Gone (A Hannah Smith Novel)
White, author of the best-selling Doc Ford novels, debuts a new series starring fishing guide Hannah Smith, the latest in several generations of strong, no-nonsense Florida women who live life on their own terms. Hannah, who has inherited a PI agency from her uncle, feels her ancestors’ rugged individualism in her bones but has been unable to let it rise to the surface—until she agrees to help a fishing client by searching for his missing niece. The case gives her the chance she needs to find her game, tracking and ultimately confronting a sociopath who specializes in seducing rich, timid women and divesting them of their fortunes before tossing them aside, dead or barely living. Hannah, a perplexing mix of timidity and strength, must confront multiple personal demons in the course of the tale, and she does so with grace and savvy. With its Gulf Coast setting and watery landscape, this is less a new series for White than it is the introduction of a new character to Doc Ford’s world, but that’s all good for the author’s fans, who will welcome another seaworthy star, whether she works solo or in tandem with Ford. --Bill Ott