Featuring government agent turned marine biologist Doc Ford, White's wicked, suspenseful tales of Florida's west coast take social concerns, offbeat characters, crackling prose and a vivid sense of place, and toss them together to produce stories that snap like a whip. In Captiva, Doc Ford finds himself caught between warring bands, as Florida's sports fishermen and commercial fishermen battle over a net ban due to go into effect soon. With friends on both sides, Doc prefers to stay neutral, but when the war escalates to arson and murder in his own backyard, he has no choice but to become involved. With the help of his ex-hippie friend, Tomlinson, and an extraordinary island woman named Hannah, he sets out to calm the waters - only to find that they are much deeper than he ever could have imagined.From Publishers WeeklyWhite, who has always had the talent, moves firmly into the major leagues with his latest Doc Ford story (after Sanibel Flats) and its lavish panorama of cross-cultural and environmental issues played out passionately in south Florida. The Florida Keys uneasily contain rich pleasure seekers and subsistence-level fisherman; someplace in the turbulent middle, Doc, a biologist, and his existentialist buddy Tomlinson hang out. As a ban on net fishing engenders increasing debate, a man is blown apart when an explosion demolishes a jetty. The sultry voodoo-practicing widow soon has Doc and Tomlinson hopelessly spellbound; her host of admirers includes others with drug and land-development interests. By this point, the sweep of White's prose and the earnest intensity he brings to the ecological debate will likely blind readers to a story line with holes large enough for marlin to swim through. Tomlinson is fascinated by the socioeconomics of a small, insular key with nothing but fishing to support it, while Doc is more intrigued by the herbs the widow places in the hot tea they sip prior to bouts of strenuous lovemaking. The conclusion embraces some sinister business with drug smuggling and a minor miracle of modern medicine. While it isn't quite clear how White gets to drug cartels from the charred remains of a lazy brain-fried doper who liked hitting attractive, oversexed women, the whole weird trip, fueled by the author's thoroughly convincing re-creation of his chosen and much-loved world, is a blast. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistThe victim of an explosion at Dinkin's Bay Marina on Sanibel Island, commercial fisherman Jimmy Darroux mumbles, "Take care of Hannah" before he dies. Aging hippie Tomlinson, to whom Jimmy's words were addressed, enlists the aid of his best pal, Doc Ford, a former government agent turned seaside biologist. Burdened by a disconcerting tendency to see both sides of an issue, Doc recognizes that Jimmy's death is somehow tied to the friction between commercial and sport fishermen. He agrees to help find the mysterious Hannah, but his real motive is to derail a confrontation that could see many of his friends hurt. And hurt they are when the violence escalates. White's fourth Doc Ford novel gathers momentum slowly--its pace is not unlike the hypnotic rhythm of the surf--until the last 100 pages or so, when all hell breaks loose. Characters we have grown fond of meet bad ends, a truly evil villain is exposed, and Ford drops his intellectual guise: he's a born predator, and he exacts a horrible but just revenge. This is a top-shelf thriller written with poetic style and vision. Don't miss it. Wes Lukowsky

The Professional Tarpon Rodeo is back, and Doc Ford needs help from the trio of brave friends who make up Sharks Inc.—Luke, Maribel, and Sabina—to investigate the million-dollar competition in bestselling author Randy Wayne White's fourth Sharks Incorporated novel, Megalops. The Professional Tarpon Rodeo is back on Sanibel Island, offering any celebrity contestant who lands a rare piebald tarpon a one-million-dollar prize. But marine biologist Doc Ford is certain that people are cheating to win. When an angler team illegally catches a tarpon to feed it to sharks for attention, Doc enlists the kids of Sharks Inc.—Luke, Maribel, and Sabina—to uncover their scheme. Would introverted Luke rather be trapped between a hammerhead shark and an injured tarpon—or trapped in the spotlight of internet adoration?With the help of an unlikely new friend, the intrepid Sharks Inc. trio will unmask a band of zombies, outwit a devious...

