Stuart Woods, Short Straw

Short Straw

Stuart Woods

Putnam, October 2006, $25.95, 304 pp.

ISBN 0399153683

Santa Fe attorney Ed Eagle wakes up surprised to see that his wife Barbara is nowhere to be found at home or in their new office. He learns that one and a half million dollars is being transferred to an account in the Cayman Islands. His broker tells Ed that he liquidated his million dollar account and he is getting ready to wire it. He's able to stop the money from being transferred, except for the $300,000 Barbara took out of her new account.

Ed hires private detective Cupie Dalton to Mexico City where the money bounced to from the Cayman Islands. He wants Cupie to find his spouse and have her sign six sheets of papers. Barbara ends up shooting him, and even though the wound isn't severe, he sends another private detective Vittorio for back up. Someone in Mexico wants Barbara dead, and the two PI's end up protecting her. She tricks them into thinking she signed the papers, not once but twice, and Ed realizes just how dangerous she really is when he learns she took a hit out on him. Ed, with the help of the two private detectives is determined to bring her down, but Ed wants his wife alive, while other men want her dead for what she did to them.

The antagonist is the personification of a black widow, willing to kill her mate (and others) to get what she wants, which is his money. This leads the audience to wonder how Ed and others missed her lethal avaricious traits. SHORT STRAW starts out at light speed and never slows down, as is typical of Stuart Woods' action thrillers. Surprisingly, his characters are three dimensional, not stereotypes, and all of them are believable. Let us hope the author writes more works starring Ed Eagle, a protagonist who gets things done his way.