White’s ‘Widow’ weaves a tangled web

  Doc Ford is on the road again in Randy Wayne White’s “Black Widow,” and it’s Ford’s most barely fathomable, ultra-fantastic, color-packed and convoluted trip yet — and I mean that in only the very best way.
   If you’re familiar with White’s work you’re no doubt familiar with Ford, the shadowy (but never shady) marine biologist whose past might include a stint in the CIA, might include other your-government-will-deny-ever-knowing-you work. In the opening pages of “Black Widow,” Ford’s goddaughter and her friends are being blackmailed in the wake of her bachelorette party by a group of Caribbean would-be gigolos.
   Ford rides to the rescue initially with a simple goal in mind — to confront the blackmailers, destroy the evidence and help ensure that his goddaughter’s upcoming wedding goes off with a hitch.
   As he digs deeper into the blackmailers’ associates, however, Ford uncovers a far more sinister and wide-reaching web of criminals than he had anticipated. Along the way, he's joined in his fight by a few unlikely but most effective allies.
   For a best-selling author, Randy Wayne White remains woefully underappreciated. He’s a hell of a storyteller, as “Black Widow” makes abundantly clear.