Later, my conscience would play the inevitable game of "What if . . ." What if I had stopped by Jobe's home on Friday morning instead of Sunday night? What if I hadn't interrupted the two people who were alternately interrogating and beating him? Would he have lived? Or would he have died? And what would have happened then?

It started when Doc Ford got the call from his old friend Frieda Matthews - her reclusive biologist brother Jobe wasn't answering the phone. Could Doc check on him? Ford can't think of a reason not to, but soon he will think of a hundred. Not only will it be one of the worst scenes he has ever encountered, but the consequences of that visit will draw him into the heart of a nightmare. A catastrophe is coming to Florida, and just maybe there is something Ford can do about it - but he doesn't know how or where or when . . . or even if he is already too late.

Filled with the remarkable prose and rich atmosphere that have won White so many fans, and featuring some of the best suspense characters in fiction, Dead of Night is White's biggest thriller yet - "like strapping yourself onto the exposed bow of a South Florida airboat" (The Miami Herald).