Book #74

Strategic Moves, by Stuart Woods. Unabridged audio.

I am a fan of Woods' novels, especially those featuring Stone Barrington. In this one, the retired NYPD officer turned lawyer turned CIA operative finds himself thrown into another adventure. An investment firm which Stone has a passing acquaintance has lost a few billion dollars, and a man being sought out by the CIA seeks Stone's protection. There are potential conflicts of interest, which Stone manages to wiggle out of cleverly.

This book does have one of the single best escape scenes I've ever read. It involves an expensive automobile and a large aircraft. And there are other expected scenes involving the Barrington supporting players, such as Dino and Joan and Eggers.

This is the third book I've read this year, after the death of bin Laden, that deals in some way with the capture or killing of bin Laden. It was published 3 months before the man's death, but I had the misfortune of reading it six months after. Similar to dropping in pop culture references into a literary work, using real-world events and personalities can give a work verisimilitude, but can also (like in this work) make it obsolete.

The subplots did not intersect as much as I prefer in works like this, although this lack of neat intertwining does give the work a more realistic feel. This aside, I found the book to be a fun, fast-paced yarn.