Ten Thousand Islands
Read Ten Thousand Islands Online
Authors: Randy Wayne White
“This latest entry in the Doc Ford series is one of the strongest … A taut story of modern greed and violence. Plenty of great twists … make this one of the most satisfying thrillers in recent memory.”
—
Chicago Tribune
“We can’t think of a better way to spend a summer afternoon than curled up with this book … A wild, dangerous adventure … Breathless action.”
—
The Denver Post
“A powerful look at Florida’s heart of darkness … A rapid-fire tale that will snare readers like a treble hook … No one around today writes as well about Florida … Rough-edged and violent … One of the best in a series that is as good as anything being written today.”
—
The Tampa Tribune
“When it comes to Florida, White is positively lyrical … Marvelous description, good plotting, and plenty of action.”
—
The Florida Times-Union
“No one evokes life along the sultry mangrove coast of Southwest Florida as perfectly … White’s best book yet.”
—
Albuquerque Tribune
“White … can be counted on to produce the real goods … And although he’s subtle about the atmospherics, when White cranks up the momentum, he tosses in everything.”
—
The Palm Beach Post
“Fast-paced … This is
Key Largo
meets
Wild Kingdom
.”
—
The News and Observer
(Raleigh, N.C.)
“White writes with an obvious knowledge and love of Florida’s west coast, an intimacy made possible only by living here, and one which helps make the book a pleasant summer escape.”
—
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
“Maintains an edgy sense of adventure … White’s strong sense of place and people keep us wanting to return to Florida’s west coast.”
—
The Times Union
(Albany, N.Y.)
Praise for
THE MANGROVE COAST
“Captivating.”
—
Chicago Tribune
“White reels in readers with another effective combination of atmosphere and action.”
—
The Orlando Sentinel
“[White] seems more than a match for any of Florida’s fictioneers.”
—
Los Angeles Times
“Action-packed and skillfully plotted … a pleasure to read.”
—
The Dallas Morning News
“Ford fans can count on a literate work that transcends the genre. This is an intelligent, thoughtful novel about loss, the past and relationships by one of the nation’s finest writers. It’s also a first-rate thriller.”
—
The Tampa Tribune
“Doc’s fans may balk at this intrusion of 1990’s technology, but overall
The Mangrove Coast
provides pretty much everything else you would expect including a terrific finale. White is a master of the finishing touch.”
—
The Miami Herald
Praise for
CAPTIVA
“A Doc Ford novel has more slick moves than a snake in the mangroves.”
—Carl Hiaasen
“
Captiva
is … packed with finely drawn characters, relevant social issues, superb plotting and an effortless writing style. We’ll drop anything we’re doing to read a new Randy Wayne White book and be glad we did.”
—
The Denver Post
“One of the more dramatic finales in mystery fiction. White tells one whale of a story.”
—
The Miami Herald
“An enticing brew of hard-drinking, thick-skulled anglers, plodding detectives, and plotting marina bosses. White knows a thing or two about friendship, love, and honor.”
—
Entertainment Weekly
“Edginess is what sets White’s work apart from the rest of the pack … a prickly, enigmatic hero … ambience, compelling characters and straightforward suspense.”
—
San Francisco Chronicle
“An inventive story … White knows how to build a plot … with touches John D. MacDonald would have appreciated.”
—
Playboy
“This is a top-shelf thriller written with poetic style and vision. Don’t miss it.”
—
Booklist
Praise for the novels of Randy Wayne White
“Randy Wayne White and his Doc Ford join my list of must-reads. It is no small matter when I assert that White is getting pretty darn close to joining Carl Hiaasen and John D. MacDonald as writers synonymous with serious Florida issues and engaging characters.”
—
Chicago Tribune
“White is a wildly inventive storyteller whose witty, off-beat novels come packed with pleasure.”
—
The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Enough twists to satisfy any hard-boiled but intelligent detective fan.”
—
The Dallas Morning News
“One of the hottest new writers on the scene.”
—
Library Journal
“Great action scenes, terrific atmosphere, and a full-bodied hero add up to a pleasure.”
—
Booklist
“Packed with finely drawn characters, relevant social issues, superb plotting and an effortless writing style…. The best new writer since Carl Hiaasen.”
—
The Denver Post
“White is the rightful heir to joining John D. MacDonald, Carl Hiaasen, James Hall, Geoffrey Norman…. His precise prose is as fresh and pungent as a salty breeze.”
—
The Tampa Tribune-Times
TEN
THOUSAND
ISLANDS
TITLES BY RANDY WAYNE WHITE
| Sanibel Flats | Everglades |
| The Heat Islands | Tampa Burn |
| The Man Who Invented Florida | Dead of Night |
| Captiva | Dark Light |
| North of Havana | Hunter’s Moon |
| The Mangrove Coast | Black Widow |
| Ten Thousand Islands | Dead Silence |
| Shark River | Deep Shadow |
| Twelve Mile Limit | Night Vision |
N
ONFICTION
Batfishing in the Rainforest
The Sharks of Lake Nicaragua
Last Flight Out
An American Traveler
Tarpon Fishing in Mexico and Florida
(An Introduction)
Randy Wayne White’s Gulf Coast Cookbook
(with Carlene Fredericka Brennen)
Randy Wayne White’s Ultimate Tarpon Book
F
ICTION AS
R
ANDY
S
TRIKER
Key West Connection
The Deep Six
Cuban Death-Lift
The Deadlier Sex
Assassin’s Shadow
Everglades Assault
Grand Cayman Slam
TEN
THOUSAND
ISLANDS
RANDY WAYNE WHITE
BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL. England
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Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS
A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the Putnam Berkley Group, Inc.
PRINTING HISTORY
G. P. Putnam’s Sons hardcover edition / 2000
Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / June 2001
Berkley mass-market edition / August 2005
Copyright © 2000 by Randy Wayne White.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-64010-4
BERKLEY
®
Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
20 19
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
For Renee
These are the clouds about the fallen sun,
The majesty that shuts his burning eye
.
—W. B. Y
EATS
They (the Calusa) said to me that their forbears had lived under this law from the beginning of time and that they also wanted to live under it, that I should leave them, that they did not want to listen to me.
—F
ATHER
J
UAN
R
OGEL
, M
ISSIONARY TO
F
LORIDA
, 1567
T
he gold medallion as described in this novel is real, but the characters have absolutely no relationship in fact or fancy to the good people who suffered the tragedy associated with the medallion’s discovery.
This much is true: in 1969, on an island off Florida’s Gulf coast, a fourteen-year-old boy was sifting for Indian artifacts when he found human bones. Among the bones were many Spanish glass beads and a small, oddly designed pendant made of gold. On the face of the pendant were etched cryptic designs.