Dark Light

Almost didn't finish reading this one, but after a slow start it finally caught my interest. Doc ford and some friends discover a sunken ship after a hurricane and find Nazi artifacts in the wreckage. There is a great deal of information about life in the Sanibel Island area of Florida during WWII and interesting characters. I'll have to read another book in the series before deciding whether to put it on my list of series to read.

A Doc Ford mystery set in the days and weeks after Hurricane Charley and calling up the hurricane of Oct. 19, 1944 that flooded Sanibel. The storm-struck inhabitants of Dinkins Bay are trying to put their lives back together as a sociopathic heir to a one-time Nazi Florida developer tries to steal and cheat his way to wealth. The hurricane waters have revealed a WWII wreck with Nazi treasure and ties to the mysterious Mildred Chestra Engle, goddaughter of the lost ethereal beauty, Marissa Dorn. Also uncovered is a tangled history of the powerful – Thomas Edison and Henry Ford; the creative – Edna St. Vincent Millay and Anne Lindbergh; German prisoners of war, racism, and the aborted, secret loves of a young woman. Although White’s show more novel follows the pattern of an unfolding mystery that will be solved by Ford’s rational detective work, there is an added element of enigmatic change, not only to the environment, but to people and even to historical consciousness, wrought by the hurricane. White acknowledges the psychic shifts blown in with the hurricane’s winds. show less

Centered around the unrest of a hurricane season on the gulf coast of Florida, Doc Ford stays close to home in Dark Light and gets caught up in the mystery of sunken Nazi artifacts. He has to fight greedy developers, murderers, retired NFL giants, boat thieves, and treasure hunters - actually that's one formidable villain in many evil hats. A hint of the supernatural and a bit of protest against the destruction of Florida's natural habitat are included in the mix. Somehow it all hangs together.

Doc Ford is a man I could easily have a crush on. And there's his buddy, Tomlinson, who is a free spirit with a wicked sense of humor. Both are smart and take care of themselves, each other and their friends.
There seem to be two stories going on, but they are intertwined. There are some Wisconsin mob guys down taking advantage of the last hurricane's destructive path. Doc wants to set them straight after the mob guys take on some of Doc's buds.
Then there's the the mystery woman Tomlinson introduces to Doc. The story she tells of lost WWII treasure in the ocean intrigues Doc as much as the mystery woman does.
I've listened to a couple of books from this series and enjoyed each one thoroughly. This one was especially so. This is a show more series, but each one can be listened to as a stand-alone as far as I am concerned. And rarely does a series keep going strong when there are a lot of books in the series. This isn't one of those, again, as far as I am concerned. DARK LIGHT is #13 in the lineup and there are 17 of them.
Five Florida coast can be dangerous beans..... show less

I enjoyed this one centered around a marine biologist who may be an on-call CIA spook, or something similar, and his friends on Sanibel Island. A shipwreck is found shortly after a devastating hurricane hits the island. The timing coincides with a crooked businessman stealing the boats from his damaged marina and trying to cover up past actions. Finally, add a beautiful mystery woman. The plot is like a walk on the Florida shore - sometimes full speed ahead and sometimes a tricky maneuver through the mangroves. Thrilling, unusual, grabbed my attention.

Bookcrossing: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5439661/

A long time ago I started reading Randy Wayne White after I had read all the Carl Hiassen books and other Florida writers. His earliest books were filled with guns and graphic violence. This book is more of an elegy of lives lost to hurricanes and age. Yes, there is a psychopath who is the major evil figure, but more of the book concerns Doc Ford's slow recovery from injury, loss, and hurt. The writing seems a bit disjointed. I wondered if I had missed a paragraph or two. This may be due to the author's homelessness from the real hurricane he suffered through. It is still evocative of the pleasures of boats, beaches, and the ocean, but in the end Doc Ford seems more lost than ever.

One of the better Doc Ford books I've read. Two seemingly independent plot lines merge surprisingly toward the end. I always enjoy the interactions among Doc's pals.