Deceived

12, 338, [2] pages. Endpaper map. Author's Note. Cover has slight wear and soiling. Autographed copy sticker on the front of the DJ. Signed by the author on the endpaper. Randy Wayne White (born 1950) is an American writer of crime fiction and non-fiction adventure tales. He has written New York Times best-selling novels and has received awards for his fiction and a television documentary. He is best known for his series of crime novels featuring the retired NSA agent Doc Ford, a marine biologist living on the Gulf Coast of southern Florida. White has contributed material on a variety of topics to numerous magazines and has lectured across the United States. A resident of Southwest Florida since 1972, he lives on Sanibel Island, where he is active in South Florida civic affairs and owns the restaurant Doc Ford's Sanibel Rum Bar & Grill. Marion "Doc" Ford, a marine biologist and ex-NSA agent, makes his home on the scenic west coast of Florida--but leaving his former dangerous life behind, where he protected his country by all means necessary, isn't that easy. Old friends asking for favors, dead bodies washing up on Dinkins Bay, diving lessons going horribly wrong . the shadowy world of Southwest Florida keeps putting Doc Ford in its crosshairs. This thrilling ongoing series by beloved Floridian author Randy Wayne White, which began with Sanibel Flats, has become something of a literary institution, with its perennial bestsellers. Hannah Smith returns in the stunning new adventure in the New York Times-bestselling series from the author of the Doc Ford novels. A twenty-year-old unsolved murder from Florida's pothauling days gets Hannah Smith's attention, but so does a more immediate problem. A private museum devoted solely to the state's earliest settlers and pioneers has been announced, and many of Hannah's friends and neighbors in Sulfur Wells are being pressured to make contributions. The problem is, the whole thing is a scam, and when Hannah sets out to uncover whoever's behind it, she discovers that things are even worse than she thought. The museum scam is a front for a real estate power play, her entire village is in danger of being wiped out-and the forces behind it have no intention of letting anything, or anyone, stand in their way. Derived from a Kirkus review: Her second case finds Sanibel PI Hannah Smith just as attractive, just as game. You know your day isn't off to a good start when a giant tarpon lands on the deck of your fishing boat and sweeps your two latest clients into the shark-infested waters. But even after Hannah fishes out Delmont Chatham and Joel Ransler, things continue to go wrong. Her difficult mother, Loretta, is even more fretful than usual because she hasn't heard from her old friend and bingo partner Rosanna "Pinky" Helms. Loretta's new neighbor, Dr. Alice Candor, seems determined to harass both Loretta and Hannah, maybe even to the point of getting Loretta's house condemned and Loretta committed. And since Dr. Candor and her ineffectual CPA husband, Raymond, have already pled guilty to a slew of felonies concerning their house-of-cards health care empire back in Ohio, her enmity is serious business. There are bright spots along the way. Ransler, unmasked as a special prosecutor for neighboring Senatee County, hires the inexperienced Hannah, who inherited her private eye's license from her uncle Jake, to investigate Fisherfolk, a charitable organization so patently bogus that Pinky's no-account children, Mica and Crystal, are listed as directors along with Levi Thurloe, the mentally challenged giant Hannah protected from bullying when they were in school together. And Hannah enjoys a few sweet nights with longtime series hero Doc Marion Ford before he takes off for Venezuela and leaves her with only Deputy Liberty Tupplemeyer for help. The two strong women bond affectingly, they're great shakes as detectives. Good scenes and good dialogue.…