The Run (abridged audiobook) by Stuart Woods

A political thriller for people who do not really follow politics

Published in 2000 by HarperAudio
Read by Ken Howard
Duration: 5 hours, 39 minutes
Abridged

Ken Howard (most famous for his TV show The White Shadow) narrates this nearly 6 hour abridgment of The Run, a below par political thriller.

Filled with undeveloped story threads that promise something interesting but rarely delivers (the VP has Alzheimer's, militias are out to assassinate the candidate, the candidate's wife is a bigwig in the CIA, there's dirt on the candidate - all for naught) The Run is a great example of a political thriller for people who do not really follow politics. Lots of things won't sit right with folks who watch politics -primaries are still happening in July and August, there is at least one brokered convention (another one is hinted at but it may have been abridged out of my version), the amounts of money spent are tiny, even by year 2000 standards.

The White House

Perhaps strangest of all, Bill Clinton is referenced several times throughout this book which purports to be about the year 2000 election. Strangely, Clinton is not the president at the time of the 2000 election in this book, nor had he been removed by impeachment in the story (Woods would have been writing this at the time of Clinton's impeachment). Why not make the election the 2004 or 2008 election? Not a big deal, but it still bothered me throughout.

Skip this one. If you want to read a good Stuart Woods thriller, read Chiefs or White Cargo.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found in abridged and unabridged formats on Amazon.com here: The Run by Stuart Woods.

Reviewed on November 6, 2008. 

White Cargo by Stuart Woods

Engrossing - pulled me right in

Published in 1988.

There are two Stuart Woods out there, at least in my mind. There's the early Stuart Woods that wrote great books like Chiefs and there's the Stone Barrister-writing Stuart Woods that just writes a formula plot, mail it in and collects a check.

In White Cargo, a wealthy American, Wendell Catledge, is yachting off of the coast of Colombia when he is attacked by pirates and his wife and daughter are kidnapped and end up in the underworld of the narco-traffickers. Catledge goes underground to find his family in Colombia.

White Cargo is definitely an early Stuart Woods book! I found myself pulled into this plot and I just had to know what happened next, despite the fact that the violence and sexual exploitation was a bit too extreme for my tastes. The ending was fairly hokey but the overall strength of the rest of the book more than makes up for that.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: White Cargo by Stuart Woods.

Reviewed on January 14, 2006.

Dirt (Stone Barrington) by Stuart Woods

Man oh man! Is this the same guy that wrote "Chiefs"?

Originally published in 1996.

I ask the question because Chiefs was an absolutely fantastic novel. One of my favorites. This story is easy to read, quick-moving and entertaining but, for me, ultimately it is disappointing because I know that he could do sooooooo much better. If you've never read Stuart Woods, read Chiefs and maybe you'd be better off just walking away.

So, why am I irritated? The characters are two-dimensional cutouts of what we might suspect the rich and the famous are really like. They reminded me of unpleasant parodies of the Howells from Gilligan's Island. Woods can do so much more.

To be fair, I guess I'm really irritated to see a man who showed so much early promise resort to being a hack writer, pounding out the same story time after time. I tolerate, in fact, I revel in it when it comes to Robert B. Parker. But in the case of Stuart Woods - what an incredible waste of writing talent!

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Dirt by Stuart Woods.

Reviewed on October 14, 2004.

Chiefs by Stuart Woods

Published in 1981.

Winner of the Edgar Award, 1982.

Chiefs is the debut novel of Stuart Woods. Woods is quite prolific and has gone on to write more than 30 novels. It is the story of a succession of police chiefs in Delano, Georgia, a small town. It reminds me of a James Michener novel in that the main characters change as time progresses, but the story continues on in the same locale. This novel is also the story of race relations in rural Georgia from the 1920s to the 1960s.

The characters are very good - there's a wide variety of characters here. One of the sheriffs is especially vile, but you root for him as he is tracking down a serial killer that stalks, rapes and kills young men over the course of 40 years.

Stuart Woods has settled in to writing formulaic detective thrillers, like the Stone Barrington novels, but this is undoubtedly the best of his books that I have read. Here is the highest praise I can give it - this book is a book that I wish I had written - it has heart, danger, loyalty and a host of other qualities that make it great.

I rate this book 5 stars out of a possible 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Chiefs by Stuart Woods.

Reviewed May 15, 2004.