Black Dog
“With rue my heart is laden,”1 as the notice slipped through my various feeds just before this book dropped. The author Stuart Woods passed, apparently from news reader, in his sleep last week of July. As an author, I understand having material in the publishing pipeline, ready for the future. 60+ novels in a single series, and the end was not in sight.
The books themselves tend to be lightweight, well-executed, ripping yarns with a cast of characters spanning decades of emotional investment. I always thought of the Stuart Woods books as guilty pleasures. I’ve only been reading them the last 15 years or thereabouts.
Just as a bookmark, last 16 years, maybe a little longer? I likened them to adult Hardy Boys, and that gave way to a favorite piece of art from a local bookstore. I was having a book appraised, for its donation value, and I noticed a long collection of Hardy Boys mysteries. Makes such an evocative header for a series — at least to me it does. I didn’t know I liked serials until two concurrent events: pandemic lock-up and digital library access.
There should be at least one more book, maybe two, depends on what manuscripts were turned in, I suppose.
However, this one the pacing was back to the brisk style that leaves no time to do anything else but read. Good stuff.
There’s a special way the tension builds and a few pages short of the end? It looks like there is no way out. Thriller set amongst the rich and wonderful of NYC.
In the last years, each novel has ended with set-up for the next.
Think there is one more in the pipes. Sure hope so.
Good books are such s guilty pleasure. Book dropped on Tuesday, I didn’t get to the store until Thursday and I was done reading by Friday.
I’ve always admired the workmanlike prose, and concise story-telling.
Good book.
Black Dog
- “With rue my heart is laden” from A.E. Housman… ↩