Customer Reviews

Twelve Mile Limit (Doc Ford)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dr. Marion Ford lives and works on Sanibel Island near Dinkin's Bay. His business Sanibel Biological Supply provides fresh or preserved specimens to schools and labs nationwide. His assistant and close friend Janet Mueller is reported lost at sea when their diving boat capsizes so it only natural that Doc and the people who live on or near the bay launch a full scale search that is coordinated with the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard picked up only one of the four people who got separated from the group the night of the dive. After she recovers, she comes to Dinkin's Bay to tell her version of the events that happened that night. She informs Doc that she saw a boat that stopped as if it was picking up survivors. Tapping his resources in the intelligence community, Doc finds proof positive that a ship operating on the dark side of the law picked up Janet and a companion. Now the hunt is on and Doc won't rest until he finds them and brings them home.

Randy Wayne White has written a fantastic work of suspense. The hero has previously, been portrayed as an enigma but in TWELVE MILE LIMIT the audience learns a bit more about Doc's deep and murky past. Readers will come to understand why the foot soldiers in the intelligence community have a different view of humanity than the rest of the world and act accordingly. With the humanization of his hero, Mr. White delivers a superior book, one that those who have followed this absorbing series will thoroughly enjoy.

Harriet Klausner

Apparently Randy Wayne White is incapable of writing a bad book, richly demonstrated by the arrival of Twelve Mile Limit. White is a licensed boat captain with thirteen years experience as a fishing guide, and it shows; only someone with an intimate knowledge and love of the water could have penned this compelling story. Based on a true event, Twelve Mile Limit opens with the dramatic rescue by helicopter of Amelia Gardener, the only known survivor of a disastrous diving expedition. Her three companions from the ill-fated excursion to explore an offshore diving wreck disappear without a trace when their boat sinks, despite the fact that all of them were wearing inflated life vests over wet suits. Among the missing is Janet Mueller, Doc Ford's friend who assists him with his marine specimens business. The close-knit Dinkin's Bay Marina family joins the Coast Guard in an exhaustive, ultimately futile search. When dark rumors begin to circulate, Doc agrees to assist Amelia in her efforts to clear her missing friends' names. Using resources from his shadowy, clandestine past as a secret government operative, Ford uncovers a chilling trail which leads him into a harrowing rescue attempt in the dangerous jungles of Colombia.
White's trademark use of brilliant descriptions of the waters off south Florida, and the vivid picture he creates of Colombia reflect his personal passion for these places. This book stands alone as a powerful adventure, as the reader experiences the chilling isolation of being lost and adrift in a windswept sea on a black, moonless night, and a terror-ridden descent into the hellish Colombian jungles infested with unimaginable dangers. But readers who have followed Doc Ford's adventures (this is the ninth in this popular series) are rewarded with a deepening knowledge of the searing past which haunts Doc. A wonderful summer read-or any time of the year-this book should come attached with a warning notice of the powerfully addictive effects of White's writing. Read one, and you will begin frantically searching out all of his other titles. It's worth it.

This latest Doc Ford novel is exceptional. It combines a lost at sea survival story with a action packed adventure in Columbia. The book is a lot like the earlier novels like Captiva, Sannibel Flats and North of Havana where Ford is relives his past occupation with the nsa. For those readers who where skeptical about the changes in Ford's character plus a new character named Ransom in the book Shark River, you will see in this latest novel the strength of White's writing ability. For example, Ford's image in Shark River changed from a tall baseball type player to a burly wrestler. In Twelve Mile Limit Ford throws some wrestling moves on a smart mouthed movie star and this was definately entertaining. Ransom also fits in well with the marina comunity so for all you Doc Ford readers out there I recommend this book.

