Doc Ford Books in Order
Part ofRandy Wayne White Books in OrderExplore the Doc Ford series by Randy Wayne White with books in order, plot summaries, series background and tips on the best place to start these Florida thrillers.
Last updated: December 26, 2025
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Publication Order
28 books
Tomlinson's Wake
by Randy Wayne White
2025
When Tomlinson's sailboat shatters on a Honduran reef, he swears he died and was briefly revived by a runaway boy descended from the last Mayan king. As corrupt officials hunt the child and a massive earthquake tears Mesoamerica apart, Doc Ford races jungle trails and shattered cities to save his friend and the young heir.
One Deadly Eye
by Randy Wayne White
2024
After a deadly hurricane batters Florida's Gulf Coast, Doc Ford faces chaos both natural and man made. A vanished Russian diplomat, brutal gangsters who exploit the storm to loot and kill, and a serial killer known as the Vulture Monk force him to fight for Hannah, their child, and Dinkin's Bay itself.
Salt River
by Randy Wayne White
2020
When human remains wash up near Dinkin's Bay, old secrets from Tomlinson's past and Doc Ford's circle rise with them. The investigation into a long ago crime forces Ford to confront what friendship, forgiveness, and justice really mean in a small community that has seen too much.
Caribbean Rim
by Randy Wayne White
2018
Asked to keep an eye on a risky salvage operation in the Caribbean, Doc Ford finds himself competing with ruthless treasure hunters and shadowy officials. Sunken cargo, aging weapons, and fragile reefs all become pieces in a race where the real prize is staying alive.
Mangrove Lightning
by Randy Wayne White
2017
A legendary Keys guide comes to Doc Ford convinced his family is cursed by a 1920s mass murder tied to an isolated lake. As Ford and Tomlinson investigate a string of recent attacks from Key Largo to north Florida, they encounter a present day killer who may be using that old horror as a blueprint.
Deep Blue
by Randy Wayne White
2016
Someone has marked Doc Ford for elimination, using modern surveillance, cyber attacks, and carefully staged strikes to dismantle his life. To survive, he must identify a faceless enemy, untangle an international plot, and decide how much of his old covert self he is willing to unleash.
Cuba Straits
by Randy Wayne White
2015
When illicit letters from Fidel Castro surface along with a mysterious baseball connection, Doc Ford is pulled into a storm of Cuban politics, smuggling, and personal history. To protect his friends, he has to walk a line between old loyalties and new betrayals across the Florida Straits.
Bone Deep
by Randy Wayne White
2014
A woman's disappearance and a deadly cave in at a phosphate mine draw Doc Ford into the murky trade in fossils and stolen bones. What begins as a search for answers turns into a fight against people who see Florida's ancient past as something to strip mine and sell.
Night Moves
by Randy Wayne White
2012
Strange lights in the night sky, a decades old plane crash, and a new murder in rural Florida all seem to be connected. As Doc Ford digs into local legends and buried secrets, he uncovers a plot that proves far more human and dangerous than any rumored visitation.
Chasing Midnight
by Randy Wayne White
2012
At an exclusive party on a private island, environmental extremists or hired killers seize control and threaten to execute a hostage every hour until their demands are met. Cut off from the outside world, Doc Ford must move in the dark and under water to stop a massacre before midnight.
Night Vision
by Randy Wayne White
2011
In a shabby trailer park locals call Little Guadalajara, a teenage girl witnesses a killing and vanishes into an underground world of migrant workers and coyotes. Doc Ford and Tomlinson search for her through a hidden landscape of fear, corruption, and people who exploit the powerless.
Deep Shadow
by Randy Wayne White
2010
A simple dive on a remote Florida lake goes horribly wrong when a cave collapses, trapping Tomlinson and a troubled teen far below the surface. Doc Ford reaches daylight to seek help, only to be held at gunpoint by escaped convicts who want him to raise a legendary, gold laden wreck.
Dead Silence
by Randy Wayne White
2009
After a Minnesota teenager is kidnapped in a bungled grab for a United States senator, Doc Ford is given a brutal ultimatum and only thirty six hours to act. The boy is not what his captors think, and Ford's rescue mission turns into a deadly chess game spanning Havana and the heartland.
Black Widow
by Randy Wayne White
2008
A brilliant young woman with a lethal gift keeps leaving dead men behind her, and Doc Ford is asked to find out why. His pursuit of the elusive widow draws him into a maze of espionage, obsession, and revenge that stretches far beyond Florida's borders.
Hunter's Moon
by Randy Wayne White
2007
A weekend at a high end hunting lodge is supposed to be a break for Doc Ford and friends. When a political assassination shatters the illusion of safety, Ford finds himself tracking a professional killer through woods filled with armed men, where he may be the next trophy.
Dark Light
by Randy Wayne White
2006
After a massive hurricane reshapes the Gulf bottom, an elderly woman asks Doc Ford to find the wreck of the boat that vanished with her lover during a clandestine World War Two rendezvous. The search uncovers long buried secrets, dangerous treasure, and people willing to kill to keep the past hidden.
Dead of Night
by Randy Wayne White
2005
A series of grotesque deaths in rural Florida seems tied to a secretive research project and something that strikes only after dark. As panic spreads, Doc Ford races to uncover who is weaponizing nature and how to stop a predator no one fully understands.
