I’d started with the first books in the Stone Barrington series by Stuart Woods. And found them worth reading.

Funny. Engaging.

Absurd James Bondy escapism.

Stone Barrington, a former NYPD detective turned lawyer, who is of counsel to a prestigious law firm and handles sensitive cases for the firm’s prominent clients, but cases with which the firm nonetheless does not wish to be publicly associated.

As such, Barrington commands exorbitant fees, and a strong cast of recurring characters such as his ex-partner Dino Bacchetti, frequent use of the restaurant Elaine’s on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City as a setting, and Stone’s frequent exploits with women, travel, and fine dining. 

I jumped ahead to try Distant Thunder (#63 / 2022).

Not much had changed with Stone. He’s richer. Yachts. Homes around the world. Fine dinning every night.

But I prefer the earliest books. This one felt lazy. Short. And unresolved.

Some Russian is chasing Stone … for some unexplained reason. Corpses turn out to be someone else — without much explanation.

Meh.

VERY funny. Entertaining and heart warming.

This is the Jesse Q. Sutanto follow-up to her hit novel Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. (2023)

Vera Wong was a lonely widow in San Francisco. Lonely until  a man was found dead in her teahouse and Vera solved his murder. That was book 1.

She is surrounded by her loved ones, her shop is busy, and her son, Tilly is dating Officer Selena Gray. However, she has become bored and misses the excitement of her last investigation. …

Vera is inquisitive, meddling, intelligent, bold, and funny. She likes acting like a helpless old lady, but doesn’t like being one. She’s also curious, confident, outgoing, and not always politically correct. 

Book Review

“Sometimes, all an old lady wants is a murder to solve. Is that too much to ask for?”

In this one, Vera stumbles on to the story of an online influencer who has disappeared.

She decides it’s likely MURDER so begins a one woman investigation.

The plot doesn’t matter all that much. It’s how Vera feeds everyone she meets and bosses them around in order to improve their lives that keeps you going.

Vera’s an unlikely new friend and ally to one and all.

Sutanto said writing Vera’s character was easy because everything she says are things her parents have said. 😀

Here’s one A.I. representation of Vera.

That’s from a good review on K’s Train of Thoughts.

Worst Fears Realized (1999) is another entertaining murder mystery novel in the Stone Barrington series.

SURE it’s escapism. DEFINITELY Stone beds more beautiful women than James Bond.

But the writing is smart and funny. Especially the dialogue with his ex-partner, Dino Bacchetti.

The pace is fast enough that I’m never bored.

The audio book reader — Richard Ferrone — is excellent. He does the Prey series by John Sandford, as well.

In this one, somebody from Barrington’s past starts killing the women closest to him.

Trying to find a brilliant killer in a sea of old faces is difficult enough without Stone’s former love, Arrington, now Mrs. Vance Calder, resurfacing, too—especially when she sets off her own fireworks coming nose to nose with his latest flame, a Mafia princess as beautiful as she is dangerous.
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Hidden Prey (2005) is another of the excellent Lucas Davenport murder mysteries.

On the shore of Lake Superior, a man named Rodion Oleshev is found shot dead, three holes in his head and his heart, and though nobody knows why, everybody — the local cops, the FBI, and the Russians themselves — has a theory.

And when it turns out he had very high government connections, that’s when it hits the fan.

A Russian cop flies in from Moscow, Davenport flies in from Minneapolis, law enforcement and press types swarm the crime scene — and, in the middle of it all, there is another murder.

Is there a relationship between the two? What is the Russian cop hiding from Davenport? Is she — yes, it’s a woman — a cop at all? Why was the man shot with fifty-year-old bullets?

Before he can find the answers, Davenport will have to follow a trail back to another place, another time, and battle the shadows he discovers there — shadows that turn out to be both very real and very deadly.

Swimming to Catalina (1998) by Stuart Woods, …

The novel takes place in Los Angeles, after the events in Dead in the Water.

… continues the story of Stone Barrington, a retired detective turned lawyer/private investigator. …

A panicked call from movie star Vance Calder, who married Stone’s lover Arrington Carter three months ago, tells Stone that Arrington has disappeared and begs him for help.

But by the time Centurion Studios’ private jet lands Stone in La-La Land, Vance is singing another tune: Arrington’s fine, she’s just overwhelmed by her pregnancy, she’s gone away to think things over, she’s phoning Vance every day. …

Kirkus Review

Entertaining. Plenty of sex, like the earlier books.

Some James Bond gadgets.

Overall, I liked the book and will continue with more in the series.

Killers of a Certain Age (2022) by Deanna Raybourn is a hit novel.

It was an easy read. But ultimately unimpressive. The BIG finale was a let down.

I ASSuMEd it was some kind of cozy murder mystery.

Not so.

It wasn’t as fun as most of the recent books with older characters.

Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon.

They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they’re sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed ….

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age.

Having read most of the very good Shari Lapena books, I went back to the beginning.

Things Go Flying (2007) was her 1st novel. Very original and interesting. Lapena was a terrific author right from the start.

Harold Walker, desperately average, is in the throes of a mid-life depression.

His wife Audrey clings to an illusory sense of control—over their home, their teenaged sons, Dylan and John, and her own explosive secret.

The death of a long-estranged friend triggers a series of perturbing events that catapults Harold out of his La-Z-Boy and throws the household into chaos.

Things go flying when the dead begin communicating with Harold, leaving Audrey’s secret vulnerable to exposure, and Harold more confused than ever.

What these familiar voices from the afterlife ultimately reveal is just how little the living know about living.

“Things Go Flying is just plain fun, a continual giggle. Hilarious, fast-paced and irreverent, it is about a modern dysfunctional family that could be yours or mine—but thank goodness it is not.” —Owen Sound Sun Times

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I immediately started on Lapena’s 2nd book, Happiness Economics (2011), but got bored about half way through.

I couldn’t cheer any of the characters.

I’m enjoying the Stone Barrington series of books — but found this one to be weakest of the ones I’ve read.

Stone Barrington and his former cop partner Dino are enjoying their drinks at Elaine’s when former client and all-around sad sack Herbie Fisher walks in…in need of a lawyer.

But while Stone is trying to fend off Herbie, a more welcome potential employer appears: a beautiful woman looking for somebody who somebody else wants dead.

She takes Stone into the posh world of embassy soirees and titled privilege, where high society meets government intrigue.

And when trouble follows him from his Manhattan townhouse to his tranquil summer home in Maine, Stone has to decide what to do with the explosive information he’s uncovered.

Amazon