Review by Booklist Review
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.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book 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 (Black Widow, 2008, etc.), 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. Doc's 16th suffers from subplot glut, but his fans are inured to that by now. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
