Fresh (and tasty) Disasters

The last Stuart Woods book I tried was started after dinner and finished before bedtime. I’m a fast reader.

But not that fast!

Taking on “Fresh Disasters,” I figured out why the Stone Barrington novels are such quick reads. A new chapter starts every three to four pages, and only half a page is printed at each chapter start.

Then, there’s the dialogue. The conversations are quick quips between old friends (it’s the 13th Barrington novel) and with each line is an indented paragraph. With page after page of two and three word exchanges, there just aren’t that many words to consume.

Reading “Fresh Disasters” is like watching television from the other room. It’s all talk and not a lot of visual information. The condo building is “new, very skinny, one apartment to a floor.” The imagination has to fill in the rest, and the mental images come from spoken descriptions, like when the hapless client calls the men chasing him “gorillas,” and identifies them as Goon and Gus.

Stone Barrington is the ultra-suave lawyer, whose latest case has him taking on a NYC mobster, who is after a scrawny, repulsive little deadbeat. Readers of Janet Evanovich’s “Stephanie Plum” mystery series will recognize the formula and stereotypical characters. But hey. It works.

In fact, it has done so well for Woods that another Stone Barrington novel is due in May, the paperback version of last fall’s “Shoot Him if He Runs.” The speedy reads might give you time to chew through the entire series before its release.

The quick banter between the likable characters makes “Fresh Disasters” a fun and easy morsel to devour, the way a tray of tasty party appetizers disappears before the main course arrives. What? There’s no main course? That’s okay, we’re all stuffed with cheesy cracker snacks.