Tampa Burn
by Randy Wayne White
2004
Doc Ford's past comes roaring back when the son he never knew is abducted by a vengeful ex dictator. To get the boy back, Ford must outthink a sadistic arsonist and walk a fine line between his old life as an assassin and the man he wants to be.
Everglades
by Randy Wayne White
2003
An old flame arrives at Dinkin's Bay convinced her real estate mogul husband, officially lost at sea, is still alive. Tracking the truth leads Doc Ford deep into the Everglades and into the orbit of a charismatic cult leader whose plan could destroy both people and fragile wetlands.
Twelve Mile Limit
by Randy Wayne White
2002
A pleasure trip offshore ends in disaster when a storm scatters a group of divers and only one makes it back alive. Hired to learn what really happened, Doc Ford must sift truth from lies, following a trail of greed and betrayal far beyond the twelve mile limit.
Shark River
by Randy Wayne White
2001
On a working vacation in the Keys, Doc Ford notices two women whose jogging route makes them easy targets for a predator. When violence erupts, he is drawn into a tangled story of revenge, family secrets, and ruthless criminals who do not realize how dangerous their new opponent is.
Ten Thousand Islands
by Randy Wayne White
2000
Years after a teenager found an ancient gold medallion on Florida's Gulf Coast and later died, her mother is being stalked and the girl's grave has been disturbed. Doc Ford's search for the missing medallion leads him into a world of looted artifacts, cult like rituals, and modern corruption.
The Mangrove Coast
by Randy Wayne White
1998
An old friend disappears after tangling with powerful people, and Doc Ford reluctantly agrees to help find her. The search pulls him from Florida's mangroves to distant waters, where revenge, stolen money, and a ruthless enemy leave him fighting to keep anyone from making it home.
North of Havana
by Randy Wayne White
1997
An emergency call from his friend Tomlinson and a long lost lover pulls Doc Ford into Cuba, where his past as an anti Castro operative still casts a shadow. To save them, he has to navigate spies, treasure hunters, and old grudges in Havana's dangerous streets and harbors.
Captiva
by Randy Wayne White
1996
A bitter fight between commercial netters and sport fishermen turns deadly along Florida's coast, and Doc Ford can no longer stay neutral. When arson and murder ignite the conflict, he finds himself chasing the money and politics behind a local feud that has become a private war.
The Man Who Invented Florida
by Randy Wayne White
1993
Doc Ford's irritable uncle Tucker claims to have found the Fountain of Youth on his Everglades land just as three men vanish in the nearby park. As the media and authorities close in, Doc must untangle family legends, real estate schemes, and murder in the backcountry.
The Heat Islands
by Randy Wayne White
1992
When Doc Ford discovers the body of a despised marina owner floating off Sanibel, a gentle fishing guide friend is blamed. To clear him, Doc has to expose a crooked tarpon tournament, shady land deals, and a killer who knows the islands as well as he does.
Sanibel Flats
by Randy Wayne White
1990
Trying to live quietly as a marine biologist at Dinkin's Bay, former covert operative Doc Ford is dragged back into danger when an old friend begs him to help rescue his kidnapped son from a brutal regime in Central America.
Series background & context
Doc Ford is at the center of Randy Wayne White's longest running series, a marine biologist who keeps a small lab and stilt house tucked into Dinkin's Bay on Sanibel Island. On paper he studies sea life for a living. Off the books he carries a past as a covert government operative that refuses to stay buried.
The books use the marina as a kind of beachhead. Charter captains, fishing guides, waitresses, trust fund dropouts, wandering philosophers and snowbirds drift through, and a few of them become fixtures. Tomlinson, the aging hippie with a sailboat and a sharp mind, is Ford's best friend and foil, always ready with a half serious spiritual theory or a terrible idea that somehow moves the plot. That small community gives the series its humor and heart.
Trouble usually arrives from outside. A missing friend, a body that surfaces where it should not, a stranger with a story that makes no sense, all of these have a way of nudging Ford back toward the skills he used when he worked in the shadows. His background as a former intelligence asset and field operator, complete with a government file and old enemies, lets the books step easily from a quiet bayfront bar into Cuban politics, Caribbean smuggling routes, or black operations gone wrong.
At the same time the series is rooted in place. The early novels stay close to the mangrove channels, barrier islands, and backcountry of Southwest Florida, where land deals, poaching, cult leaders, and drug runners collide with delicate habitats. Later books follow Ford to Havana, Central America, and far offshore, but the Gulf Coast tides and weather are never far from view. White folds in real natural history, from tarpon and sharks to ancient shell mounds, without slowing the pace.
Across the novels readers see Ford wrestle with his own contradictions. He wants a quiet life collecting specimens and tending his home, yet he is very good at violence and deception. His loyalty to friends like Tomlinson, and to people who cannot defend themselves, keeps dragging him back into risk. Long running story threads about past loves, old missions and the cost of secrecy surface and resurface as the series moves on.
For new readers, starting at the beginning with Sanibel Flats and moving forward lets you watch Dinkin's Bay evolve and relationships deepen. The books can also be read out of order, since each mystery stands on its own, but taken together they create a layered portrait of Florida's Gulf Coast and of a man who is never as retired as he pretends to be.
Edited by
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