Deep Blue
by Randy Wayne White, 2016, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York
This is probably the worst Doc Ford book I have read. It is very disjointed and hard to follow. There seems to be no transitions to give the reader the sense of what is going on. White tries to fill in some of the context after he gets into a new scene, but, for the most part, leaves the reader to fill in the blanks as to how he got there.
Much of the old Doc Ford persona. the one that depicts him as a biologist with a complex background and interests, has pretty much disappeared in favor of the ex-CIA hitman who appears to be a clone of Mitch Rap of the Vince Flynn novels. As such, the complexity that made him so interesting in other novels, is gone in favor of a one-dimensional action man.
His free-thinking buddy, Tomlinson, is no longer as funny as he used to be and often seems out of place at various times in the book.
The rest of the Dinkin’s Bay crowd are there, but they seem to be in the shadows, somehow, and they don’t seem to add much to the book.
The plot of the book which involves the villains is murky at best. I’m not sure I really understand what was going on, even after finishing the book.
Finally, the passages that, in previous Doc Ford novels, provide enlightenment regarding the history and environment of Florida are totally missing from this book.
I wonder if someone else really wrote this one and White attached his name to it?
Boo! Hiss!
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