Friday, September 14, 2012

Book #52

Unnatural Acts, by Stuart Woods. Unabridged audio.

This novel opens with a terrific memorial to Elaine Kaufman, the real-life person whose real-life restaurant served as a prominent setting in almost every one of Woods' novels. The running joke in this one of where Stone Barrington and Dino Bichetti would eat dinner not that Elaine is closed was a nice touch.
Police officer turned lawyer Stone Barrington, along with his former partner and current NYPD man Dino take, on the case of a hedge fund billionaire. His drug-dealing son needs some sense talked into him, and Stone's old buddy Herbie Fisher is just the man to do that.

Much of the main plot focuses on Herbie, as a matter of fact. His good luck continues in this book, as his career as a lawyer progresses quite well during this novel. He shows skills and knowledge that were only hinted at when Fisher appeared in previous novels. An humorous touch is that Fisher tries to rebrand himself as "Herbert" or "Herb", but the narration continually calls him "Herbie. "

Stone and Dino turn up when they are needed, but as much of their time on the page is for character
development as it is for plot. I continue to get the feeling that Woods is wrapping up some loose ends in his novels. The ongoing cast continues to shrink, and I wonder if Woods is preparing an exit strategy for these characters, and that a final novel in the series will arrive at some point in the future.

As always, narrator Tony Roberts again does a fine job narrating this book.

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