Sat 28 May 2016
A Mystery Review by Barry Gardner: STUART WOODS – Santa Fe Rules.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
STUART WOODS – Santa Fe Rules. Harper Collins, hardcover, 1992. Harper Torch, paperback, 1993.
A lot of people, including a number whose judgement I respect, really like Woods’ books. I’ve thought them good to so-so, but have never been a raving fan.
In this one, producer Wolf Willett leaves Santa Fe for LA one morning in his plane, and has to land at Grand Canyon with electrical problems. While there he reads a newspaper account of bis, his wife’s, and his director’s deaths at his home in Santa Fe, by shotgun. Naturally, this gives him somewhat of a turn.
The situation is acerbated by the fact that he has completely lost a day, and can’t remember the night of the last day he remembers. What to do, what to do. Well, that’s what it’s all about, innit?
Smoothly and slickly written, and entertaining enough. Standard best-seller stuff.
Bibliographic Update: A synopsis of this book I found online says: “Learning that his wife and partner have died suspiciously while he was away, successful Hollywood producer Wolf Willett returns home and hires ace criminal defense lawyer Ed Eagle to clear his name of the murder charge.” I then discovered that Ed Eagle has appeared in three more books by Woods, all between 2006 and 2010, making him a series character that of course Barry could not know about or foresee.
May 29th, 2016 at 1:21 am
CHIEFS was pretty good, but standard best seller stuff sums up my feelings for Woods books. They aren’t bad by any means, some entertaining, but there are quite a few better bestselling writers I would rather invest my time and budget on when I want to slum in bestseller land.
May 29th, 2016 at 5:41 am
“Slick and smoothly written” about sums it up for most of the Woods books I’ve read, with CHIEFS (as David said) being the main exception. He just seems to churn them out effortlessly. They are readable, certainly, but unmemorable and quickly forgotten. Most seem to be almost adolescent wish fulfillment, with every woman immediately falling for hero Stone Barrington and ready to fall into his bed.
May 29th, 2016 at 8:24 am
It was one and done for Stone Barrington for me. Woods’ books are very popular, though. Library sales here are full of them.