CAPTIVA: A Doc Ford Title

N.Y.: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1996. First edition with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. It' seems to be one of the few unsigned copies, LOL! "The victim of an explosion at Dinkin's Bay Marina on Sanibel Island, commercial fisherman Jimmy Darroux mumbles, "Take care of Hannah" before he dies. Aging hippie Tomlinson, to whom Jimmy's words were addressed, enlists the aid of his best pal, Doc Ford, a former government agent turned seaside biologist. Burdened by a disconcerting tendency to see both sides of an issue, Doc recognizes that Jimmy's death is somehow tied to the friction between commercial and sport fishermen. He agrees to help find the mysterious Hannah, but his real motive is to derail a confrontation that could see many of his friends hurt. And hurt they are when the violence escalates. White's fourth Doc Ford novel gathers momentum slowly--its pace is not unlike the hypnotic rhythm of the surf--until the last 100 pages or so, when all hell breaks loose. Characters we have grown fond of meet bad ends, a truly evil villain is exposed, and Ford drops his intellectual guise: he's a born predator, and he exacts a horrible but just revenge. This is a top-shelf thriller written with poetic style and vision. Don't miss it.: -- Booklist. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Book.