Randy Wayne White Dark Light

Dark Light

Randy Wayne White

Putnam, Mar 2006, $24.95, 352 pp.

ISBN: 0399153365

The Category Four hurricane struck hard on Florida's west coast, especially devastating many of the Gulf islands. Doc Marian Ford sees first hand the damage to Sanibel Island, with his home, marina and lab severely damaged by the intense storm, and he received a deep gash from a flying object courtesy of the hurricane.

Jeth, Tomlinson, and other Sanibel residents find pieces of German artifacts, probably from a sunken submarine that caused havoc in the Gulf of Mexico during WWII. Not long afterward Jeth discovers the submarine.

Mildred Chestra Engle asks Doc Ford to investigate what happened to a beloved who vanished while meeting a German submarine six decades ago. Chestra wants to prove he was not a traitor only a blackmail victim. Feeling her sorrow, Doc takes on the case, but nothing seems real, even her story, or for that matter her age, which changes every time he sees her. Danger finds Doc, because others, like salvager Heller have differing plans for Ford's client and the submarine; no one will stand in his way to achieve them.

The prime storyline stars a bit later than usual, as the key players and their motivations, and the force of a category four hurricane are prefaced (though Katrina makes that level storm needing no introduction) to the reader. These subplots quickly merge into a delightful Doc Ford thriller. The marine biologist struggles with the wrongfully defined case, the enigmatic female that has Tomlinson thinking ghost, while Doc kisses her when she does not look too old, and the thirst for revenge by Heller. Fans will enjoy DARK LIGHT, as nothing is quite like it seems, especially in the aftermath of a hurricane named Chestra.