Deep Blue

White’s fast-paced 23rd Doc Ford novel (after 2015’s Cuba Straits) pits the Florida wet work specialist against David Abdel Cashmere, a Chicagoan turned terrorist who features as the executioner of three hostages in several videos. Ford travels to the Yucatan, where his target is staying at a seaside resort, but things don’t go as planned. He finds his facilitator, known only as K.A.T., with one of Cashmere’s supposed victims, Winslow Shepherd, in an eighth-floor hotel room. When Ford confronts the pair, they both fall from the room’s balcony, and Ford is forced to flee back home to Sanibel Island, Fla. Cutting-edge drones appear on the island, which are controlled, he soon discovers, by Winslow’s son, Julian (aka the Black Knight of the Internet). Ford rallies his allies, chief among them Tomlinson, his “boat-bum hipster” sidekick with ESP powers, and Brazilian Vargas Diemer, a wealthy jet-setter of questionable loyalty. Lively characters, enough action for three summer blockbusters, and plenty of plot twists make this a great addition to the bestselling series. [em]Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (Mar.) [/em]