Doc Ford Mystery

After the deadliest hurricane to hit Sanibel Island in a century, Doc Ford must stop a gang of thieves, and worse, during the twelve hours of chaos that follow the passing of a storm's eye. A month before a killer hurricane hits Florida, Doc Ford gets a heads-up from a state department pal that during recent natural disasters, a group of paramilitary contractors have used the poststorm chaos as a license to steal, and kill. Doc doesn't give the warning much thought until the night the big storm hits. He's alone. The marina is a ghost town. Doc would have evacuated too but had to work a last-minute deal with the owner of the marina and some other stubborn liveaboards. They know the odds of being robbed after a storm spike. On barrier islands, there's about a twelve-hour window before help of any type arrives. No law enforcement, no first responders. And very few residents to deal with because most have evacuated. So, Doc stays. He isn't worried about himself. But he does wonder about a new neighbor: a British physician, inventor and possibly an MI-6 asset. The man lives in one of the expensive houses on Millionaires Row. In fact, it's just down the shoreline from the retired N.S.A. Director's home. This is no coincidence, and it begs the question: Will the storm bring out other new visitors to the island?

From New York Times bestselling author Randy Wayne White, the latest thriller following Doc Ford and his perilous journey into Mesoamerica after a world-shattering earthquake threatens his squad's safety—and all of their lives In the wake of a killer hurricane, Doc Ford's best friend, Tomlinson, insists that he died when his beloved sailboat hit a reef off the Mosquito Coast of Honduras. He now lives to tell the tale, but only because he was brought back to life—temporarily—by a runaway orphan who is the direct descendent of the last king of the ancient Mayan people. Corrupt politicians want the child out of the picture before he catalyzes a revolution among the Indigenous population. But the boy, a charismatic twelve-year-old, has gone underground with the help of Tomlinson and a network of street urchins. They're all on the run and in the crosshairs when Ford arrives and picks up his friend's trail. This is not his first trip to the most dangerous country in Mesoamerica, and no one is better equipped to deal with flesh traffickers, paramilitary killers, an archaeologist addicted to sex and a homicidal giant known locally as Iron Baby. Their spiritual home on Sanibel Island, Dinkin's Bay Marina, has already suffered the death of one key member, and Ford is determined not to burden that quirky little family with yet another funeral wake. What no one is prepared for, however, is a cataclysmic earthquake that hits the area with the impact of a meteor that nearly destroyed all life on earth more than sixty million years ago.