Cut and Thrust by Stuart Woods
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Stone Barrington is another one of those series I just cannot pass up. When a new one comes out, I grab it, read it, and think ‘why?’. The last 4 or 5 have been …ok… not too good, not too bad-decent enough for a quick read between other books.
But, this one, #30 in the series, is different enough that I think Stuart Woods may have redeemed himself! In this book, Stone travels to L.A. for the Democratic National Convention and possible nomination of the first lady as the Presidential candidate. The story veers off from the usual sex/money/sex/beautiful women/sex/wealth & privilege/more sex into a very nice political drama. Lots of details of behind the scenes campaign workings. Stone meets up with several old friends & enemies with the usual resulting violence. There are some unexpected outcomes and all in all a pretty darn good read with a few tantalizing loose ends left dangling for the next book.
I hope Stuart Woods continues this type of writing-by that I mean, not so much of the sexy/money stuff and more of the meaty stories with great characters and this interesting & very plausible political plot. It’s been a long time since I gave Stuart Woods 4 stars but I was very happy to do so with this book.