Dead of Night

From Booklist
Ecoterrorism takes a new and incredibly grotesque shape in White's latest Doc Ford thriller. Ford, the mild-mannered marine biologist and reluctant operative for an under-the-radar offshoot of the CIA, agrees to check up on a friend's biologist brother and stumbles into a scene of unimagined horror--the biologist has been eaten from within by a ravenous species of parasite. Soon the errand has morphed into a deep-cover assignment to track down the rogue scientist whose macabre plan to infiltrate Florida's intercoastal waterway with parasites and rare poisonous snakes is on the verge of being realized. White effectively plays the horrific but shockingly realistic thriller plot against the ongoing interpersonal drama in Ford's life: his shaky relationship with his pregnant girlfriend and his equally complex friendship with the mercurial ex--hippie Tomlinson, now struggling with success as an Internet spiritual adviser. Thankfully, the Doc Ford series has grown from genre favorite to crossover success without losing its amiable, Margaritaville spirit. That's no easy trick when rare parasites are invading your body from the most private of entry points. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Miami Herald, March 20, 2005
...a terrific story that's part mystery, part documentary and part cautionary tale.

Book Description
Later, my conscience would play the inevitable game of "What if . . ." What if I had stopped by Jobe's home on Friday morning instead of Sunday night? What if I hadn't interrupted the two people who were alternately interrogating and beating him? Would he have lived? Or would he have died? And what would have happened then?

It started when Doc Ford got a call from his old friend Frieda Matthews; her reclusive biologist brother, Jobe, wasn't answering the phone-could Doc check up 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, the consequences will draw him into the heart of a nightmare. A catastrophe is coming to Florida, and just maybe there is something Ford can do about it-but he doesn't know how or where or when . . . or even if he is already too late.

Brimming with the remarkable prose and rich atmosphere that have won White so many fans already, and featuring some of the best characters in suspense fiction today, Dead of Night is White's biggest thriller yet.

About the Author
Randy Wayne White is the author of eleven Doc Ford novels and four collections of nonfiction writing.


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This time out, Doc Ford must cope with a wicked plot to kill off practically everybody. Marion "Doc" Ford, the marine biologist with the brain of a nerd and the heart of Rambo, begins his 12th (Tampa Burn, 2004, etc.) reluctantly. Frieda Matthews, a friend of long standing, asks Doc to check on her "identical twin" brother, reclusive world-class biologist Jobe Applebee, who's been even more reclusive than usual. To Doc, the invasion of another's privacy amounts to venial sin, yet Frieda has never been one to fret over nothing. So Doc checks-too late, as it turns out. Bad guys have gotten at poor Jobe in indescribable ways. Wherefore? Since Jobe can't tell him-and soon Frieda can't either-Doc must begin his investigation from square one. Almost at once he learns disquieting truths about the life cycle of the Guinea worm and the terrible things that can happen when parasites are pressed to serve as weapons of mass destruction. Are fanatical ecoterrorists at work here? Or something older, like a murderously greedy wolf in another wolf's clothing?Not much story, but Doc's fans are used to that. What might bother a few, though, is a certain lack of engagement, as if even Doc can't take the goings-on all that seriously. First printing of 75,000; author tour


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