From New York Times bestselling author Randy Wayne White, after the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida's Gulf Coast in a century, Doc Ford must stop a gang of thieves—and worse—during the twelve hours of chaos that follow the passing of a storm's eye.A Russian diplomat disappears while Doc is tagging great white sharks in South Africa, and members of a criminal brotherhood, Bratva, don't think it's a coincidence. They track the biologist to Dinkin's Bay Marina on the west coast of Florida, where Brotherhood mercenaries have already deployed, prepared to pillage and kill in the wake of an approaching hurricane.No one, however, is prepared for a cataclysmic event that will forever change the island and leaves Doc to deal with escapees from Russia's most dangerous prison, including a serial killer—the Vulture Monk—who has a taste for blood. His only ally is an...

The trio of brave friends who make up Shark, Inc—Luke, Maribel and Sabina—dive back into adventure in Stingers, the follow-up to bestselling author Randy Wayne White's Fins...

From the bestselling author of the Doc Ford series for adults, comes a high-stakes, masterfully plotted story of courage, friendship... and sharks!The world's shark population is in trouble for a sad, simple reason: shark fin soup. And although it's illegal, poachers have been targeting Florida's biannual migration of blacktip sharks. Marine biologist Doc Ford needs some assistance protecting the sharks and enlists the help of three kids—Luke, Marta and Sabina. Luke is brand-new to Florida from the Midwest; sisters Marta and Sabina have only recently arrived from Cuba—and all three feel like fish out of water. It's going to take some convincing for them to work as a team and to recognize in themselves the courage, wisdom and tenacity that Doc sees in them.Together they form Sharks, Inc. and are given an important assignment: to set out each day on their small fishing boat in hopes of tagging sharks for Doc's research—and to stay...

New York Times bestselling author Randy Wayne White introduces Hannah Smith—a lady with the heart and courage to take on the world… Hannah Smith is a tall, strong, formidable Florida woman, the descendant of generations of strong Florida women. She makes her living as a fishing guide, but her friends, neighbors, and clients also know her as an uncommonly resourceful woman with a keen sense of justice, as someone who can’t be bullied—and they have taken to coming to her with their problems. Her methods can be unorthodox, though, and those on the receiving end of them often wind up very unhappy—and sometimes very violent. When a girl goes missing, and Hannah is asked to find her, that is exactly what happens…**

The trio of brave friends who make up Sharks, Inc.—Luke, Maribel and Sabina—dive into a crocodile-filled adventure in Crocs, the third book in bestselling author Randy Wayne White's Sharks Incorporated series. Marine biologist Doc Ford has a new mission for Sharks Inc.: visit Sanibel Island's remote Bone Field to find a wild orange tree that's survived a disease destroying Florida's citrus. There, the members of Sharks Incorporated find oranges unlike any they've ever seen, but can't find the tree Doc needs. Worse, the area is protected by a massive saltwater crocodile.What the team doesn't expect is to meet a reclusive woman who threatens to call the police if they trespass on her land again. Reluctant to give up, the trio learns she needs help. When she was young, the woman found King Calusa's grave. Now, she believes the ghost of the dead king, who was beheaded by Spanish explorers 500 years ago, is haunting her.To uncover the truth, the...

