Dead Silence (Doc Ford) - Hardcover

White, Randy Wayne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399155406 ISBN 13: 9780399155406

Publisher: Putnam Adult, 2009

Synopsis

Winter in New York City: Amid sleet and snow, Doc Ford is at the Explorers Club with his new friend, former (and maybe current) British agent Sir James Montbard, researching a jungle expedition and awaiting the arrival of an attractive U.S. senator with whom Ford has become more than friendly. Her car pulls up, she starts to get out - and the unthinkable happens: an abduction attempt right before Ford's eyes. He engages, managing to save the senator, but the companion in her car is not so lucky. A fourteen-year-old Minnesota boy, in New York as the prize for an essay-writing contest, he is snatched and vanishes - dead, authorities fear, until they receive the kidnappers' ultimatum.
Ford goes on the hunt, an odyssey that brings him first to Long Island, then to Florida, but if what happened before was unthinkable, it's nothing compared with what he discovers. The boy's captors have a definite agenda, and to make sure he isn't rescued before their thirty-six-hour deadline is up, they've put him someplace they're sure no one will find him: they've buried him alive.
But there's something about the boy his captors do not know. He has a past, as do Doc Ford and many of the other key players in these extraordinary events. And before those thirty-six hours are over, all those pasts will catch up to the present - with catastrophic results.

About this title

About the Author

Randy Wayne White is the author of seventeen previous Doc Ford novels and four collections of nonfiction. He lives in an old house built on an Indian mound in Pineland, Florida.

Reviews

Bestseller White's high-octane 16th thriller to feature Marion Doc Ford (after Black Widow) opens with a splash as Ford deep-sixes serial rapist Bern Heller into the ocean a mile off Sanibel Island, Fla. Killing Heller is a sidebar to Doc's primary mission: rescuing Will Chaser, a 14-year-old Indian boy from Oklahoma, from two Cuban psychopaths who in a bungled kidnapping attempt wound up with Will instead of their intended target, a U.S. senator. Will is the real star of the show—a tough, resourceful juvenile delinquent with rodeo skills and a propensity for rage that make him a pretty even match for the two demonic kidnappers, who are demanding valuable information found in the belongings of the now-deceased Fidel Castro. Despite some confusing backstory and an unnecessarily complicated plot—White drags in many of Doc's sidekicks from earlier books for not much apparent reason—the action roars along as Doc does what Doc does best: kick butt. Author tour. (Mar.)
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Retirement didn’t sit well with Doc Ford, White’s marine biologist and black-ops agent. Doc’s back in the game now but choosing his own projects, including a spot of vigilante settling up with the serial rapist who killed one of the fishing guides from Dinkin’s Bay Marina, Sanibel Island, Doc’s beloved home. With the local cops on his tail, Doc hops a plane for New York, there to rendezvous with a fetching U.S. senator who finds the biologist’s horned-rim glasses and broad shoulders a very appealing combination. Naturally, things happen. Ford witnesses the senator’s attempted kidnapping and manages to keep her out of harm’s way, but another person riding in the limo, a 14-year-old Native American boy, is snatched instead. It’s all part of a scheme by some rogue Cubans to recover a cache of Castro’s private papers. Soon enough the boy has been buried alive (with an air vent providing a rapidly diminishing air supply), and Ford and best-buddy Tomlinson, who hails from Long Island, are on the trail. The action, typical for White, is relentless, and the tension builds agonizingly (nothing like burying somebody alive to ratchet up the suspense). But the real interest here is the glimpse White provides of Tomlinson’s background (rich kid with seriously bent kinfolk). This may not be the tightest or most entertaining novel in the series, but longtime fans—of whom there are many—have been wanting to hear more of hippie-dippy Tomlinson’s backstory for years, and they’ll be overjoyed to get their wish. --Bill Ott

Edition details

• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399155406
• ISBN 13: 9780399155406
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368