Taking Care of Friends

What would you do for a friend?

Surely, minor stuff: give rides, watch the house for a weekend, grab the mail. You’d offer your sofa, or lunch when times are tough, you’d open your wallet to tide them over, and lend moral support. They’d do the same for you because that’s what friends are for, but in the new novel “Tomlinson’s Wake” by Randy Wayne White, a fast favor could be deadly.

His relief was large but tempered.

The hurricane was now a terrible history. One of the marina’s citizens had been laid to rest and the area’s clean-up had begun. Still, Marion “Doc” Ford couldn’t stop working until his best friend, Tomlinson, was back, safe in Sanibel, Florida.

Getting him there was going to be easier said than done.

Tomlinson, a “Zen Buddhist hipster,” had been living on his boat but it had crashed just off the Mosquito Coast during the storm, leaving Tomlinson with a nasty head injury. Doc found him in a jungle shelter, ranting about visions and dying, swearing that a one-armed boy-King saved his life, and something about a Shaman. And then Tomlinson disappeared again, leaving Ford to find and recover the wrecked boat.

On his friend’s trail a second time, Ford stumbled on a group of men with nets, busy capturing wild macaws for smuggling. But that wasn’t the bigger concern: the smuggling operation was thwarted by a one-armed twelve-year-old, the leader of a handful of children, escapees from a human trafficking scheme.

The kid didn’t trust Ford – or anyone, for that matter – but he was a boy in over his head: along with the trafficking of children and the smuggling of birds, guns, cocaine and other drugs were involved. One of them was a powdered substance that caused zombie-like mental haze and unwavering obedience.

Victims were compelled to do everything they were instructed to do.

Including murder.

New to the Doc Ford books, and eager for a new obsession? You’ll find it here eventually, but first, go back to an earlier volume in this series and start there. This book isn’t a good launching point; even for fans of author Randy Wayne White’s novels, it’s a mess of confusion for a very long time. Heavy sigh.

Presuming that readers are up-to-speed, “Tomlinson’s Wake” begins by picking up where last year’s novel ended, with the aftermath of a hurricane. It’s abrupt, almost literally opening mid-thought, then proceeding through incohesiveness for many, many pages. That ends up being an actual feature of the story but it’s not generally a very pleasant one. Seriously: it’s too much, too fast, too soon – but the good news is that the tale eventually tames itself and becomes clear enough that you can ultimately find and enjoy the tense plot line. Thankfully, it becomes fast-paced and pulse-pounding, just what you want in a thriller.

Another cliffhanger? Yes, please, but let this book be your warning to stay up to date on the plot for next time. Patience, patience, read “Tomlinson’s Wake” and then pass it to a like-minded friend.