Santa Fe Dead

February 25, 2008
Bestseller Woods's third thriller to feature prominent New Mexican attorney Ed Eagle (after Short Straw
and Santa Fe Rules
) opens with a bang, but soon devolves into a fairly predictable cat-and-mouse game. Ed and his girlfriend, actress Susannah Wilde, are watching the Los Angeles trial on Court TV of his villainous ex-wife, Barbara, who stands accused of arranging for his murder, when a reporter announces that Barbara has escaped from custody just before the not guilty verdict. Soon, suitably disguised and under an alias, Barbara contrives to meet a recent widower, Palo Alto billionaire Walter Keeler, at a luxury spa and has him proposing marriage and making a new will in her favor. Meanwhile, her hatred for her ex unquenched, Barbara schemes to have Ed and Susannah killed. Bodies, innocent and otherwise, pile up, but there's little suspense about the outcome, and an improbable coincidence involving the billionaire may strike some as a plot weakness. Author tour.

Michael Kramer's deliberate narration style is generally well suited to the thrillers he delivers, but in not this series. The character of lawyer Ed Eagle requires a lighter delivery than Kramer's because Ed Eagle plots tend to be grandiose and unbelievable. This one picks up from his last adventure in which his ex-wife, Barbara, was arrested for criminal activity. Now, in the middle of her trial, Barbara escapes the courthouse by going out the bathroom window. Eagle ultimately gives chase and follows Barbara's trail from Santa Fe to California, New Mexico, and Tijuana. When he gets close, there's a surprise in store. While not at his best, Kramer turns in a decent performance of a highly incredible plot. A.L.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine