Sunday, March 7, 2010

By Reviewed by David and Nancy Beckwith

"Deep Shadow"

By Randy Wayne White

G.P Putnam's Sons, $25.95

South Florida author Randy Wayne White has written another action-packed thriller. "Deep Shadow" is the 17th book featuring Doc Ford, a series that has propelled White from being a regional novelist to one of the best-known thriller writers in the nation.

White has been awarded the John D. MacDonald Award for Literary Excellence and the Conch Republic Prize for Literature. He wrote and narrated a PBS documentary, "The Gift of the Game," for which he won best of festival at the 2002 Woods Hole Film Festival. An editor at large (one of only four) for Outside Magazine, he has also written extensively for National Geographic Adventure, Men's Journal and Playboy.

Before starting his writing career, he had numerous jobs including a 13-year position as a full-time fishing guide. But he says he always wanted to be a writer because he believed that in writing he could become a part of the magic he found in reading books. While still a fishing guide, White had already begun writing magazine articles, first for Rolling Stones' Outside Magazine and then regularly for other well-known national magazines.

As a columnist for Outside, White covered the America's Cup races in Australia, went dog sledding in Alaska, searched for wild orangutans on Borneo, brought refugees in from Cuba, dove in the Bad Blue Hole Lake on Cat Island in the Bahamas and participated in a mission to steal back General Manuel Noriega's bar stools. In addition to these adventures, he has been stabbed, shot at and was in a hotel blown up by the Shining Path in Peru.

As a light-tackle fishing guide, White was on the water more than 300 days a year. But in 1978, when the Tarpon Bay Marina on Sanibel Island was closed to powerboat traffic, he was essentially out of a job. In retrospect he believes this was the best thing that could have happened to him, forcing him to make a living as a writer -- he had to support his family and failure to do so simply was not an option.

Randy Wayne White's advice to aspiring writers is straightforward. "Be relentless," he says. This staunch approach is reflected in his writing style and his characters, who are intellectually and emotionally living entities. Doc Ford, a Florida marine biologist, and his sidekick, Tomlinson, evolve naturally on their own, their paths guided by their personal strengths and weaknesses. With this emotional commitment, Doc and Tomlin-son lead normal lives of work, fun and sunset parties. At least between books.

In "Deep Shadow," Doc Ford and two friends are enjoying what was planned to be an easy, beginners-level dive in a remote Florida lake. Thirty minutes into the trip, the rim of a cave collapses, trapping Ford's friends. While he manages to escape and surfaces to find help, more troubles begin. There are two men waiting for him on the shore and they are not the kind of men you would want to meet under any circumstance. Both are murderers and ex-cons, intent on diving to the bottom of the very deep lake to uncover the remains of a legendary plane wreck that is supposedly loaded with Cuban treasury gold.

What they need is Doc Ford's expertise. If Doc Ford doesn't agree to help them, he will die; and his trapped friends, well, they can die too. As the hours tick away, two mortal struggles unfold simultaneously, one above and one below. Neither outcome is certain, and no man is safe -- only death awaits in the deep shadows. Can Doc Ford outmaneuver the villains and save his own life as well as his friends? Or will he be forced to choose one over the other in this battle of wits?

In "Deep Shadow" Doc Ford wrestles more than one kind of demon and faces darkness even he could never imagine. Nothing can prepare the reader for the twists and turns and revelations of this latest from Randy Wayne White. In our opinion, an absolute must-read.

Reviewer David Beckwith reads from his own work at Friends of the Marathon Library at St. Columba Episcopal Church, 451 52nd Street in Marathon at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 11.