Twelve Mile Limit

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Doc Ford Novel!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining thriller based on a true story
Review: 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.


Rating:
Summary: Another Hit
Review: White has hit a home run again. This one is a well researched page turner that keeps the reader interested throughout. This is the one series that I really look forward to. Doc Ford's adventures are always fresh and White manages to mix things up so the series never gets stale and repetitive like so many other mystery series. I hope it stays fresh for White so he'll continue to give us more Doc Ford in the future.