In Print

Two popular Florida authors present very different views of the Sunshine State in the latest batch of summertime novels.

First up is Randy Wayne White, a fishing-guide-turned-author whose books have built an enthusiastic following ever since he published Sanibel Flats in 1990. White is best known for his “Doc Ford” yarns, which feature a former U.S. intelligence agent trying to live down his past by working as a marine biologist on Sanibel Island. As invariably happens in this type of fiction, Doc keeps getting involved in various kinds of mayhem, reluctantly forcing him to dust off the detective skills he is anxious to forget.

Just in time for the long evenings, White has produced his ninth Ford novel, Twelve Mile Limit (Putnam, $24.95), which begins with an intriguing opening  typical of White’s style: “On Sunday, November 4, a Coast Guard helicopter was operating 52 nautical miles off Marco Island on the west coast of Florida, when a crewman spotted a naked woman on the highest platform of a 160-foot navigational tower….”

Read the entire article in the Summer 2002 issue