The Mangrove Coast (Doc Ford Series #6)
The seductive daughter of a dead war buddy calls marine biologist Doc Ford in need of help—her mother has vanished without a trace in South America. Doc's efforts to find her take him from the jungles of Colombia to the streets of Panama—and onto the trail of the most vile nemesis he has ever come up against...
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In The Mangrove Coast, the daughter of a dead war buddy calls Ford in distress. If you're ever really in trouble, his friend had written her, Ford's the one you can trust. Her mother's disappeared in South America without a trace, in the company of an unsavory companion, and her money's gone, too. Doc agrees to help, and finds himself in Colombia, then in Panama, on the trail of a man more genuinely evil than any he has ever encountered. There's more to it than that, though - a third man, whose shadowy presence brings death in its wake. For Doc, the mystery - and the danger - only deepen. In fact, solving the puzzle may turn out to be the most perilous thing of all.Publishers WeeklyAn awkward plot mars the latest entry (after North of Havana, 1997) in White's widely appealing Gulf coast of Florida series starring Doc Ford, marine biologist, former spook and reluctant detective. In the first chapter, Ford finds the body of Frank Calloway on the kitchen floor of the real estate baron's beach house. Eleven chapters later, readers return to Calloway's house to follow Ford, who decides that he'll look for the folder he'd come to see before he calls the police. The intervening chapters explain that Calloway had married--and later divorced--Gail Richardson, the widow of Ford's best friend, Bobby, who had been killed in Cambodia doing top-secret dirty work 20 years earlier. Gail and Bobby's daughter Amanda has asked Ford to find Gail, who is somewhere in South America with a man named Jackie Merlot. Ford learns that Merlot, a gross and depraved villain, has conned Gail into joining him in a rank business venture in the Canal Zone. Merlot is an arresting figure, but most of the action involving him happens so far offstage that his menace is largely wasted. And White's extended flashbacks are filled with pretentious ponderings about the human condition. From a writer whose work is usually marked by tight construction and wry dialogue, this fizzy tale is a misfire. Editor, Neil Nyren; agent Renee Wayne Golden. (Oct.)
\ Publishers Weekly\ - Publisher's Weekly\ An awkward plot mars the latest entry (after North of Havana, 1997) in White's widely appealing Gulf coast of Florida series starring Doc Ford, marine biologist, former spook and reluctant detective. In the first chapter, Ford finds the body of Frank Calloway on the kitchen floor of the real estate baron's beach house. Eleven chapters later, readers return to Calloway's house to follow Ford, who decides that he'll look for the folder he'd come to see before he calls the police. The intervening chapters explain that Calloway had married--and later divorced--Gail Richardson, the widow of Ford's best friend, Bobby, who had been killed in Cambodia doing top-secret dirty work 20 years earlier. Gail and Bobby's daughter Amanda has asked Ford to find Gail, who is somewhere in South America with a man named Jackie Merlot. Ford learns that Merlot, a gross and depraved villain, has conned Gail into joining him in a rank business venture in the Canal Zone. Merlot is an arresting figure, but most of the action involving him happens so far offstage that his menace is largely wasted. And White's extended flashbacks are filled with pretentious ponderings about the human condition. From a writer whose work is usually marked by tight construction and wry dialogue, this fizzy tale is a misfire. Editor, Neil Nyren; agent Renee Wayne Golden. (Oct.)\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalDoc Ford, marine biologist and former government intelligence agent, temporarily abandons his research to rescue the wife of a former colleague in this, White's (North of Havana, LJ 4/15/97) sixth novel featuring the unpretentious scholar and environmentalist. When Gail Richardson-Calloway disappears after meeting someone through an Internet chat room, her daughters enlists Doc Ford's help. Tracking the pair to Colombia and then Panama, he discovers that Gail is being held a virtual prisoner by a psychotic predator who has stalked her and her daughter for years. In a bold rescue attempt, Ford relies on former contacts and long unused skills against all but impossible odds. Master of the thrilling climax and surprise ending, White leaves the reader breathless and satisfied. A good read, although it starts slowly and the plot is not as tightly knit as White's earlier tales.--Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale\ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsOnce more, friendship makes a move on marine biologist "Doc" Ford (North of Havana, 1997, etc.), converting the man of science into a man of action. But he likes that. As all followers of this series know, Ford is a closet adrenaline-junkie. This time out, it's winsome Amanda Calloway who can't be refused. She's Bobby Richardson's daughter, after all, that same stand-up Bobby who was Ford's close ally back during their shared Cambodian caper, when, on behalf of their country, the two men did virtuous if shadowy things together. That was 20 years ago, and now here's young Amanda brandishing a letter from the grave, as it were, in which Bobby clearly states that in time of need, "Ford's the one to trust." Amanda's need is dire: her beautiful, gullible mom has disappeared. Not only that, but when last seen she was under the spell of a particularly loathsome Svengali named Jackie Merlot. Amanda wants her mom rescued, and like the latter-day knight-errant that he is, Ford unhesitatingly accepts the missionþagain aided and abetted in his quest by some of the quirky friends whoþve aided and abetted in the past. Soon enough he's in Cartagena, Colombia, and from there it's a short haul to Panamanian Gamboa, where he catches up with his fat but fearsome quarry. So it's Gamboa that becomes the scene of the denouementþa bloody, bittersweet denouementþthat will leave Ford with one less quirky friend. So many misplaced meanderings and wearisome digressionsþon the wonders of baseball, the age of fish, the yeas and nays of cannabis, plus much moreþthat what results is one a competent storyteller's unfortunate lapse into literary self-indulgence.\ \
