Book Review: Ten Thousand Islands

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Ten Thousand Islands     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Randy Wayne White
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller
Series: Doc Ford # 7
Putnam, May 2000, $23.95, 336 pp.

Doc Ford is a classic cynic who has seen the darkest sections of hell on earth before returning to America to remake himself. He works in Dinkin’s Bay Sanibel Island, Florida as a marine biologist. Though he lives a structured life, trouble always visits him.

A friend asks Doc to help a woman whose child’s grave was opened many years after the girl died. The daughter was special since she had the ability to find valuable, often historical, artifacts in places where no one would normally look. When she was found dead with a rope around her neck, the official opinion was suicide. She was buried with two very valuable artifacts, which is believed why someone desecrated her grave. Doc, feeling an unexplainable connection to the girl, vows to learn the full truth about Dorothy in life, death, and after-death.

Randy Wayne White guides his audience to a beautiful, primal part of Florida rarely visited by tourists. The anti-hero Doc, in his seventh appearance, is a quixotic mix of spiritual goodness and violent virility that is difficult to understand but enjoyable to observe. The adventure is exciting and frightening, as the plot seems so real that it is happening to the reader. Thus, the story line and its star turn TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS into an unforgettable work that will require Mr. White to write an eighth Ford tale.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner