Dead Silence

x, [2], 354, [2] pages. Endpaper map. Author's Note. Cover has slight wear and soiling Signed by the author on the endpaper map. Randy Wayne White (born 1950) is an American writer of crime fiction and non-fiction adventure tales. He has written New York Times best-selling novels and has received awards for his fiction and a television documentary. He is best known for his series of crime novels featuring the retired NSA agent Doc Ford, a marine biologist living on the Gulf Coast of southern Florida. White has contributed material on a variety of topics to numerous magazines and has lectured across the United States. A resident of Southwest Florida since 1972, he lives on Sanibel Island, where he is active in South Florida civic affairs and owns the restaurant Doc Ford's Sanibel Rum Bar & Grill. Marion "Doc" Ford, a marine biologist and ex-NSA agent, makes his home on the scenic west coast of Florida--but leaving his former dangerous life behind, where he protected his country by all means necessary, isn't that easy. Old friends asking for favors, dead bodies washing up on Dinkins Bay, diving lessons going horribly wrong . the shadowy world of Southwest Florida keeps putting Doc Ford in its crosshairs. This thrilling ongoing series by beloved Floridian author Randy Wayne White, which began with Sanibel Flats, has become something of a literary institution, with its perennial bestsellers. When his U.S. senator girlfriend is kidnapped during an assassination attempt outside the Explorers Club in New York City, Doc Ford sets out on a rescue mission in the Florida Keys with his friend Tomlinson; an effort that is further complicated by the kidnapper's claims that the senator has been buried alive. Derived from a Kirkus review: Doc Ford, marine biologist-cum-black-ops specialist, must disinter some ugly buried secrets along with a kidnap victim who's been buried alive. Unlucky Will Chaser, 14, wins an essay-writing contest that puts him in the wrong place at the wrong time. His woes begin with a conspiracy in Havana to obtain the newly surfaced "Castro File." Now in U.S. custody, the file is full of inflammable secrets, making it highly attractive to big-time geopolitical extortionists. Chief among these are Hump and Farfel, a pair of bottom feeders who've decided that an effective way to exert pressure on the United States would be to kidnap a certain female senator, put her underground and give the Government 36 hours to come up with the goods. As Will rides in Senator Hayes's limo as part of his contest prize, the ill-intentioned cabal prepares for the snatch. Doc Ford, who just happens to be in New York waiting on his latest spook assignment, would be exactly in position to rescue the senator and foil the kidnappers if they didn't decide that young Will qualifies as a workable surrogate. So Doc instantly goes instead into pursuit mode, beginning a frantic chase that will take him to those dark and desperate places that only a man with the Bond-like W designation ("sanctioned by the Executive Branch to use lethal force" worldwide) can handle with aplomb.…