January 14, 2013
The enduring puzzle of Flight 19—five Navy torpedo bombers that disappeared on a training flight on December 5, 1945, off the Florida coast—propels bestseller White’s captivating 20th Doc Ford novel (after 2012’s Chasing Midnight). Seaplane pilot Dan Futch thinks the answer to Flight 19’s fate may lie in an unusual Everglades location near some Indian mounds and a mysterious field of human bones. Fortunately, before Futch takes off with Ford and Ford’s sidekick, Tomlinson, Futch notices that someone has sabotaged his plane. But who was the intended target? Meanwhile, back home in Dinkin’s Bay, Ford must contend with a host of shady characters, including a putative film maker, a skilled assassin, and a Haitian drug dealer. “The fact that unexplained elements are noted within a similar time frame while in the field does not guarantee those elements are linked or even significant,” Ford muses, but his survival may depend on figuring out those possible links in this intriguing installment. Agent: Esther Newberg, International Creative Management.
February 1, 2013
Sanibel Island's most swashbuckling marine biologist goes in search of five Navy bombers that vanished nearly 70 years ago and finds both more and less. Marion D. Ford (Chasing Midnight, 2012, etc.) is a sucker for derring-do and friendship. So it's easy for Dan Futch, the best pilot Doc Ford knows, to enlist his help, and that of his hipster wingman Tomlinson, in tracing Flight 19, which took off from Fort Lauderdale in December 1945 and vanished without a trace--unless you count a telegram lost radioman George Paonessa apparently sent his brother three weeks later. The real-life mystery went far to fuel myths about the Bermuda Triangle that Doc would just as soon dispel. But he's the one who's nearly dispelled when Dan's plane abruptly goes down with him and Tomlinson aboard. It's an obvious case of sabotage, Dan tells the other survivors, but who'd want to sabotage such a mission? Well, says Tomlinson, there's Kondo Ogbay, the Haitian drug lord he's run afoul of, and Cressa Arturo, the married woman currently sharing his bed. The list of suspects soon expands to include Cressa's wealthy younger husband, Rob, and her crazy brother-in-law, Dean Arturo, Luke Smith of Adventure World Productions and Brazilian import/export CEO Alberto Sabino, aka contract killer Vargas Diemer. These amiably assorted worthies take turns--sometimes solo, sometimes in teams--alternately cozying up to Doc and his pals and drawing down on them. The search for Flight 19 doesn't exactly get forgotten in the tangle of subplots, but it loses so much urgency that it's a pleasing surprise when it finally gets wound up. A lesser adventure aimed at action fans who agree with Raymond Chandler that a great story is a succession of great scenes.
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February 1, 2013
In Gone (2012), White introduced fishing guide Hannah Smith, hinting that she was interested in a relationship with marine biologist Doc Ford, the hero of White's acclaimed main series. Those hints almost come to fruition in the twentieth Ford novel, despite Ford's conviction that his other job, covert ops, won't mix with relationships. There are other roadblocks to romance, starting with a psycho convinced that Ford's opposition to jig-fishing for tarpon has cost him his shot at becoming a big-time documentarian. Then there's Ford's obsession with the disappearance of five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers in 1945, and finally, the presence on Ford's Sanibel Island home turf of a mysterious Brazilian who may also dabble in covert ops. Any of these plot strands might have made a novel in itself, and White has some trouble balancing them all. Still, for series fans, the overabundance of plot won't matter a whit. Call it a transitional episode with lots of distractions, if you must, but fans will still be riveted by Ford and Hannah's tango-like mating dance. And the climax is a corker, too. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Over his last several Doc Ford novels, White has vaulted to mainstream bestseller stauts. This one is likely to maintain the pattern.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)