Customer Reviews

The Mangrove Coast

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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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.

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.

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.

THE MANGROVE COAST is the sixth of Randy Wayne White's Doc Ford series and it is the fastest, most compelling and most intense book in this absolutely wonderful series about a Florida marine biologist and his hipster friend Tomlinson. But if you are a woman be warned in advance: This book is going to scare the h--- out of you and you'll never feel the same about meeting new Internet friends again. (Frankly, it may be for the best). Many have said this before me: If you like John D. McDonald's Travis McGee, you will absolutely love Doc Ford. Ford is just as big and loveable, but he has more layers and seems even more dangerous.SJM

Doc Ford, protagonist of Randy Wayne White's sixth novel, lives the simple life of a marine biologist on Sanibel Island, surrounded by a colorful group of characters who inhabit Dinkin's Bay Marina, Ford's home.

But Doc has a past he can't quite shake. He's spent time in the employ of an unnamed government agency, living in the jungles of political hotspots throughout the world without benefit of a passport, performing tasks that no government could sanction. When the daughter of Bobby Richardson, an associate who was killed on one of these missions twenty years ago, contacts him with the news that her mother - Richardson's widow - has vanished, Ford agrees to try to find her.

Assisted by the mystical analytical skills of his unconventional pal Tomlinson, Ford embarks on a search-and-rescue mission that begins on the Internet before leading him to Colombia and then to Panama, in pursuit of a villain whose heart is the darkest he's ever faced.

White has produced a crackling tale of suspense filled with intelligent dialogue and more plot twists than a Clinton deposition. His evocative descriptions of the Dinkin's Bay community make you want to pack a bag, grab the first flight south and watch the sun settle into the Gulf of Mexico in your shorts and bare feet, a cold beer in your hand. In short, Randy Wayne White is a writer of the first magnitude, and "The Mangrove Coast" is his finest work yet.

Why am I sleepy? Don't tell my students but I stayed up all night finishing The Mangrove Coast. One of the most stunning and surprising endings in mystery fiction in my opinion. Fans of the Internet will love this book. I'm still reeling! When marine biologist, Doc Ford, is contacted by the daughter of a dead war buddy, he begins a dark journey that puts him on the trail of an Internet sexual predator. Ford follows the trail (along with his uncle, Tucker Gatrell -- a classic character) to Colombia and then Panama where the reader not only learns a lot about the Panama Canal but is also swept along on a genuinely wild ride full of suspense. Women on-line who have developed warm and maybe even intimate E-mail friendships will never be the same after reading this book. A bookstore friend loaned me a review copy of The Mangrove Coast and she promised me that I wouldn't be able to put it down. She was right! I only hope Mr. White's other books are nearly as good. I suspect I am among the first of many new fans of this wonderful Florida writer -- D.A.Hinkle

Doc Ford is Marion Ford, Ph.D., a Harrison Ford type marine biologist who lives alone in a stilt cabin on Sanibel Island. Ford is footloose and fancy free until - in each book - his peace and tranquillity is disturbed by a very attractive damsel in distress.

On and off again Ford has been haunted by the death of spook pal Bobby Richardson, who died in an explosion in Cambodia during the post-Vietnam War days. It was a meaningless tragedy, the result of a land mine that destroyed a good friend and left a beautiful wife and a child to fend for themselves back home.

When the grown-up daughter, twenty-five-year-old Amanda, contacts Ford, quoting a letter from her father in which he said Ford would always be there in an emergency, Ford can hardly turn her away. He couldn't anyway, she's a damsel in distress, after all.

Amada's mother, Gail Richardson Calloway, has been deserted by her second husband and gone off to Colombia, apparently but unbelievably of her own free will, with a very unsavory character, Then second husband, Frank Calloway, is found dead soon after her disappearance and now Gail's bank accounts are being methodically depleted. Amanda wants Ford to help search for her mother and to bring her back home.

Ford flies off to Colombia to find Bobby's widow, then tracks and follows her to Panama. Along the way he manages to get into fights to the death with some pretty tough dudes in this action-packed thriller that I simply couldn't get enough off. At times the story seemed a bit of a clichè, but you what, it's been over a week since I finished the book and I'm still thinking about it. That really says something about a story.

It's a good thing for me that this wasn't my first Doc Ford novel. It surely would be my last. The plot took forever to take off and by the time it did, I pretty much didn't care about the book anymore. This book is like a string of musings strung loosely with a plot line. It's notes shoved into a binding in order to thicken up a short story. I'm a big fan of Mr. White and the series but this book is not worth the effort. Skip this one and move on to Ten Thousand Islands.

Love these Doc Ford stories-RWW gets better and better,but the older novels are every bit as good as the new.

I've followed the Doc Ford series with a lot of enthusiasm. But I found Mangrove Coast very slow to get going. It took about 250 pages for Doc to quit spewing his philosophies on the ills of society and get some action going. Great ending,but it just doesn't make up for a long, drawn-out middle. Ambrose Bierce said something like "A novel is just a short story padded". That quote about sums it up for me. But do read the rest of the series.