Pun Salad

Some people claim that William Shatner did a poor job of acting in his portrayal of Captain James Kirk.

I say this is nonsense.

Why? Because, friends, I've seen how Captain Kirk behaved. And, like it or not, he always behaved exactly like William Shatner did in portraying him.

Okay, so this argument was a lot tighter before Chris Pine came along.

But now we come to Dark Light, the 2006 book by Randy Wayne White, the thirteenth entry in his series chronicling the adventures of Marion "Doc" Ford. A number of Amazon reviewers bemoan the unusual turn of this book. But I say to them: friends, I've seen how Doc Ford behaves. And, like it or not, he behaves just like Randy Wayne White has described. You may wish he had done something else, or acted differently. But he didn't.

So anyway: in this one, Doc does not travel far from his Dinkin's Bay home. He and his neighbors are trying mightily to recover from a recent hurricane that ripped up much of their community. Things are complicated by Bern Heller, ex-NFL jock, and recently-arrived marina owner. At first, Heller seems to be simply a dishonest scammer, plotting to use the hurricane to illicitly take control of the still-valuable boats in his domain. But, as it develops, he's also a homicidal sociopath, straight out of Travis McGee-land. Something about Florida attracts them, I guess.

The hurricane has also (literally) uncovered a sordid bit of World War II-era history: the sunken yacht Dark Light, missing since 1944. A brief initial dive has brought up Nazi-linked artifacts. There's a possible link to Heller's ancestors. And also to a mysterious woman who's moved into a secluded beach mansion. In addition to dealing with Heller's murderous intentions, Doc must also unravel what happened over sixty years previous.