Black Widow

January 21, 2008
Bestseller Ford’s 15th Doc Ford thriller (after 2007’s Hunter’s Moon
) may baffle newcomers with a backstory relating to the murder of Ford’s parents. Ford, a marine biologist and covert operative who lives on Florida’s Sanibel Island, is busy serving his shadowy U.S. government masters by researching the potential use by terrorists of jellyfish and other venomous sea creatures when he receives a desperate appeal for help from an old friend. Shay Money, a successful 26-year-old businesswoman who’s about to be married, fears her future happiness is in jeopardy because an extortionist has videotaped her and three female friends in sexually compromising situations. While Ford manages to get the tape in exchange for a sizable payment, his suspicions that the criminal isn’t done with Money are soon confirmed. His efforts to protect her lead him to the Caribbean and a sophisticated blackmail racket with a lengthy list of victims. Despite some awkward prose (“The combination of flesh and death, the orderly geometrics of my wound, struck me as indefinably profound”), series fans should enjoy the ride. Author tour.

If you want your audiobook to be a success, hire George Guidall. Pretty simple. It's even better when Guidall reads a masterful story, like BLACK WIDOW. In the latest in the Doc Ford series (number 14), the semi retired government agent helps a young friend who is being blackmailed before her wedding. A free-for-all bachelorette party that took place on a Caribbean island now threatens her nuptials. Guidall perfectly becomes all the characters, even the women, both young and alluring and icy and suspicious. Can Doc Ford get to the bottom of the blackmailing mystery? Is there any doubt? But getting there is all the fun as Guidall leads listeners in unraveling the insidious plot, aided by a smashing English gentleman known for his derring-do. Eh, wot? M.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine