Dead Silence (Doc Ford Series #16) »

Randy Wayne White is the author of fifteen previous Doc Ford novels—The Heat Islands, Sanibel Flats, The Man Who Invented Florida, Captiva, North of Havana, The Mangrove Coast, Ten Thousand Islands, Shark River, Twelve Mile Limit, Everglades, Tampa Burn, Dead of Night, Dark Light, Hunter's Moon, and Black Widow—and of the nonfiction collections Batfishing in the Rainforest, The Sharks of Lake Nicaragua, Last Flight Out, and An American Traveler. A onetime veteran fishing guide, he lives in an old house built on an Indian mound, and spends much of his free time windsurfing, playing baseball, and hanging out.

Imagine the worst that can happen. Then imagine again. The stunning new Doc Ford novel by the New York Times–bestselling author. Winter in New York City: Amid sleet and snow, Doc Ford is at the Explorers Club with his new friend, former (and maybe current) British agent Sir James Montbard, researching a jungle expedition, and awaiting the arrival of an attractive U.S. senator with whom Ford has become more than friendly. Her car pulls up, she starts to get out, and the unthinkable happens: an assassination attempt right before their eyes. Ford engages, critically injuring one of the attackers, but the senator vanishes—dead, authorities fear—until they receive her kidnapper's ultimatum. Ford goes on the hunt, with the help of his friend Tomlinson, on an odyssey that moves to the Florida Keys and beyond. If what happened before was unthinkable, it's nothing compared to what they discover. The senator's captor has a definite agenda, and to make sure she isn't rescued before his...

Publishers Weekly

Award-winning veteran narrator George Guidall gives a masterful performance of White's latest Doc Ford suspense thriller, creating well-drawn characters, including a grizzled ex-wrestler, two Cuban kidnappers, a teenage boy, a snobby Hamptons millionaire and Ford's hippie colleague. The scenes in which Ford painstakingly pieces together clues and provides backstory tend to drag a bit, but the action sequences are gripping and nail-bitingly suspenseful. Mystery fans are well advised to snatch this one up. A Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 19). (Mar.)

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