Introductory summary to the Hannah Smith Series by Randy Wayne White

          Fishing guide, Capt. Hannah Smith, protagonist of this series, is very different than her older, bawdier aunt, Hannah, the commercial fisherwoman who appeared in the Doc Ford novel, CAPTIVA.  Both are fictional characters who, for my purposes, are related to a legendary Florida pioneer, Hannah Smith (circa 1870 – 1910.)  Hannah, known as “Big Six” was over six feet tall.  She chopped wood and hunted for a living, but ran amuck of her own instincts when she fell in with a bad man in the Everglades, and was murdered.  She was, my friend and author, Peter Matthiessen, believed, pregnant at the time.

          It made sense to me that ancestors of this great woman would keep her name alive by passing it down to their first-born daughters.  Thus, the commercial fisherman in CAPTIVA was the third Hannah Smith. The protagonist in this series is Hannah number four.  Or H-4, as she sometimes signs her notes.

          Capt. Hannah comes from a family of strong women, survivors all, and she has inherited the stubborn, back-country toughness that made her ancestor, “Big Six” Smith, part of the Florida mythos.  In the (so far) four novels, those qualities have gained Hannah a reputation as one of the hottest fishing guides around, and not a woman to trifle with.