Over the course of ten novels, Randy Wayne White's acclaim has taken extraordinary leaps. "White is willing to take risks," says the Fort Worth Star- Telegram, "which is why he's one of the few deserving of the title writer." And in Tampa Burn, the risks have never been greater.

"They've taken our son, Marion." In all his life, Marion "Doc" Ford has been passionately, irresponsibly in love with only one woman. Her name was Pilar, and she was married to a thuggish politico named Balserio in a country where Ford was working undercover.

When Ford had to run, it was with a bounty on his head and, unknown to him then, a legacy: Pilar was pregnant. Now, many years later, out of power and consumed with the desire for revenge, Balserio has kidnapped the boy and taken him to his new home base in Florida. Ford hoped he'd left his violent past behind him long ago, but he knows he has no choice. The man has his son. . . .

Filled with remarkable prose, rich atmosphere, knife-edge tension, and some of the best suspense characters anywhere in fiction, Tampa Burn is a brilliant work from a writer whose time has come.