books:

	• Twelve Mile Limit Randy Wayne White G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2002 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The plot revolves around the real-life mystery of a sinking of vessel over the Baja California, a 1940's wreck off the gulf coast of Florida and the disappearance of several of the tourists on board. White then weaves his familiar brand of mystery, political commentary and action in a thrilling story.

However Twelve Mile Limit is not White's best work. I was disappointed by his inclusion of a manage a tois and the somewhat familiar "drug-dealers and white slavers" in South America theme. The book would have been good - maybe better - without them. Nonetheless, it is an enjoyable and fast-paced read, made all the more riveting by the true-mystery flavor to it.

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Entertaining thriller based on a true story

When I worked for The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., I was one of the reporters who covered the disappearance of three SCUBA divers & the rescue of a fourth from a tower miles out at sea--the story on which Randy Wayne White based this novel. So I know how faithful White is in this book to the original story.
White made a great choice by being very faithful to the facts of the story while at the same time completely changing the characters involved. That was a respectful, sensitive way to approach this fictionalization--and it probably served him well as a writer.
"Twelve Mile Limit" suffers from a problem I've found in other books set in real places. To my mind, White relies too much on names of places & institutions to convey a sense of place & doesn't do enough actual description. When he does describe, he's good at it--especially when it's something that's clearly a personal passion, such as the Gulf of Mexico. The scene where Doc Ford gets into the water in the middle of the night rings very true, for example. And that's because it is--White tells us at the end of the book that he did the same as part of his research.
The only other book I've read in the series is the first, "Sanibel Flats," which had a wonderful description of U.S. Highway 41 but (I felt at the time) little else to make it really stand out. "Twelve Mile Limit" is a great improvement & makes me interested in reading more in the series, especially as some reviewers here say it's not one of the strongest entries.
There are some lost opportunities here, especially more development of the "Heart of Darkness" idea, which could have used probably a couple more pages of development in total that would have made it really good.
White's personal story is inspiring. As I recall it, he once worked in Southwest Florida stringing telephone lines or some such, then did four years at The News-Press, then wisely left when daily newspapering had helped his writing & ear & eye & before it killed his creativity. Over a period of about 15 years, he turned himself into a nationally known outdoors writer & author. It's a great story.
I like White's inclusion of the (real) human trafficking issue in the novel. Also, this is true to the actual events in that it was one of the theories about what happened.
Many of White's Florida settings have recently been trashed by Hurricane Charley. I hope Southwest Floridians recover quickly. Knowing the spirit of the region & remembering the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew on the opposite coast, they will.
Lastly, I got to read this book as a result of the donation of free books for deployed Soldiers. If you ever get the opportunity to donate books to this cause, it's a great program that actually benefits Soldiers & is greatly appreciated. I have not paid for a book since I deployed & never lack for new material to read.

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Great new discovery.

White is such a great new discovery for crime fiction. Everglades was excellent read, but this one is perhaps my favorite of the year. Having not spent any time in Florida, Smith paints such a vivid and colorful picture. ANd the details of Gulf weather and currents is like an advanced class. SMith is very authentic. We have Burke for Louisiana, Lescroart for San Francisco, Connelly for Los Angeles, McGaritty for New Mexico....and now White for Florida.

In this novel, a close friend and employee of Ford has been lost at sea. One of the three people on the boat with her was rescued, and provides an account of what happened, but no matter how hard the Coast Guard looks, the other three companions aren't found. When Ford is approached by the survivor, and told that there was a boat that perhaps picked up the other survivors, he uses his connections with people in the government to investigate, and dives into an adventure to rescue his friend.

I enjoyed this book, and especially enjoy the way the author makes things interesting and suspenseful without having a blazing shootout every thirty pages (though those are fun, too). Ford is almost disdainful of guns, and those who use them, but not stupid enough to walk into a gunfight carrying a knife or something. There's also a nice subplot involving an environmentalist vs. fisherman battle that sounds so real and familiar that it must either be true or based on truth. I really enjoyed this book.

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Excellent series

I started this series with Shark River, but the order you read them doesn't really matter. They're all well written and you can count on a solid plot.


reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4



Randy Wayne White's Doc Ford stories continue to grow in audience and acclaim-"We'll always drop anything to read a new White novel, and be glad we did" (The Denver Post)-but in Twelve Mile Limit, he has written his most powerful novel of all.

On a Friday in early November, four people head out from the west coast of Florida to dive a deep-water wreck fifty-six miles offshore. Two days later, one of them is found alive, standing atop a 160-foot light tower in the Gulf of Mexico, naked and waving her wetsuit. But the other three appear to have been swept off the edge of the earth. One diver is Ford's friend, Janet Mueller.

It is then that the rumors begin-whispers of everything from fraud to smuggling to murder. To clear Janet's name, Ford knows that he must discover what really happened that night, way out on the Gulf Stream. The answer that he eventually does find is something both less and much more than the whispers, the result of a quest that will take him halfway around the world and very nearly kill him. It is a truth that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Filled with passion, rich atmosphere, and some of the best suspense characters anywhere in fiction, Twelve Mile Limit is a brilliant piece of storytelling.

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