Jenn's Review: Gone

Summary:  Hannah Smith: a tall, strong, formidable Florida woman, the descendant of generations of strong Florida women. She makes her living as a fishing guide, but her friends, neighbors, and clients also know her as an uncommonly resourceful woman with a keen sense of justice—someone who can’t be bullied—and they have taken to coming to her with their problems.

Her methods can be unorthodox, though, and those on the receiving end of them often wind up very unhappy—and sometimes very violent. And when a girl goes missing, and Hannah is asked to find her, that is exactly what happens. . .

Review:  I have never read anything by Randy Wayne White before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Gone. To tell the truth, I'm still not sure what I think.

I was confused by Hanna Smith. Her character never really gelled for me; sometimes she's brash and bold other times she's timid and meek.  I'm not sure if it's because Mr. White is a man writing from the point of view of a woman, or whether it's just his style of writing.  There's a whole cast of characters that I never really took an interest in many of which seemed superfluous but probably had ties to Mr. White's Doc Ford series.  

The plot was fairly straight forward with no real surprises.  I don't read many books that deal with abused women and sex crimes, but there seems to be an abundance extraneous sexuality discussions that didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the novel.  There was also lots of descriptions and discussions of clothing that seemed unnecessary.  I'm familiar enough with boats and fishing that I didn't find all the marine terminology off putting.  For me, the villain was not established enough to be scary, or perhaps I just wasn't invested in the characters. 

All in all, it was interesting, but I don't know that I will be putting any more of the Hanna Smith series on my reading list. However, if I came across one of Mr. White's novels when I was in need of something to read, I'd pick it up. Maybe this book would be better appreciated by someone who has read Mr. White's expansive collection of work. 

Final Take: 3/5

Thanks to the publisher, Putnam Books, for sending me an ARC of this novel.