Stuart Woods published multiple books every year over his career.
New York Dead (1991) is the first novel in the Stone Barrington series.
Barrington is a detective forced to retire from the sexist, racist, corrupt N.Y. Police force because of a cover-up. He decides to become a lawyer/private investigator.
An intriguing premise. ➙ Barrington happens to see a woman jump / fall (?) from a 12 story balcony. Shockingly, she’s still alive when put into the ambulance.
BUT the ambulance has an accident a few blocks distant — and the woman disappears.
Tony Retrosi is a highly respected Gymnastics coach, educator, and leader.
He’s one of the Americans dismayed with the turn of Republican politicians to ReTrumplicanism. Angry, hateful, intolerant, near totalitarianism.
In 2025 you must parrot the low IQ Trump’s lies, or be banished from the GOP.
I was impressed with Tony summing up in this post:
a country should take care of its weakest members … children, disabled, sick, and elderly
healthcare is a right, not a privilege
higher education should be affordable
massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying
companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage
don’t force religion on me or mine
LGBT people should have the SAME rights as everyone else
we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc.
systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think
enforcement of present firearms laws and enacting new, common sense gun regulations
I believe in so-called political correctness … social politeness
funding sustainable energy
women should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse
Shadow Prey (1990) is #2 in the Lucas Davenport series.
Sandford had trouble writing the SECOND book. In fact, he tore up the first version. Completely rewrote this book — which is intense, but very good.
As a reporter, Sandford was very interested in the plight of First Nation Americans.
A slumlord and a welfare supervisor butchered in Minneapolis . . . a rising political star executed in Manhattan . . . an influential judge taken in Oklahoma City . . . All the homicides have the same grisly method — the victim’s throat is slashed with an Indian ceremonial knife – and in every case the twisted trail leads back through the Minnesota Native American community to an embodiment of primal evil known as Shadow Love.
Once unleashed, Shadow Love’s need to kill cannot be checked, even by those who think they control him. Soon he will be stalking Lucas Davenport — and the woman he loves…
Never get involved with a cop: Lieutenant Lucas Davenport has been warning women for years, but now he finds himself on dangerous ground with a policewoman named Lily Rothenburg, on assignment from New York to help investigate the murders.
Both have previous commitments, but neither can stop, and as their affair grows more intense, so too does the mayhem surrounding them, until the combined passion and violence threaten to spin out of control and engulf them both.
Together, Lucas and Lily must stalk the drugged-out, desperate world of the city’s meanest streets to flush out Shadow Love — not knowing they are now the objects of his deadliest desires….
In fact, Sandford first decides on the villain. And then starts writing — trying to decide how Lucas Davenport could catch the serial killer.
An art history professor and writer and cheerful pervert, James Qatar had a hobby: he took secret photographs of women and turned them into highly sexual drawings.
One day, he took the hobby a step further and… well, one thing led to another, and he had to kill her. A man in his position couldn’t be too careful, after all. And you know something? He liked it.
Already faced with a welter of confusion in his personal life, Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport decides to take this case himself, hoping that some straightforward police work will clear his head, but as the trail begins to take some unexpected turns, it soon becomes clear that nothing is straightforward about this killer. The man is learning as he goes, Lucas realizes, taking great strides forward with each murder. He is becoming a monster — and Lucas may have no choice but to walk right into his lair…
Having now read most of his books, this is one of my favourites.
My Mom liked it too.
The chief justice of the Supreme Court is about to be defamed, his career destroyed, by a powerful gossip website that specializes in dirt on celebs and politicians. Their top reporter has written an exposé claiming that he had liaisons with an escort, a young woman prepared to tell the world her salacious tale. But the chief justice is not without allies and his greatest supporter is determined to stop the story in its tracks.
Nick Heller is a private spy—an intelligence operative based in Boston, hired by lawyers, politicians, and even foreign governments. A high-powered investigator with a penchant for doing things his own way, he’s called to Washington, DC, to help out in this delicate, potentially explosive situation.
Nick has just forty-eight hours to disprove the story about the chief justice. But when the call girl is found murdered, the case takes a dangerous turn, and Nick resolves to find the mastermind behind the conspiracy before anyone else falls victim to the maelstrom of political scandal and ruined reputations predicated upon one long-buried secret.
It seemed — to me — that they tried too hard to make this season serious, award worthy drama.
The storylines were not as strong.
Lt. Joe Leaphorn (McClarnon), reunites with Jim Chee (Gordon), his former deputy turned private eye, when their separate cases bring them together in pursuit of the same suspect.
They find themselves in the high desert of Navajo Country chasing a killer who’s turned his sights on them to protect a secret that rips open old wounds and challenges Leaphorn’s moral and professional code.
With the help of Sgt. Manuelito (Matten) and Valencia County Sheriff Gordo Sena (Martinez), Leaphorn and Chee must thwart their would-be assassin and restore balance not only to their own lives, but to the reservation that depends on them.
Not much was all that good, actually, aside from the villain … Nicholas Logan as Colton Wolf.
The conclusion was a refreshing change from most TV series. NOT a cliffhanger.
A happy ending.
I’ll probably continue to season 3. But tempted to quit.
