting out is another matter entirely, as he learns with the help of a few of Bobby Richardson's old Vietnam buddies who turn up in the proverbial nick of time. The denouement is full of surprises, including one that even the most discerning reader won't see coming. The writing is swift, deft, and full of the crunchy nuggets of world-weary wisdom that admirers of the MacDonald genre loved and that White's growing number of devoted readers have come to expect. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

An awkward plot mars the latest entry (after North of Havana, 1997) in White's widely appealing Gulf coast of Florida series starring Doc Ford, marine biologist, former spook and reluctant detective. In the first chapter, Ford finds the body of Frank Calloway on the kitchen floor of the real estate baron's beach house. Eleven chapters later, readers return to Calloway's house to follow Ford, who decides that he'll look for the folder he'd come to see before he calls the police. The intervening chapters explain that Calloway had married?and later divorced?Gail Richardson, the widow of Ford's best friend, Bobby, who had been killed in Cambodia doing top-secret dirty work 20 years earlier. Gail and Bobby's daughter Amanda has asked Ford to find Gail, who is somewhere in South America with a man named Jackie Merlot. Ford learns that Merlot, a gross and depraved villain, has conned Gail into joining him in a rank business venture in the Canal Zone. Merlot is an arresting figure, but most of the action involving him happens so far offstage that his menace is largely wasted. And White's extended flashbacks are filled with pretentious ponderings about the human condition. From a writer whose work is usually marked by tight construction and wry dialogue, this fizzy tale is a misfire. Editor, Neil Nyren; agent Renee Wayne Golden.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (September 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399143726
• ISBN-13: 978-0399143724
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,780 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

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Man's Novel Through and Through, June 15, 2007

By 

Wanderer (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mangrove Coast (Doc Ford) (Paperback)

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.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Far from White's Best!, February 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mangrove Coast (Doc Ford) (Hardcover)

Randy Wayne White is a polished author and I have enjoyed his series with Doc Ford very much, however, The Mangrove Coast misses the mark by a long shot. I agree with the other reviewers that this is easily the slowest start to a mystery novel I have read in a long time. As a matter of fact it took all my power to keep reading past the first few chapters. Finally on page 181(of 290) a dead body turns up. The plot revolves around a women seduced by a man through a internet romance. The story trudges on finally bringing Doc Ford to Panama, which must be the site of White's latest vacation. The story reads as if White created as he went and finally decided 2/3 of the way through that he better put some action in the book. The final chapter reminded me of the Bobby Ewing shower scene in Dallas. Was it a dream? What the final scene reveals could be described as " idiotic, cliched, or just plain cheating by the writer". The "clues" do not lead up to the ending and any reader will feel cheated, not amazed. The supporting characters do not help matters. Tomlinson appears breifly in a couple of scenes, mainly to assert his compter knowledge-hard to believe as a marine biologist Ford has little knowledge of the internet or computers. Tomlinson is no where near his loveable self and disappears quickly in the novel. Tucker Gatrell has seen better days too, but thankfully he is killed off in the end. I was very disappointed with this outing-I look forward to Doc Ford taking some time off to get his thoughts together and return in full force.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring and depressing, October 9, 2000

By 

Ken Zirkel "Kickstand" (Somewhere in New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mangrove Coast (Doc Ford) (Paperback)

I've enjoyed many of White's books for his engaging characters and suspenseful plots. However, this one's not one of his best. The plot takes a long time to get going, and the characters are so pathetic, or so unsavory, that I was left with a bad taste in my mouth.

In White's defense, probably a real-life covert operation would be 75% research and 25% excitement. However, this ratio does not work well in a book. The hero spends too much time doing his research at home, and only the last quarter of the book rescuing the troubled victim. And the ending -- depressing and pointless.