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Rating: 
Summary: Stone is back, but hard to follow meandering plot
Review: Prolific Stuart Woods is back with his 8th Stone Barrington novel, of his 24 fictional works to date. If he had accidentally called Stone "James Bond" it would have been just as believable, as Barrington sleuths in espionage and intrigue during the day, and drinks and bed hops during the night. Traveling to London via the Concorde on an unlimited expense account, much of this book seems devoted to the lifestyles of the rich (even if not famous). Two of Stone's old girlfriends dominate much of the proceedings, even Arrington Calder herself -- the running gag being that she and Stone will never marry (they came close once before) 'cause she won't go through life as Arrington Barrington! There was quite a degree of suspense in the 300+ pages, although to me it was as much caused by "what's going on here" than the story per se. Even when it ended, ..., we weren't sure what they did or why it mattered, despite a couple of murders, almost unconnected, along the way. In fact, it was like leaving a movie you thought was pretty entertaining but you never did figure out the fundamental plot. Even Stone didn't know whom he was working for half the time. We'd no doubt fail the quiz at the end on who did what to whom. Moreover, an appearance by Stone's old police partner Dino (still on active duty, but apparently able to travel at will to bail this guy out time after time) did little to advance the story line and thus seemed somehow irrelevant. Thinking it might be time to let Stone "die off", we note from the author's web site two more Barrington books are in the works, as well as another featuring his newer female lead, Holly Barker. Woods claims he's writing two books per year for the foreseeable future; while still fans, we would like to see a little more substance, a little less sex, and a more cohesive plot. Woods has all the skills to pull that off and more. We're just not sure they are on display that well in the Short Forever.
Rating: 
Summary: Stone Barrington comes in from the cold
Review: Stuart Woods has been writing suspense novels for about 25 years now, and has been writing Stone Barrington stories, I would guess, for about 10. Stone is a former NYPD homicide detective who had to retire after he got shot, and turned himself into a lawyer. He works for a prestigious law firm, in a sort of non-conventional fashion, basically taking all of the work the firm's regular lawyers don't want to handle. In this book, one of the partners sends Stone a client. The guy is apparently rich, and he wants a niece in London protected from her boyfriend, a shady character who's smuggling drugs. Stone's assignment is to go to London, and get the boyfriend arrested for something legitimate, thereby getting him out of the picture as far as the girl is concerned. Only nothing is what it seems, of course. The guy isn't the girl's uncle, the boyfriend isn't smuggling drugs, and basically everything turns out to be a lot more dangerous than Stone had planned. Of course the romantic entanglements get a bit complicated, and of course Stone has various problems with the local constabulary (who think he killed an ex-cop), and of course there are various spies and other individuals tripping through the story all over the place. This is the most complicated novel Stuart Woods has ever written, I think. It shows. There are several plot threads that aren't taken to any conclusion at the climax of the book, and the conclusion, while generally satisfying, is a bit mundane and unsuspenseful. There are several interesting characters you want to see again (including a British girl spy named Carpenter), but there are also developments in Stone's life (Arrington's back, and his girlfriend left him). This is, to be frank, an average Stuart Woods novel...not as suspenseful as some, but more complex than most. I would recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Much Ado about Nothing
Review: This isn't a mystery novel. That is the first thing one should understand if one chooses to read this book. It would barely qualify as a procedural in my opinion. The problems are many. First, the main character isn't described at all untill 3/4 of the way into the book and then the only feature I was able to discover is that he has blond hair. Second, the main guy runs around a lot and has a lot of apparently great meals but that is all. He solves nothing, it is all solved for him. The only "murder" is solved in a way that would be kind of like playing a guessing game and at the end someone saying "oh it was number 13." without you even trying to guess. Needless to say, I was terribly dissapointed.
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