One Deadly Eye

by Randy Wayne White

From New York Times bestselling author Randy Wayne White, after the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in a century, Doc Ford must stop a gang of thieves—and worse—during the twelve hours of chaos that follow the passing of a storm’s eye.

A Russian diplomat disappears while Doc is tagging great white sharks in South Africa, and members of a criminal brotherhood, Bratva, don’t think it’s a coincidence. They track the biologist to Dinkin’s Bay Marina on the west coast of Florida, where Brotherhood mercenaries have already deployed, prepared to pillage and kill in the wake of an approaching hurricane.

No one, however, is prepared for a cataclysmic event that will forever change the island and leaves Doc to deal with escapees from Russia’s most dangerous prison, including a serial killer—the Vulture Monk—who has a taste for blood. His only ally is an enigmatic British inventor whose decision to ride out the storm might have more to do with revenge than protecting a priceless art collection.

Doc has a lot at stake—the lives of his fiancée, Hannah Smith, and their son, plus the fate of his hipster pal, Tomlinson, whose sailboat has disappeared in the Gulf of Mexico. The greatest threat of all, though, is a force that cannot be escaped—a Category Five hurricane that, minute by minute, melds sins of the past with Florida's precarious future.

• ISBN10: 0369747658
• ISBN13: 9780369747655
• Publish Date: 4 June 2024
• Publish Status: Forthcoming
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Hanover Square Press
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://harpercollins.com/products/one-deadly-eye-randy-wayne-white?variant=41105348132898

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

One Deadly Eye is the 27th (!!!) Doc Ford adventure thriller by Randy Wayne White. Released 4th June 2024 by Harlequin on their Hanover Square Press imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a very very well written thriller with an impressively palpable sense of dread throughout which the author ratchets up to a white-knuckle crescendo. The threats of a huge hurricane hitting his home area alongside trying to protect his family and friends from a vicious gang of paramilitary killers has Doc pressed to the limit.

Apart from saving his corner of the world from Eastern European thugs and assassins, he's got loads of personal troubles explaining to his fiance Hannah that he might just be a fixer and spy and *not* just a mild-mannered ecology minded professor of biology. 

It's very well researched and the author does a fantastic job of scenery and settings, with hair-raising descriptions of the wildness and brutality of a raging hurricane. 

Four and a half stars. This would be a good choice for fans of mystery thrillers, for public library acquisition, or for a binge/buddy read. Very high quality fiction.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Jeff Sexton]

Brutal And Effective Violence That Jack Reacher Would Be Proud Of. Admittedly I stepped into this book not realizing when I signed up for the blog tour that this was number 27 in a series, so there are likely elements to this tale that I completely missed out on.

 

That noted, the tale as told works within itself to tell a complete tale + a couple of open ended teasers (not really "cliffhangers" as at least one other reviewer described them) such that it *is* possible to enjoy this book for itself, but obviously if you are an "absolutely no spoilers of any minute kind" type of reader... eh, start all the way back at book 1 here. :)

 

As for the story told... I wasn't joking in the title of this review. I've read more graphic violence than this (hello, Code Alpha by Joseph Massucci and Without Remorse by Tom Clancy), but this is certainly up there. Hell, even the modern Mortal Kombat games with their ultra-realism and X-ray moves sometimes seem less graphic than some of the violence White gives us here. And yet the expected quippy banter is still present as well, providing just enough smiles to keep this from going to near slasher level action.

 

Set during a Cat 5 hurricane, some of the stuff described seems a bit implausible... but then, this is an action book, so meh, already suspending disbelief for the rest of the plot, might as well suspend it a bit more there. Otherwise, the hurricane doesn't provide much "atmosphere" to the book, but *does* provide quite a few set pieces for the action sequences to look that much cooler.  

 

Ultimately, this is one of those books that as long as you approach it as you would say WWE or the Fast and Furious franchise - ie, just go with the flow and enjoy the spectacle - it absolutely works. If you're looking for anything more serious than that, you're going to be disappointed.

 

Very much recommended.