Apr 10, 2006 3 min read

If the oceans were suddenly to dry up, what do you think you’d see?

Aside from a colossal mess, I mean.

You’d see marine creatures the likes of which you’d only imagined. You’d find unbelievable land formations. You’d discover hundreds, if not thousands of wrecked planes, boats, and ships. And you’d find lots of buried secrets.

Rumor has it that a shipwreck lies a few miles off Sanibel, Florida, and in the new novel “Dark Light” by Randy Wayne White, it’s up to biologist Doc Ford to get to the bottom of the ocean to find the bottom of the mystery.

A Category 4 hurricane has just hit Florida, and clean-up has begun. People around Sanibel have been through hurricanes before, and Government-issue tarps can be seen everywhere roofs once sat. Still, despite a business-as-usual attitude, the storm hurt small fisherman and other residents around Sanibel.

When Augie Heller hired Jeth Nichols to take him out over Gulf waters, Nichols did as he was asked. The water was still churned and choppy, but since the storm, Jeth was out of work and Augie paid good money. Augie was the nephew of Bern Heller, the new CEO of Indian Harbor Marina. Bern was a bully and a thief. Jeth didn’t like either of them very much, but a job is a job.

And this job became a whole lot more lucrative when Jeth sees a decades-old shipwreck, uncovered by the hurricane and glowing on the GPS screen. Now a quick run over the Gulf could mean riches.

Bern Heller wants rights to the wreck, too. It was found by someone piloting a Marina-owned boat, which means the Marina owns the wreck, right?

Indian Harbor Marina, built by Heller’s grandfather and protected by shady lawyers, is Bern’s chance to make his good-for-nothing family take notice. They never thought he’d ever be anything other than a car dealer back in Madison, Wisconsin, but he’s about to show them. Nobody underestimates Bern Heller.

When rumors fly around Sanibel and Jeth asks Doc Ford to help with the salvage of the wreck, people suddenly become interested in what lies beneath the water. Chestra Engle is one of them, and she offers to fund the operation in exchange for a few trinkets. Chessie claims that her long-dead godmother was on that ship, and she wants to know the truth about how Marlissa Dorn died.

The truth may be buried, not beneath ocean sludge, but in an old Nazi passport.

Where has this author been all my life?

“Dark Light” is fast-paced and full of intrigue, peopled with colorful characters and just enough wry humor to give it waggishness without being silly. Author Randy Wayne White only hints at Doc Ford’s past in this book, which will definitely make you want to read all his other novels featuring this wise and complex special ops soldier-turned-biologist-detective.

If you’re ready to immerse yourself in a novel that you won’t want to put down, then try this one. “Dark Light” is oceans of fun to read.