Randy Wayne White survived Hurricane Ian. Now it's Doc Ford's turn in new book
The wind howled and the floodwaters crashed ashore like a raging river as Hurricane Ian ripped through Sanibel Island.
And the whole time, Randy Wayne White kept shooting video on his phone and taking notes.
The bestselling novelist didn't want to miss a thing.
"I told myself, if I'm going to ride this out, I'm going to pay special attention this time," says White, who had lived through many previous hurricanes, including a couple of close calls. "I wanted to get it down before it was gone. ... It was a historic event."
White and his wife survived Ian on Sept. 28, 2022, and then escaped their damaged Sanibel house with the help of their son and his Navy SEAL friend.
Only later did White start thinking about what he'd do with all those notes ― some written in a notebook, some typed into his phone and some just filed away in his brain.
Eventually, he had his answer: This would be his next Doc Ford book.
Of course.
Doc Ford's next adventure, 'One Deadly Eye'
The resulting novel, "One Deadly Eye," hits store shelves and online booksellers Tuesday, June 4. And White's new book tour ― his first since COVID-19 ― visits Southwest Florida that same week with stops in Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Punta Gorda and Sanibel Island.
The story involves a hurricane tearing through Sanibel Island, a serial killer called the Vulture Monk and an organized gang of Russian mercenaries looting millionaire's houses during the hurricane chaos.
It’s the 27th book in White's hit series about marine biologist/ex-NSA agent Marion “Doc” Ford. And White says it's the best thing he's ever written.
"This book, I thought, 'I'm gonna get this right,'" White says. "'I want it to be lyrical, literate ― maybe even literary ― and I want it to be clean.' And I came darn close, I think."
White says he looks forward to returning to Southwest Florida, both for the book tour and ― hopefully soon ― to move back into his Sanibel house.
"I adore the place, adore the people," he says.
He and his wife, singer-songwriter Wendy Webb, have been living in the Florida fishing village of Terra Ceia, near St. Petersburg, while their three-story Sanibel home is being repaired. The house ― built on stilts ― suffered major water damage during Ian.
"I’m coming back," White says. "It's been almost two years. The house will be liveable in probably a few weeks."
Why Randy Wayne White stayed home for Hurricane Ian
White says he got "a lot of crap" on social media about their decision to stay home during Hurricane Ian. But he didn't make it lightly.
He based the decision on Sanibel's history and also their previous experiences with hurricanes. He's seen a lot of them in Florida, going back decades.
Their former Pine Island house got a "direct hit" from Hurricane Charley in 2004, he says. "I didn't think anything could be worse than that hurricane. It was terrible. The house next to me imploded. The house across the street collapsed."
So when Hurricane Irma happened in 2017, they followed evacuation orders, packed up everything and drove inland to what they thought would be safe ground: A former gun club near Punta Gorda that White rents as a writing retreat.
But that didn't turn out so well for them, either. At the last minute, Irma turned and came right to their front door.
"The eye of the storm went right over us," White says. "We drove right into the freakin' hurricane."
Part of the club's roof came off, he says. And it took them two or three days to cut their way out of the place with chainsaws and tractors. Then authorities wouldn't allow them back on Sanibel Island anyway.
"That was a key experience," White says. "And (then there was) the idea of being trapped on I-75 driving north in a hurricane ― as many people were ― no gas stations, no hotel rooms between Homestead and Atlanta."
As an amateur historian, he says, he knew Sanibel hadn't flooded since 1926. So they weighed their options and ended up staying home on Sanibel during Ian.
"We rode it out," he says. "And it was by far, far worse than the hurricane of 2004."
Surviving Hurricane Ian on Sanibel Island
Sanibel Island wasn't even in the forecast cone when they decided to stay, White says. They got maybe 12 hours' notice that the storm had turned and would hit farther south. The eye ended up making landfall on Lee County's Cayo Costa, about 18 miles north of Sanibel Island.
As the storm raged outside, the floodwaters kept rising outside their three-story house, White says. The house was raised on stilts to about 12 feet above the ground ― and still the water almost reached the first floor.
"It got close," White says. "It got very close."
That storm surge was something terrible to behold, he says.
"When that storm surge started, it was like being at the mouth of a mountain river," he says. "It was a torrent. If you had stepped into it, you'd have been swept away. …
"The water was black and filthy and loaded with trash and detritus and rats ― swimming rats."
White knew they might be in trouble when he saw his new Ford Raptor truck get swept away by the current.
"It floated down the road and I thought wouldn't see it for a long time," he says. "Then suddenly the surge switched directions, like an incoming tide, and the truck floated right back to the damn driveway."
Despite all that, White says they were too busy to be scared. He monitored his ham radio (a skill that came in handy after the storm, when he helped coordinate helicopter rescues), took notes, shot video and roamed the house looking for leaks.
