Copyright 1995 by Stuart Woods. Published by HarperCollins.
This is my first Stuart Woods novel ever and it won’t be my last. He is a very talented writer who kept my interest.
Those of you familiar with the movie Strangers on a Train will recognize the starting premise: two strangers meet – on a plane, not a train – and discuss the possibility of killing each other’s wives. Woods gives credit where it is due: the strangers broach the subject because the movie was shown on the flight. The plot continues in a familiar way initially. They meet again, discuss the details of how both murders would be done and they agree to do it. Then one – Sandy Kinsolving, a wine executive in his wife’s family business in New York – decides he can’t go through with it and executes the agreed-upon signal to call it all off. But his wife is murdered anyway, in a way that suggests that the other husband ignored his signal. And since she was murdered right after she told Sandy that she was filing for divorce and wants him out of the business, Sandy is a prime suspect. He has an iron-clad alibi, but the detective on the case is convinced that he hired someone to kill her and tries very hard to prove it.
Sandy is none too pleased that his attempt to call off the execution was ignored. But he can’t deny that he is pleased that his wife is gone as she died before she had a chance to change her will. He not only inherits her half of the thriving business – which he sells for a nifty $28 million – but he finds a new love interest, a beautiful interior decorator.
But the other husband – Peter Martindale, a San Francisco art dealer – won’t let him off the hook. He says he has proof that Sandy masterminded the execution of his wife and has deposited that proof with his lawyer with instructions to send the proof – a full description of their murder-exchange agreement, along with the keys to the basement storage unit that Sandy had given him and where his wife was murdered – to the police in the event of his death. So much for the idea of killing him instead of Martindale’s wife. Sandy feels cornered and compelled to go through with his half of the bargain. So, during a trip to San Francisco to tour some vineyards, he attempts to kill Peter’s wife in her art gallery. But someone beats him to it: he arrives at the gallery to find it surrounded by police and a body being carried out.
What is going on?
What follows is a rapid series of moves and countermoves that are pretty fascinating and veer the plot away from the original. I was constantly surprised and even 80% of the way through the book had no idea where it was headed, though I did feel that it was likely to end up in Sandy’s favor as he was much more sympathetic as a character than was Peter.
I was right. Sandy ends up smelling like roses, but the way he triumphs was pretty interesting. The conclusion was a little bit of a letdown, but the book was still a very worthwhile read.
7 out of 10.