I've just finished TWELVE MILE LIMIT and it is, without a doubt one of the best thrillers I've read this decade, probably in my life. I loved the characters, the action's nonstop, and Randy Wayne White describes the sea and South American rain forest as well or better than anyone ever has. He has pushed the envelope of genre fiction, elevating it, at times, to literature. (I could have used a little less info about weaponry, and a few less digressions, but I'm quibbling.)
The book is based on a true story. Mr. White has done his research, and it shows. On a moonless might in November, 1994, a 26-foot boat sank to the bottom of the
Gulf of Mexico, setting four SCUBA divers adrift, all wearing wetsuits and inflated vests. Only one survived; the fate of the other three remains a mystery.
White fictionalizes this story, yet the drama still holds, in the best Doc Ford novel yet. One of the missing is Doc's buddy, Janet Mueller, and his marina community mobilizes to search for the missing divers with the help of the lone survivor, Amelia Gardner. Doc discovers
that Amelia's companions might have lived through their nightmare at sea, and he and Amelia follow the trail to Colombia. The conclusion left me delighted, satisfied, teary-eyed and exhausted. It is the longest of the Ford novels, but I finished it in all-day stretch, and didn't get to bed until 4 a.m. Even then I couldn't sleep. Whew. What a read! More Ford, please. Terese H. South Florida

When I worked for The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., I was one of the reporters who covered the disappearance of three SCUBA divers & the rescue of a fourth from a tower miles out at sea--the story on which Randy Wayne White based this novel. So I know how faithful White is in this book to the original story.
White made a great choice by being very faithful to the facts of the story while at the same time completely changing the characters involved. That was a respectful, sensitive way to approach this fictionalization--and it probably served him well as a writer.
"Twelve Mile Limit" suffers from a problem I've found in other books set in real places. To my mind, White relies too much on names of places & institutions to convey a sense of place & doesn't do enough actual description. When he does describe, he's good at it--especially when it's something that's clearly a personal passion, such as the Gulf of Mexico. The scene where Doc Ford gets into the water in the middle of the night rings very true, for example. And that's because it is--White tells us at the end of the book that he did the same as part of his research.
The only other book I've read in the series is the first, "Sanibel Flats," which had a wonderful description of U.S. Highway 41 but (I felt at the time) little else to make it really stand out. "Twelve Mile Limit" is a great improvement & makes me interested in reading more in the series, especially as some reviewers here say it's not one of the strongest entries.
There are some lost opportunities here, especially more development of the "Heart of Darkness" idea, which could have used probably a couple more pages of development in total that would have made it really good.
White's personal story is inspiring. As I recall it, he once worked in Southwest Florida stringing telephone lines or some such, then did four years at The News-Press, then wisely left when daily newspapering had helped his writing & ear & eye & before it killed his creativity. Over a period of about 15 years, he turned himself into a nationally known outdoors writer & author. It's a great story.
I like White's inclusion of the (real) human trafficking issue in the novel. Also, this is true to the actual events in that it was one of the theories about what happened.
Many of White's Florida settings have recently been trashed by Hurricane Charley. I hope Southwest Floridians recover quickly. Knowing the spirit of the region & remembering the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew on the opposite coast, they will.
Lastly, I got to read this book as a result of the donation of free books for deployed Soldiers. If you ever get the opportunity to donate books to this cause, it's a great program that actually benefits Soldiers & is greatly appreciated. I have not paid for a book since I deployed & never lack for new material to read.

Dr. Marion "Doc" Ford is a marine biologist who lives in a house on stilts, off the west coast of Florida, and makes a living harvesting and supplying labs and schools with ocean wildlife local to the area. However, he has a dark past, having worked as one of the "Negotiators," a shadowy organization that works for the U.S. Government. The Negotiators have a talk with people who are being unreasonable, and make them see the error of their ways. Typically, the individual involved is an international drug kingpin who won't see the error of his ways and donate all of his loot to charity, and the solution is killing him. Ford has left all of that behind because it bothered his conscience.

In this novel, a close friend and employee of Ford has been lost at sea. One of the three people on the boat with her was rescued, and provides an account of what happened, but no matter how hard the Coast Guard looks, the other three companions aren't found. When Ford is approached by the survivor, and told that there was a boat that perhaps picked up the other survivors, he uses his connections with people in the government to investigate, and dives into an adventure to rescue his friend.

