Rating: 
Summary: Latest novel in the Doc Ford series
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Latest novel in the Doc Ford series
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read, but not White's best
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A good read, but not White's best
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Though Familiar
Review: For Doc Ford fans, this is a familiar and entertaining tale. My only frustration was at the point that the plot jumped to South America and I had a flash of "same plot, different day." Evil drug-running bad guys snatch someone near and dear, Doc decides to singlehandedly make the rescue, reluctantly brings a tagalong, tragedy strikes but the bad guys ultimately pay. I enjoy Doc Ford's adventures more when they stay close to home. Maybe a good anti-developer story is due...
Rating:
Summary: Reader from Kansas City
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A WONDERFUL THRILLER!
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Doc's Flea Market
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Great Entry
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The places you'll go
Review: The best Doc Ford yet, educates and inspires and the pages keep turning. A "Heart of Darkness" twist allows Ford some self-examination in the heart of the Colombian jungle. Mixing fact and fiction, this is the strongest entry in the series. Keep up the good work. Headhunters and broken hearts.
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