Rating: 
Summary: Studly Stone in The Short Forever by Staurt Woods
Review: When the annoying trend of product placement, which has been annoyingly prevelant in movies, finally makes it full-scale to books, Stuart Woods will be in the forefront cashing the checks. His suave and sophisticated character Stone Barrington never drops into the local fast food joint for a burger like the rest of us. Instead, he is having fillet of sole with a nice red wine in an upscale restaurant. If forced to pay, he signs the check with his Mount Blanc pen before driving off with the beautiful woman (every woman wants to be in bed with him putting it politely) in an Austin Martin touring car. Later, he will jump on the Concorde or current equivalent, before doing whatever his client needs him to do, to be followed by splitting another bottle of champagne and dancing with another lovely woman.Following on the heels of his novel Cold Paradise, the studly Stone is back in The Short Forever. As I have noted before, if you haven't read the last several Stuart Woods novels featuring Stone Barrington, then please skip the rest of the review after this paragraph. This novel refers to the previous novel as well as some things in earlier works. Ideally, if you haven't read the works containing Stone, then you should start with the first, New York Dead. However, if that isn't possible, then you should work your way forward from Dead In The Water. If you are still reading, you have been warned. This latest adventure finds Stone just weeks after the conclusion of Cold Paradise. Within a matter of pages as this quick read starts, Callie informs Stone that she is dumping him as well as suddenly marrying Thad James. She has decided that while Stone is great in bed, he just can't give her what she needs, financially or emotionally. Stone is pretty well off financially and one would think that by now, since he has heard this before, he would be used to it. But, he isn't and he is rather upset. However, before he has too much time to self reflect (which would not take too long as these still waters are very shallow) he receives an urgent call from Bill Eggers. "Bill was the managing partner of Woodman & Weld, the prestigious law firm for which Stone did unprestigious jobs." Basically, a glorified troubleshooter for the messy things that the rich involve themselves in from time to time. Bill says that a man will come see Stone the next morning and Stone is to do whatever the man wants. The next morning, John Bartholomew arrives and sits down with Stone at his home. John tells him a story involving his niece Erica Burroughs. She is in London and has suddenly dropped out of school and has involved herself with Lance Cabot, but he is not of the Massachusetts's Cabot's. That is his first strike against him as far as John is concerned. But John is more concerned as he believes Lance is smuggling small quantities of drugs into England and he wants Stone to get Erica away from him and at the same time, find a way to put Lance in jail that does not involve Erica. He will finance Stone's efforts and Stone, once he thinks he has all the facts, agrees to handle the problem. But soon, after arriving in London via the Concorde, he fins out that things are nowhere near what they appear to be. Like most of the other books in the series, this one is extremely short on character development. Stone hardly ever contemplates his own life, the mistakes he has made, and his future. This is not a character one would ever find sitting on a porch somewhere at two in the morning wondering how the heck he had screwed up things so royally. Instead, he moves from beautiful woman's bed to beautiful woman's bed, occasionally roughed up by thugs, and always eating and drinking at the best places. Clearly, it is the good life one hears about. However, this particular novel is considerably better than the last several. The plot is very complicated and there are several twists and turns to it all the way to the end. Like most of the others in the series, this effort is action based and as such, this one seems to have more action than normal in it. Also, as I have warned before, graphic sex is a common occurrence in a Stone Barrington novel. While several practices are hinted at different times in the novel, there are also several explicit and detailed scenes, which may offend some readers. While it is a typical Stone Barrington novel, this one is better than most. Stuart Woods does not plow any new ground here with these characters in the terms of development, but there is quite a lot more action in this novel. This novel is an improvement as far as plot design and action upon the previous novel, Cold Paradise. Hopefully, this is a sign that Mr. Woods has turned away from the speedy production he has generated the last few years and will once again turn out the quality work that marked his earliest work. This one is a definite improvement and a pretty good read.
Rating: 
Summary: A so-so read
Review: While I normally enjoy Woods' novels, I found this to
be a bit lackluster. As Stone Barrington ages, so does the plot. I must have skipped the one sentence in the book that explained what government secret was being sought. I didn't feel the tension and excitement that should accompany an author
of Woods' caliber. Also, Stone Barrington's wandering eye for
women is getting tedious. Sorry, Stuart. This just didn't
make my day.
Rating: 
Summary: The Short Forever ... Falls Short
Review: While Mr. Woods mentions in the book's "Acknowledgements" that this is "the first manuscript in my career where an editor asked for no revisions," truth is, he needs a good proofreader. Woods is always entertaining, but smugness is starting to supercede quality.
Rating:
Summary: Yuck, what a waste of time
Review: Woods spends 200 pages building suspense and actually kept my interest setting up a bizarre mystery filled with shady characters and descriptions of London lifted straight out of Rick Steves. The payoff, however, simply never comes. Characters come and go with no consequence, and the whole convoluted plot is resolved in a couple of sentences in the last chapter. There are more good guesses on Stone's part about people's character, motivation, and action plans than is believable, and the bevy of hot women hot on his trail gets a bit silly after a while. What a stinker!
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