I enjoyed this book, and especially enjoy the way the author makes things interesting and suspenseful without having a blazing shootout every thirty pages (though those are fun, too). Ford is almost disdainful of guns, and those who use them, but not stupid enough to walk into a gunfight carrying a knife or something. There's also a nice subplot involving an environmentalist vs. fisherman battle that sounds so real and familiar that it must either be true or based on truth. I really enjoyed this book.

Fans of Randy Wayne White will not be disappointed by Twelve Mile Limit, another of his "Doc Ford" series, although it is not his best work.

The plot revolves around the real-life mystery of a sinking of vessel over the Baja California, a 1940's wreck off the gulf coast of Florida and the disappearance of several of the tourists on board. White then weaves his familiar brand of mystery, political commentary and action in a thrilling story.

However Twelve Mile Limit is not White's best work. I was disappointed by his inclusion of a manage a tois and the somewhat familiar "drug-dealers and white slavers" in South America theme. The book would have been good - maybe better - without them. Nonetheless, it is an enjoyable and fast-paced read, made all the more riveting by the true-mystery flavor to it.

I picked up Twelve Mile Limit while vacationing on Sanibel Island, on the advise of the owner of a terrific book shop on the island. It was my first Randy Wayne White book, and I had a very hard time putting it down. Since I was on Sanibel while reading, it was wonderful to eat at a particular restaurant and then see it included in the book. A terrific beach read and fully enjoyable.

If you like Doc Ford, you'll love this one, he is the absolute center of the novel. It includes an attractive lawyer, a disaster and rescue at sea, Dinkin's Bay parties, Coast Guard lore, drunken bigshot actors, dog fights, drug/people smugglers, wicked Columbians, a large Albino, mysterious mid-easterners, an I.R.A. bomber on the run, headhunters, paid (by some government) assasins, midnight raids, a jungle adventure and count em, four different women in the sack with Doc. Travis had nothing on Doc. This novel is like those Miami area flea markets in converted malls: something for everyone and everything for someone.

There is less interaction with Tomlinson than usual; and although she makes a token visit, White's newly introduced character of Doc's "sister" (cousin) is not as extensive a part of the plot as might be expected.

Despite this White manages to keep his plot moving. Part of the skill, as he admits in an epilogue, is the reliance on factual situations. Anyone who has written effective narrative has relied on a string of events, mixed and reattached, but derived some way from reality.

In the novel's climax, as Doc confronts/assists a special forces operative who has become a force in the jungle, echoes of Kurtz and Marlow appear. But the situation is like that in the classic film "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." Justification of extreme force to protect the innocent, even in the face of law, is and has been an important philosophical problem, closely akin to the place of evil in the world. White deliberately raises the point of EVIL. There is no doubt that such actions as Doc takes are requisite socially, but what are the personal consequences; what kind of man does such deeds?

Just in case this seems too dour, the concluding event will become a comic classic in the tales of surveillance.

The author has another great entry in his "Doc Ford" series,
and this one is hard to put down.
He explores a complex set of factors in putting forth this
mystery, including his favorite, the environment, as well as
the more familiar man-woman emotional relationships, and the continuing US difficulty with illegal drugs. The interesting
story takes us from a warm home on the coast of Florida, to a
wreck 50 miles away, and then on to the brutal, harsh country
of Columbia.
The hero, Ford, meets the usual array of quirky and interesting
characters, and we know he is going to have a tough time
meeting his objectives.
The story, which the author says is based, loosely, on a true
story about some missing divers, concerns Ford's search for a
good friend who is first thought to be dead in a diving accident, but who Ford later, using some super-secret info from
friendly government operatives, concludes has been captured by
"white-slavers" and taken into captivity. Ford will spare no
effort, of course, and he encounters dangers almost too numerous
to list in his search.
And he has help from a couple interesting friends, and they
plunge headlong into an adventure most of us will like to share
only in book form.
The S. Florida boating and fishing scene is not presented
better by anyone, and a thoughtful reader will almost be swaying
to the breeze rocking a boat as this adventure is absorbed.