NORTH OF HAVANA

Just as Marion ``Doc'' Ford is at the point of dramatically improving his acquaintance with his old friend Dewey Nye (she's already got half her underwear off), his phone rings, and his even older friend, dropout prophet Tomlinson, is squawking about how the trip his pickup Julia DeGlorio talked him into taking- -from Sanibel to an island north of Cuba—turned sour when Tomlinson woke up to find they'd drifted into Cuban waters and were being held along with his beloved boat in lieu of storage charges. Couldn't Doc drop whatever he was doing and sneak down to bail his buddy out? Of course he could, in a flash—if it were only that simple. But Doc and Dewey haven't spent a whole night on the island before he realizes that Tomlinson hasn't been leveling with him. He's not just looking for cash for bail and bribes; he's gotten involved in a mind-bogglingly complex assassination plot, one whose tangled roots link a peyote- supplying Santer°a priest, a family of unsuccessful assassins, and a fateful baseball game in which Doc, as catcher, once refused to let Fidel Castro throw anything but fastballs. Maybe that's why Castro's now scouring the island for Doc—but it doesn't begin to explain why Doc will be risking life and limb to prevent Castro's execution. Much manly action, lots of manly aperáus, but it's all too fast and furious to allow the distinctive pleasures of the voice White revealed in The Man Who Invented Florida (1993) and Captiva (1996). (Mystery Guild alternate selection)