Randy Wayne White

The world's shark population is in trouble for a sad, simple reason: shark fin soup. And although it's illegal, poachers have been targeting Florida's biannual migration of blacktip sharks. Marine biologist Doc Ford needs some assistance protecting the sharks and enlists the help of three kids, Luke, Marta, and Sabina. Together they form Sharks, Inc. and are given an important assignment: to set out each day on their small fishing boat in hopes of...

Trouble is brewing at a Florida trailer park populated by illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America: the park's manager, a steroid freak who dabbles in snuff movies, draws his expendable talent from the immigrant population, but he's managed to offend a drug lord, who isn't pleased that his female customers are turning up dead. Matters are further complicated when an adolescent girl, Tula, rumored to possess mystical ability, sees the manager...

Both Doc Ford and his friend Tomlinson have buried secrets. Now one of those secrets is about to come alive with a vengeance. While trying to solve one of Florida's most profound secrets, Doc Ford is the target of a murder attempt by someone who wants to make it look like an accident. Or is the target actually Tomlinson? Whatever the answer, the liveaboards and fishing guides at Dinkin's Bay on Sanibel Island are becoming increasingly nervous and...

"When Doc Ford saves from assassination a controversial former president of the United States who is staying on an island off Florida's west coast, he has no idea what he's just let himself in for. Kal Wilson knows that he has only a short time to live, and he has a full agenda. Just months ago, his wife was killed in a plane crash while carrying medical supplies to Nicaragua - a tragic accident, everyone agreed. Except Wilson is sure it was no accident,...

The skeletons in Doc Ford's closet are on the loose. The marine biologist's former career as an operative in a covert wing of the CIA has a way of breaking in on his quiet life gathering specimens on Florida's Gulf Coast, but this time it's a full-frontal assault. Doc and his hippie pal Tomlinson (his closet isn't skeleton-free either) are enjoying a working vacation on Guava Key when Doc stumbles on a kidnapping-in-progress.

Two low-life ex-cons, King and Perry, are on the lam after killing a family of five in a burglary. They end up in Doc's neck of the woods, or rather his neck of the swamp, in central Florida. Doc; his boat-bum hipster pal, Tomlinson; troubled Indian teen Will Chaser, and Arlis Futch, a crusty old fisherman, have arrived at a small lake, which they intend to search for Batista's treasure plane, which disappeared in 1958 while flying the ex-dictator's...

Not AR rated "It started when Doc Ford got the call from his old friend Frieda Matthews - her reclusive biologist brother Jobe wasn't answering the phone. Could Doc check on him? Ford can't think of a reason not to, but soon he will think of a hundred. Not only will it be one of the worst scenes he has ever encountered, but the consequences of that visit will draw him into the heart of a nightmare. A catastrophe is coming to Florida, and just maybe...

Meeting a former lover whose husband has disappeared and been pronounced dead, Doc Ford investigates the woman's suspicions of foul play and finds himself deep in the Everglades.

Now in its eleventh episode, White's Doc Ford series, starring Sanibel Island marine biologist and veteran special-ops agent Doc Ford, can always be counted on for an entertaining mix of character interplay and straight-ahead action adventure. This time the dial shifts a bit toward the character side of the scale, as Ford revisits various people and issues from his not-quite-past life as a covert operative. The catalyst for all this stock-taking is...

Sneaking an underwater look at a notorious Russian black marketeer's fancy yacht, Doc Ford emerges to discover that the marketeer's private island has been taken over by environmental extremists who threaten to kill a hostage every hour until their demands are met.