When solitary marine biologist Doc Ford focused his telescope on the woman in the white boat, he didn't know his life was about to be capsized: that his conniving uncle Tucker Gatrell would discover the Fountain of Youth, that The National Enquirer would write about it, and that the law would beat down his door in search of three missing men.But Doc Ford is about to find these things out-- the hard way. Because in the shadowy world of Southwest Florida, where gators yawn, cattle craze, and Indian bones are buried, mysteries great and small have found the man to solve them...From Publishers WeeklyIn the third Doc Ford adventure, White again seamlessly splices an offbeat west coast of Florida locale with even more offbeat inhabitants. Principal among them is Doc Ford, who operates a small biological-supply business from a lab in his stilt-supported house. Lately, Doc has tried to control his telescope viewing of a tanned, red-haired woman who skinny-dips off an offshore sailboat and to limit his beer intake to four a day. While trying to be patient with his hippie pal Thomlinson, who drops by to expound on many topics, Doc reluctantly gets involved with his Uncle Tucker, who lives up the coast in Mango. Tuck has discovered a well of healing water on his land that he claims is responsible for his old gelded horse's newly grown testicles. Smuggled into a local rest home, the water has dramatically revived the moribund sex life of his Native American buddy Joseph Egret. Tuck's trouble is his somewhat uncertain ownership of the land. While he importunes Doc for help, the local news focuses on the disappearance into the mangrove swamps of two government investigators and a much loathed TV fisherman. Like fellow Floridian Carl Hiaasen, White ( The Heat Islands ) is adept at weaving ecological concerns into an oddball narrative with no loss of steam. The fate of the three missing men, even by bizarre Florida crime fiction standards, is inspired. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalSeries veterans Marion "Doc" Ford and hippie friend Tomlinson ( Sanibel Flats , St. Martin's, 1990) become tangentially involved in the case of three men who go missing near Dinkin's Bay. The "victims" seem to have nothing in common except bad luck; their portion of a broader story melds with a mostly amusing plot dealing with the proposed government expansion of the Everglades National Park. White offers an eclectic vision of Florida with his laid-back prose but pays close attention to various "characters," especially Marion's braggart uncle. Upbeat, literate, fascinating, and clever: manna for deeper readers.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The sins of the past come back to haunt Doc Ford and his old friend Tomlinson in this thrilling new novel from New York Times-bestselling author Randy Wayne White.Marine biologist and former government agent Doc Ford is sure he's beyond the point of being surprised by his longtime pal Tomlinson's madcap tales of his misspent youth. But he's stunned anew when avowed bachelor Tomlinson reveals that as a younger man strapped for cash, he'd unwittingly fathered multiple children via for-profit sperm bank donations. Thanks to genealogy websites, Tomlinson's now-grown offspring have tracked him down, seeking answers about their roots. . . but Doc quickly grows suspicious that one of them might be planning something far more nefarious than a family reunion.With recent history on his mind, Doc is unsurprised when his own dicey past is called into question. Months ago, he'd quietly "liberated" a cache of precious Spanish coins from a felonious treasure hunter, and now...

Hannah Smith returns in the stunning new adventure in the New York Times–bestselling series by the author of the Doc Ford novels. A fishing guide and part-time investigator, Hannah Smith is a tall, strong Florida woman descended from many generations of the same. But the problem before her now is much older even than that. Five hundred years ago, Spanish conquistadors planted the first orange seeds in Florida, but now the whole industry is in trouble. The trees are dying at the root, weakened by infestation and genetic manipulation, and the only solution might be somehow, somewhere, to find samples of the original root stock. No one is better equipped to traverse the swamps and murky backcountry of Florida than Hannah, but once word leaks out of her quest, the trouble begins. "There are people who will kill to find a direct descendant of those first seeds," a biologist warns her—and it looks like his words may be all too prophetic.

Hawker descends on the nation's capital after a string of gruesome bombings It's just past six a.m., and the Rutledge family is gathering for breakfast, unaware of the two bombs that have been planted outside their home. They're about to start eating when a fireball bursts through the windows, and the house is blasted to dust, leaving only one survivor. In the last six weeks, the Rutledges are the seventh family to be attacked—and the onslaught is just beginning. A terrorist group is intent on bringing the citizens of Washington, DC, to their knees. But James Hawker will teach the victims to stand up and fight. A radical student group is behind the bombings, which are just their first step in an all-out campaign of terror. After years waging a nationwide war against organized crime, Hawker fears no terrorist. On the battlegrounds of Washington, the world's most dangerous vigilante will fight to the finish. Terror in D.C. is the...

Hawker launches an all-out assault on the world's most powerful arms dealer For Con Ye Cwong, the Vietnam War will never be over. Head of the North Vietnamese secret police during the brutal conflict, he has built himself an empire selling cocaine and heroin to the West. Even after the war, American servicemen remain his favorite targets. He relishes nothing more than getting a soldier hooked, and then upping the price until the junkie has no choice but to reveal military secrets for the next fix. When he isn't pushing drugs or conning soldiers, Cwong is an arms dealer, supplier to the most dangerous terrorists in the Middle East. He's one of the most powerful men in the world, and James Hawker is going to take him down. Hawker's one-man war against terrorism has taken him around the globe, but he won't know peace until Cwong is dead and buried. To save the United States, the nation's deadliest vigilante will take on the Viet Cong.