White Cargo [Hardcover]

Stuart Woods (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1988

They should have killed Catledge. But they let him live while they savagely brutalized his wife and daughter. Let him live while they sent his yacht and his family to the bottom of the Caribbean. Let him live knowing he could never find the killers in the drug towns of Colombia. Then, late one night back in the States, the phone rang. And one word gave Catledge something to live for. One word that launched a one-man war against a ruthless outlaw.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite Woods's on-site research in Colombia, this suspense tale of cocaine trafficking and kidnapping only skims the surface of the seamy drug world it purports to investigate. Wendell ("Cat") Catledge, a self-made electronics millionaire, is yachting off the South American coast with his family when a bloody act of piracy snatches away his "heart-stoppingly beautiful" teenage daughter Jinx and wife Katie. They are presumed dead, but weeks later Cat gets a brief phone call and recognizes Jinx's voice. His quest for his daughter, who is now a zombie enslaved by "the Anaconda," a Colombian drug baron, involves Cat with assorted CIA and narc types and with Meg Greville, a freelance TV journalist who may be KGB. Woods (Deep Lie, Chiefs) serves up a slam-bang rescue as a fitting finale, but the suspense overall is so-so and the Latinos are either faceless or stereotypically sneaky. This one reads like a lukewarm episode of Miami Vice.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A straight ahead, damn-the-torpedoes storyteller." -- --The Washington Post

"It's terrific! A top-notch thriller..." -- --New York Daily News --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 350 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (July 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671633333
• ISBN-13: 978-0671633332
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,051,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stuart Woods is the author of forty-four novels, including the New York Times-bestselling Stone Barrington series and Holly Barker series. The last twenty-eight of them have been New York Times best-sellers. He is an avid private pilot, flying his own jet on two book tours a year. His latest novel is Santa Fe Edge,to be published on September 21st. You may see his tour schedule and learn more about the author on his website, www.stuartwoods.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exciting Book!, August 26, 2001

By 

Melvin Hunt (Cleveland,, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: White Cargo (Mass Market Paperback)

This was an outstanding book. A computer tycoon becomes a victim of piracy in the South American waters. He thinks that his wife has been killed as well as his daughter. He recieves a phone call during the night from the daughter that he thought was dead. He embarks on a rescue mission to locate his child in Columbia. The search is exciting as well. He finally joins forces with a female journalist. They trace his daughter to the empire of a drug baron nicknamed the "Anaconda". The computer tycoon uses all of his wits and cunning to free his daughter as well as himself and the female journalist. This book has many twists and turns that will constantly surprise the reader. It is hard to put this book down. It took me no time to read it. Buy this book. You will not be dissapointed.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stuart Woods- White Cargo, May 13, 2003

By 

Done - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Cargo (Mass Market Paperback)

Stuart Woods 1988 novel "White Cargo" is an excellent read. A fast paced story that keeps the reader captivated, in my case I literally could not put this book down. This is the story of Wendell Catledge aka Cat a millionaire who made his money through invention of a printer. Catledge and his wife Katherine and daughter Jinx fall prey to what appears to be piracy while yachting on the coast of South America. Catledge wakes up in hospital to find his yacht has sunk and wife and daughter are dead. Catledge returns to the states and is contempating an end to his own life, when he recieves a phone call one day, and hears Jinx's voice. Catledge now has a new reason for living, to find his daughther and to avenge his wife's killers. Catledge begins a relentless search which will lead him deep into the Columbian Jungle. To say much more would be giving away a good story, one more thing I would like to say is I really liked the characters in this novel like Bluey Holland, Meg and even Prince a more sophisticated villian. "White Cargo" is an enthralling novel which will not disappoint, with a timless value to it, highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Daddy...., June 24, 2001

By 

Carol Peterson Hennekens (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Cargo (Mass Market Paperback)

Cat Catledge is just beginning to come to terms with the murders of his wife and daughter when the phone rings. One word - "Daddy"- and then the phone is hung up. That phone call leads Cat and the readers on a journey through Colombia as Cat tries to find and rescue his daughter, Jinx.

Drug trafficers have fallen out of favor as the villians of choice in thriller fiction. This book, written in 1988, was written at the height of their popularity and is still a darn good read. Cat is a good hero - a rich computer printer inventor who has plenty of vulnerabilities (first and foremost his family). Woods provides an great group of friends to fill the gaps for Cat. I particularly liked Bluey, the renegade Australian pilot.

Since Jinx was kidnapped by pirates off the Colombian coast, much of the book takes place in that country. Woods does a nice job of telling the reader about the various cities without falling into the traveloge trap.

And, yes, the pages turn easily. A fun read for all (except, maybe, the fathers of beautiful eighteen year old daughters).