NIGHT MOVES by Randy Wayne White

Night Moves, the 20th in the Doc Ford series, is scheduled for publication in March and I know anyone who has read Randy Wayne White's books will want to snap it up.  

White is prominent on my list of favorite authors because he creates unique and memorable characters to populate intriguing stories set around Sanibel Island, Florida.  Doc Ford is a marine biologist, who readers will know has a second, secret life, and he gets involved in all kinds of dangerous investigations in and around the Everglades.  

I love Ford's friend and neighbor Tomlinson who is hilarious no matter what kind of trip he's on.  He has taken almost every drug in existence and sort of levels out at a degree of highness in which he can function but is unpredictable.  In this one he has a bumbling but dangerous drug dealer from Haiti on his trail.

We also have two mysterious, very expensive boats newly docked at the marina where Ford and Tomlinson live on their boats, Tomlinson's new married mistress and her crazy in-laws, and a lively survivor of a dog Ford saves that has part of a boa constrictor in his mouth and fangs buried in his hide.  Additionally, there is a rich, sophisticated hit man.  Who is the hit man's target?  Hopefully it isn't Ford.  As well, we have another of Ford's friends, a pilot who thinks he may have found the remains of WW II planes that disappeared in the 1940s.  All of these characters have a definite place in the story and White makes discovering how the tale comes together entertaining.  

Part of the book is frightening because Ford is in real danger, but I have to admit laughing my way through the rest.  In this 20th adventure I even see a hint of a midlife crisis for Doc Ford.  I do hope he won't go soft on us.

Source:  Amazon Vine
Recommended reading, a must for Randy Wayne White fans.

Book Finished - Review Postponed

In my last post I wrote about the long, long nonfiction book I was reading and enjoying.  It was the kind of book I read slowly to make sure I understand and get the most out of it.  Well, I finished that book yesterday.  Then I looked at the cover and realized I can't review it yet.  Oops!

The publication date for it is March 19th so the publisher would, of course, prefer that reviews appear no sooner than that date.  Okay, I will wait to tell you all about the book but at least I've finished reading it and now I have some time to mull it over before I start the review.  Works out better anyway.

Now I will proceed to read shorter fiction so I can get back to more regular reviews.  

Fiction is easier for me anyway because my husband has the television on loud from the time he gets up in the morning until he goes to bed at night.  To get away from the sound, I would have to go upstairs to my study and close the door.  Maybe I should move a comfortable chair and good lamp up here.  Nah, Dave wouldn't be happy if I spent so much time away from him.  He wants me to be in the family room with him.  Earplugs?  Maybe.  Meanwhile, I've been learning to concentrate with all that background noise.  I like it when he watches golf or NHRA racing in particular because I'm not interested and therefore can ignore it easier.

Thankfully Spring is coming.  Then he'll be outside more and I can read on the patio or the front porch.  Can hardly wait!

Sorry for the Delay

You must think I dropped off the face of the earth.  Actually I've been reading a lengthy book that I simply can't put down.  Called Tom's River, it's about the polluting of the area around Tom's River, New Jersey by several chemical companies but particularly Ciba-Geigy which had a huge plant, and dumping ground, in a wooded area of Tom's River.  Companies such as Union Carbide and Dupont were also involved.

Just one shocking fact is that they were dumping toxic chemicals into pits on their property.  The pits were typical of surrounding soil, sandy and porous, so the chemicals just filtered down through to the aquifer below and soon plumes of the stuff invaded water wells, adjoining properties, etc.

I'm at around page 300 of a 450+ page book so I'm not ready to review yet, but when I tell you we were living in New Jersey, northeast of Tom's River, at the time, you'll understand perhaps why I'm so fascinated.  It's such a complicated story but very well told by author Dan Fagin, and I'm sure I'll be recommending it for your reading list.

THE BIG EXIT by David Carnoy

I really loved this book.  This is Carnoy's second thriller but the first I've read and I'm hooked.  He is an executive editor at CNET and regularly interviewed on television as a tech expert.  With that background you might think his novels would appeal only to techies but you would be wrong.  This is a complex plot, masterfully told, that pulled me in and held me firmly until the end.  I'm sort of the opposite of a techie but I understood and followed everything.

The characters either just get to you, like hero Richie Forman, or you are fascinated because you can't figure out which side they're on, like for instance his ex-fiance and sudden widow Beth McGregor.  Forman is an ex-con and the reason he served time is the necessary background to the whole story.  It involves a traffic accident in which a woman was killed.  At the time Forman was engaged to Beth but when he went to prison on the basis of Mark McGregor's testimony that Forman was driving, Beth married McGregor.  You can see there are all kinds of emotions involved here, and a mystery.  Just who was actually driving?

Now Forman is out and understandably having a tough time finding a job.  He is a great Frank Sinatra impersonator so he's eking out a living in a night club.  Then he scores a job at an organization that works pro bono for people who have been wrongly convicted of crimes.  He's on a trial basis when McGregor is found beaten to death and Forman is arrested for murder.

That's all I can tell you without giving away too much but I wanted to get you into the story enough that you would want to find out what happens because I don't want you to miss this book.  Sorry for the gushing.  I'm just impressed with this author and his writing style and his characters.

Highly recommended reading
Source:  The Overlook Press through Partners in Crime Tours