"We weren't afraid," he says. "We didn't have time to be afraid. It was just so intense."
When it was all over, much of White's house was covered in a "foul, brackish gunk" made of sand, pesticide, petroleum and who knows what else. The flooding destroyed White's collection of rare, signed first editions, many of his weapons and much more.
"I lost ― I don't even want to think about all I lost," he says. "(But) I'm not gonna moan about all that we lost. People lost a heck of a lot more than I did."
After the storm, their son and two of his friends (including a Navy SEAL) showed up at their door unexpectedly to rescue them from the hurricane-ravaged island. They'd put a boat in the water at Punta Rassa and piloted it around to the beach side of the island, near the lighthouse.
Together, they all trudged through the debris and muck to get back to the boat and off the island.
"Hiking through that muck was miserable, but we were very close to the beach," White says. "I had a couple of bad falls and it screwed up my back. I've had back surgery and I'm gimpy ― still very gimpy."
White remembers one especially startling thing about the aftermath: It was dark. Really, really dark.
He couldn't see the lighthouse from his house, like he usually could. Or any other illumination at all.
"There were no lights," he says. "None. It really was the darkness of a thousand years."
Writing 'One Deadly Eye'
White wasn't sure what he'd do with all those Hurricane Ian notes, at first. He'd just wanted to document the historic event and hadn't thought any farther ahead.
His next book, in fact, wasn't supposed to be a Doc Ford novel at all. It was a non-fiction work about former Cuban president Raul Castro and a collection of Castro's handwritten love letters to a girlfriend. White had acquired that collection ― about 120 letters in all ― and had arranged to personally return them to Castro in Cuba.
Then Ian happened, and all those historic letters were badly damaged.
So White retreated to his former gun club and started writing about Doc Ford and Hurricane Ian, instead.
A lot of what White experienced during Ian made its way into "One Deadly Eye." Animals, dead or dying, covered in toxic gray sludge. Historic buildings destroyed. People crying for help on his ham radio during the hurricane (including one women swept out her front door by the storm surge).
"It was heartbreaking," White says. "Heartbreaking."
He was surprised to see that, contrary to folklore, the island's animals didn’t run away from the storm. They all seemed to stay: Pelicans and other birds, rats, snakes, reptiles and more.
"They didn't flee, and so much wildlife was killed," White says. "The trees were decorated with the white feathers of ibis and snowy egrets and pelicans and ospreys."
Russian mercenaries looting Sanibel Island
For "One Deadly Eye," White combined that real-life experience with a fictional story about Russian mercenaries looting hurricane-struck cities in the chaotic hours before emergency officials arrive.
White based those bad guys partially on Russia's Wagner Group mercenaries, the country's infamous Black Dolphin Prison and one of its worst prisoners, a cannibal serial killer that became his character the Vulture Monk.
Writing "One Deadly Eye" was a welcome distraction from their house repairs and insurance headaches, he says. "Starting on that book really gave me something to do, something that I didn't have to fret about."
White poured a lot of time and energy into the book, weaving in hurricane science, history and what he's learned over the years from conversations with Florida "old timers."
"I wanted this to be not just a fast-reading thriller novel," he says. "I wanted to be a historical document, and I think it is."
Hurricane Ian's influence is all over "One Deadly Eye." But White never once mentions the storm by name.
That was intentional, he says.
"I wanted the book to be bigger than one event," he says. "I wanted to tie in the historic hurricanes of the past, the present and presumably the future."
All those Ian details helped make "One Deadly Eye" his best book, White says. But he says he wouldn't do it a second time.
Next time a huge hurricane comes, he says, they're hitting the road and evacuating.
"It was intense," he says. "I would not do it again. And I don’t recommend anyone stay if you're told to evacuate."
Learn more about Randy Wayne White at randywaynewhite.com.
Randy Wayne White's book tour in Fort Myers, Sanibel
Sanibel Island's Randy Wayne White is bringing his new book tour to Southwest Florida.
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The New York Times bestselling novelist will meet fans and sign copies of his new Doc Ford crime thriller, "One Deadly Eye," at these locations:
Players Circle Theater in Fort Myers (6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 4)
Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda (3 p.m. Wednesday, June 5)
Barnes & Noble in Fort Myers (6 p.m. Thursday, June 6)
Doc Ford's Rum Bar & Grille just off Fort Myers Beach (noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 8)
And Doc Ford's Rum Bar & Grille on Sanibel Island (noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, June 16).
All events are free. For more information, visit docford.com/events.
— Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 (for tickets to shows, call the venue) or email him at [email protected]. Follow or message him on social media: Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), X (formerly Twitter) (@charlesrunnells), Threads (@crunnells1) and Instagram (@crunnells1).
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Randy Wayne White based new Doc Ford book on surviving Hurricane Ian
