Gone

July 30, 2012
In this disappointing thriller, bestseller White (Chasing Midnight and 18 other Doc Ford novels) introduces Hannah Smith, the fourth in a line of women of the same name, all denizens of Florida’s Gulf Coast. When a wealthy client of Hannah’s fishing-guide business asks her to find his missing 30-year-old niece, Olivia Seasons, Hannah dusts off the investigative skills she developed working with her late PI uncle. Aided by gay friend Nathan Pace, she probes alcoholic socialites and secret sex cruises on the hunt for Ricky Meeks, the sadistic grifter last seen with Olivia. Oddly girlish and unprofessional, effusively discussed in terms of her beauty, clothing, and bra size, Hannah never rings true as a strong woman, while the tepid mystery gives neither her savvy nor White’s storytelling much chance to shine. Cameo appearances by Doc Ford—Hannah’s new love interest—and his sidekick, Tomlinson, as well as an action sequence set in the Ten Thousand Islands, offer welcome reminders of the author’s true gifts.

August 15, 2012
After 19 manly adventures starring marine biologist Marion "Doc" Ford, (Chasing Midnight, 2012, etc.), White introduces a heroine who's just as stubborn and capable and even more appealing. All that Olivia Tatum Seasons has to do to inherit $90 million from her late father's estate is sign a few papers. Since she hasn't responded to phone calls asking her to do so, and her own fortnightly calls to check in with her executor's office have been telegraphic, her uncle, Lawrence Seasons, suspects that her disappearance from the Ten Thousand Islands wasn't entirely under her own control. He wants Hannah Smith to track down his niece. Hannah's main qualification for the job seems to be the unflappable way she brought in her fishing boat from a sudden storm that threatened her clients, Seasons and his lawyer, Martha Calder-Shaun. No sooner has Hannah taken on the job, however, than new qualifications emerge. She's sensitive and well-enough connected to extract some very personal information from local landowner Elka Whitney, savvy enough to zero in on Ms. Whitney's handyman/boy toy, Ricky Meeks, as Olivia's likeliest companion, and beautiful enough to snag an interview to be first mate of the Sybarite, a cruise ship that offers its well-heeled patrons an exceptional level of, um, personal service. Just as every step brings Hannah closer to Ricky and presumably Olivia, every step provokes further reflections and flashbacks that flesh out Hannah's personality. The only ingredients missing are suspense and surprise: Hannah's quest moves so deliberately that she might as well be swimming underwater, which she could no doubt do perfectly. Now that big-boned Hannah, whom Doc Ford aptly describes as "a man's woman," has established her voice and her credentials, here's hoping she's back next time with a meatier case.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2012

White takes a break from his New York Times best-selling Doc Ford books to launch a new series starring Hannah Smith, one tough cookie first seen as a secondary character in White's Captiva. Here, Smith is asked to find a missing girl. Never fear, White keeps us in Florida.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2012
White, author of the best-selling Doc Ford novels, debuts a new series starring fishing guide Hannah Smith, the latest in several generations of strong, no-nonsense Florida women who live life on their own terms. Hannah, who has inherited a PI agency from her uncle, feels her ancestors' rugged individualism in her bones but has been unable to let it rise to the surfaceuntil she agrees to help a fishing client by searching for his missing niece. The case gives her the chance she needs to find her game, tracking and ultimately confronting a sociopath who specializes in seducing rich, timid women and divesting them of their fortunes before tossing them aside, dead or barely living. Hannah, a perplexing mix of timidity and strength, must confront multiple personal demons in the course of the tale, and she does so with grace and savvy. With its Gulf Coast setting and watery landscape, this is less a new series for White than it is the introduction of a new character to Doc Ford's world, but that's all good for the author's fans, who will welcome another seaworthy star, whether she works solo or in tandem with Ford.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)