Short Straw

August 14, 2006
At the start of this taut tale of a very bad woman out to fleece a very good man from bestseller Woods, Santa Fe, N.Mex., lawyer Ed Eagle wakes up one morning with a terrible hangover and a missing wife. After a few phone calls, it turns out that not only has his wife, Barbara, disappeared, she's in the process of taking $5 million of his money with her. Ed, who met Barbara in an earlier Woods novel, Santa Fe Rules
(1992), knew she was a shady character, but she was also beautiful and fabulous in bed so he married her. He hires a couple of PIs to find her, but every time they catch up with the unrepentant Barbara, she shakes them off and gets away. She's the most compelling character in the book, willing to go to any lengths, including murder, to keep the money. Scarcely an excess word gets in the way of the briskly moving plot. Author tour.

Stuart Woods just keeps getting better. SHORT STRAW revisits Native American lawyer Ed Eagle, now having trouble with his wife. She has drained his bank account and taken off to Mexico. Eagle is not going to cry in his beer; he sends two trusted investigators to get her back--and that's just the first chapter. Michael Kramer brings all his skills as an actor to bear performing the roles, women as well as men. It's a straightforward story, nice and linear, but loaded with innuendo that Kramer handles beautifully. Listeners won't be able to stop until all the mysteries are solved. This book is satisfying in every sense of the word. More Ed Eagle! M.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine