Posted by Guilty Pleasures – the Novels of Stuart Woods
One of my “guilty pleasures” is reading my favorite writer, Stuart Woods. Boy, can the dude pump them out! In the last count, he has written over 80 books almost all of the best sellers and he has been pumping out one to two a year since he first got published in the late ’70s.
He started out writing “Chiefs” which became a movie as well. The main character is a police chief in a small town in Georgia. The character reappears in many later novels, eventually becoming a two-term president, and in town, Delgado also appears as a place in many of his later novels. Most of his novels are set in NYC, Maine, Key West, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Most of his books feature the exploits of Stone Barrington, an NYC high-society type who is a James Bond-like character. He is a retired NYC cop, a lawyer, a real estate investor, a part-time CIA agent, and a player with many love interests. He is also best friends with three presidents and the not-so-secret lover of the current President. He introduced me to Knob Creek bourbon which is now one of my favorite bourbons, and he is also partial to Martinis-made James Bond style.
In this alternative universe, the President serves two terms, his wife serves two terms, and her secretary of State is elected President. Stone is friends with them all.
Stone’s best friend is Dino Bachetti, his old NYC homicide partner who became NYC Police Commissioner and helps Stone out officially and unofficially over the years. He has had a lot of love interests including Holly Barker who was a former secretary of state and president.
Another recurring character is Ed Lee who is a friend of Stone who lives and works out of Santa Fe New Mexico. Ed Lee is a 6’8 former college basketball player who becomes an attorney.
My only criticism is that his books are very formalistic. At some point, someone is going to be able to program a computer to write novels and his novels would be a great place to start because I am sure that a computer could generate believable Stone Barrington novels. Having said that, his novels are still enjoyable.
He has written a few non-Stone Barrington novels stand-alone novels. One I enjoyed recently was Palindrome which is a psychological thriller set on an island off the South Carolina coast. Written in the mid 90’s I believe.
I often start a novel of his while waiting around in the PX for my wife to finish up, and throughout several visits, often finish the novel.
The following is a list of his novels, I bolded the ones I have read. One of my bucket list reading goals is to finish reading all of his novels.
The list
Stuart Woods Books in Order (Bold indicates I have read it)
Publication Order of Stone Barrington Books |
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Publication Order of Holly Barker Books |
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Publication Order of Ed Eagle Books |
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Publication Order of Herbie Fisher Books |
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Publication Order of Rick Barron Books |
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Publication Order of Teddy Fay Books |
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Publication Order of Will Lee Books |
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Publication Order of Standalone Novels |
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Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books |
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About Stuart Woods: (from web site) |
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| Stuarts Woods is an American novelist. He was born in Georgia in 1938 and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1959. He then enrolled in the National Guard before moving to New York to start a career in Advertising. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| He then moved to London and spent a further 3 years working in advertising before deciding that he wanted a change and he began writing his first novel. It is at this time that he decided to move to Ireland where he lived a solitary lifestyle, only leaving his home to make money writing adverts for local television. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sailing |
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| Woods moved to Ireland in the 70s and this was where he fell in love with sailing. He spent many years competing in sailing competitions and learning how to be a better sailor. He finally bought his boat when his grandfather died and left him some money, so he could afford it. It was then that he took sailing more seriously and spent most of 1974 learning more about sailing. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Writing |
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| Woods began writing about his experiences in his yacht races and he was published in 1977, with the book Blue Water, Green Skipper. It seemed like he had found an ideal career based on the thing he loved most, sailing. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Changing Plans | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| His second book was supposed to be about another boat race that he was due to take part in, but the race was canceled due to inclement weather, so he decided to drive around the UK and write a book about his adventures in the county inns. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chiefs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Woods then went on to write his first novel called Chiefs. He made the mistake of selling the book to publishers unfinished because he thought he would have gotten a lot more for it had he waited until the book was finished. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Norton was the company to publish the hardback, but he felt like the company let him down because they didn’t do much to promote the book. He then contacted Bentham Books, who published the paperback and it was much more successful.
Note: the main character resurfaces in the Stone Barrington novels as a politician and eventually two-term president. his wife then serves as president after he retires. |
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| Charlton Heston | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In 1983, the book was made into a tv series starring Charlton Heston and Danny Glover. It was aired by CBS over three nights and it ended up being nominated for three Emmy Awards. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The popularity of the tv show meant that more people wanted to read the books and there was renewed interest in the paperback version of the books and Woods won the Edgar Award for the Best First Novel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series Over Standalones |
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| Woods is one of those authors who are more focused on the series of novels over the standalone. His most popular series is the Stone Barrington Novels. He has just released his 27th novel in the series and he has written 3 more novels, which are set to be released in 2014. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Who is Stone Barrington? |
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| Stone Barrington is a counsel for a law firm. After he finished college, he joined the police and served 14 years on the force. He left after disagreeing with his superiors and then got a job with the law firm. The novels tell the story of his exploits so far. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In the Stone Barrington novels, Woods is often congratulated for getting the law procedures correct when he has no background in law himself. It is noticed a lot and one fan asked how he gets it all right. He indicates that he is a massive fan of law procedurals such as LA Law and Law & Order, so gets all of his knowledge from there. He has made a few friends who are Lawyers, so if he gets anything wrong, they tell him. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Holly Barker |
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Holly Barker is a character in another series of books that he writes. She is an ex-army officer and navy brat. She left the army because of a sex scandal and she has to learn how to live a civilian life. She begins her new life as the Chief of Police and she learns just how dangerous her new life is.
Update: she eventually becomes Stone Barington’s main love interest, joines the CIA and becomes Secretary of State and later the second Female President. These are all chronicalled in the Stone Barington Novels, the Holly Barker novel focus on her earlier life as the chief of police. end updated note |
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| Even though Woods has written several series, which focus on the life of a single character, the characters from each of the novels do crossover into other series. For example, Stone Barrington appears in the second Holly Barker novel and he also appears in the second novel of the Rick Barron novels. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rick Barron |
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| The Rick Barron novels are only two books deep at the moment. Rick Barron was a police detective and he was demoted after a run-in with a higher officer. He gets the job as security for Centurion Pictures but finds himself in the middle of a double murder case in the period that is said to be the golden age of Hollywood cinema. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The first Rick Barron novel, The Prince of Beverly Hills, was meant to be a standalone novel but Woods ended up writing a sequel after he was bombarded with emails from fans asking him to write another. He has no plans to write another at this moment in time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After Chiefs was made into a TV series, one of his other books was adapted for TV as well. Grass Roots was made into a TV series in 1993. Since then, no other books have been made for TV. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Woods indicates that he would love it for his other books to be made into movies and if a director has read one of the books and wants to buy the rights, then he encourages the writer to get in touch with his agent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In his personal life, Woods loves to fly, having his planes and he still sails regularly on his private yacht. He had married before but it ended in divorce and little is known about this marriage. He has stated that he preferred to live the life of a bachelor, but in 2013 he fell in love and married Jeanmarie Cooper. They have three homes, which they travel between, with their dog Fred.
End Stuart Wood com excerpt.Note: Teddy FeyTeddy Fay first appears as a domestic terrorist taking out corrupt political leaders. He is a disgruntled ex CIA agent and the master of covert action. He is eventually pardoned by President Lee and moves to LA where he works as a actor/producer for Stone Barington’s son who is a movie producer. He continues to occasionally engage in assasinations as a free lancer taking out those who need to be killed. Note: Herbie FisherHerbie Fisher appears as Stone’s newphew who is sort of like a smary, “Wally Cleaver” kind of young man. He eventually passes the bar on the 5th try, and becomes a lawyer, but a bit on the shady side of the street. The End
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