"Compelling and hauntingly refreshing"
Dr. Marion Ford lives in a stilt house on Dinkin's Bay on
Sanibel Island off the west coast of Florida, which is also
home base for his business, supplying marine specimens to
schools and research facilities. On the surface, he looks
like a nerdy scientist but for years he was a deep cover
spy. The guilt and shame he feels for those years is
spiraling him into a deep depression, just when a good
friend apples to him for help. Newly windowed Sally Minster comes to Doc Ford for help
because someone broke into her apartment and has stalked
her since her husband died. Doc finds out that the man who
followed her is a private investigator who wants to make
sure that Sally's husband is really dead. Before he died
he became deeply involved with the International Church of
Ashram Meditation Inc., run by a con man named Shia who
will do anything necessary to get what he wants. When
Sally is kidnapped and the man guarding her is found
murdered, Doc Ford must go into the heart of the guru's
empires for answers that will lead him to Sally. Randy Wayne White is a creative genus who writes stories
that are seductively compelling and hauntingly refreshing.
The protagonist finally comes to terms with the violence
that is a part of him and in doing so is able to help those
he cares about as well as appoint himself the avenger to
those who need to be taught a lesson. After reading
EVERGLADES, one will come to appreciate just how fragile
that ecosystem is and find pleasure in the complex and
intricate plot. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted May 12, 2003
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Doc Ford returns to his stilt house on Dinkin's Bay to find
an old friend and one-time lover waiting for him. Her real-
estate developer husband has disappeared and been
pronounced dead, and she's sure there's worse to follow-and
she's right. Following the trail, Ford ends up deep in the
Everglades, at the gates of a community presided over by a
man named Bhagwan Shiva (formerly Jerry Singh). Shiva is
big business, but that business has been a little shaky
lately, and so he's come up with a scheme to enhance both
his cash and his power. Of course, there's the possibility
that some people could get hurt and the Everglades itself
damaged, but Shiva smells a killing. And if that should turn out to be literally, as well as
figuratively, true . . . well, that's just too damned bad. Replete with passion and rich, pungent prose and some of
the best suspense characters anywhere in fiction,
Everglades is the finest work yet from an extraordinary
talent.
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