Copyright 1990 by Randy Wayne White. Published by St Martin’s Press, New York.
This is the first of White’s series of mystery/adventure novels featuring Doc Ford, marine biologist. There are currently 26 books in the series, so this is the flagship of a very successful series.
The book opens with Doc Ford returning from a mysterious stint working clandestinely for the US government in Central America. It isn’t clear who he was working for or what he was doing, but it establishes his bona fides as a more-than-biologist figure. He sets up a small business preparing marine specimens for use in high school labs around the country. He does this on Sanibel Island, near Ft Myers, where he was born and raised. The local flavor adds to the appeal of the book for me.
He soon gets enmeshed in the mysterious death of an old buddy, Rafe Hollins. The police close the case as a suicide but Doc Ford knows it was murder, having discovered the body and some gems hidden nearby. He also knew that Rafe’s son had been abducted, probably by a guerrilla group in Masagua, a third-world country in Central America. He commits himself to saving the boy. Much of the book takes place in Masagua. That is the adventure part. The mystery part is what happened to Rafe and why.
The book is well-written, particularly for a first novel. I will try another.
But the plot was implausible. Fun but not real believable. The book would have scored higher if it had been more realistic.
7 out of 10.