So I gave Randy Wayne White a second chance. The Man Who Invented Florida was the 3rd of nearly 2 dozen books starring Marion Ford, so I went back to the very beginning, to be certain the irritating good old boy character wouldn't make an appearance.
The book starts with Ford making a hasty exit from the presidential palace in fictional Latin American nation Masagua, before shifting to Florida, where Ford is trying to get his biological supply company up and running when his old high school buddy Rafe contacts him. When Ford goes to meet, he finds Rafe hanging from a tree. But that leaves Rafe's son still in the hands of whoever Rafe pissed off, and ultimately requires Ford to return to Masagua.
Besides Ford, White introduces Tomlinson, an aging hippie that lives on a boat nearby, plus a couple of other guys who work in the same bay where Ford lives. Tomlinson ends up being the most relevant to this book, as stray comments by Ford get him interested in learning about Mayan history, language, beliefs about time, which becomes critical later and necessitates Ford bringing Tomlinson along on the rescue mission.
There's also two different women Ford sleeps with over the course of the story, plus it turns out he and the Masaguan First Lady fell in love. Which is why he was fleeing the palace, nearly caught during a late-night assignation. White plays coy about what happened with Ford and Pilar for a while, but it was pretty obvious. And given neither of the other women were still among the cast by the third book, it appears White's going to pull a James Bond and just shuffle in women that Ford eventually pushes away.
Which is how it's presented (except with Pilar, who breaks it off for a higher calling.) Ford's written as someone, whether naturally or via the training he received (he insists he wasn't CIA, but I figure close enough) keeps things close to the vest. He listens a lot, saying just enough to encourage other people to keep talking without letting much of himself slip. His reactions are restrained. Jessica, a painter nearby that wanted to just stay friends then changed her mind, used him as a subject for a painting, and he really doesn't offer much of a response, which has to be frustrating. Put yourself out there and he gives you nothing. Plus, he gets suspicious and contacts some old coworkers to look into her past, which is not a great basis for a relationship.
In terms of the characters, there's no one whose presence annoys me as much as Ford's uncle did, so call that a clear win. The plot feels untethered, swinging from rescuing a boy, to the possible cover-up of a murder by land developers, to the illegal sale of Mayan artifacts, some of which might prove of great importance in the power struggle in Masagua, to Ford's suspicions about Jessica. White manages to tie a lot of it together in one way or another, but it sometimes feels like too many spinning plates. I think he wanted to establish the Florida locale for future stories, but span further away (and into Ford's past) to establish the main character. And the way he does it pretty well closes off that part of Ford's past, presumably anchoring him more firmly to the western Florida coastline he's calling home.
'Ford drove through the sterile downtown area, immune to the tacky Polynesian facades and cutesy boutiques. He took the address from his sports coat pocket and found Sandy Key Funeral Home; a beige stucco box on a sodded lot with palm trees.
There were a few cars in the parking lot, and Ford stepped out into the heat.
Some place for Rafe Hollins to end up.'
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