Copyright 1991 by Stuart Woods. Published by HarperCollins, New York.

This is the first book in the series of mysteries by Stuart Woods that feature Stone Barrington, upscale cop, investigator and lawyer. This is my second Barrington book, having read Foreign Affairs first (#35 in the series). I didn’t like Foreign Affairs much (I scored it a 3 out of 10) but thought I should give this popular, long-running series another shot. Starting at the beginning seemed like the best way to do that.

As this book opens, Stone is recovering from a gunshot wound to the knee that he received on the job as detective for the NYPD. He happens to see a woman fall 12 stories, presumably to her death. He calls it in, then heads to the penthouse to investigate. When he arrives he hears the footsteps of someone – a murderer? – rapidly descending the staircase. He tries to follow but is unable, due to his injured knee, to catch the fleeing suspect.

He then learns, from a reporter who observed the woman shortly after her fall, that she was alive. Badly injured, but not dead. Survived a 12-story fall? Well, it turns out this woman was a famous television news anchor with considerable skydiving experience. Could she have used her knowledge of aerodynamics and the fortunate placement of a soft pile of newly excavated dirt to save herself? She is loaded into an ambulance, but the ambulance is struck by a fire engine on the way to the hospital. Everyone in the ambulance is taken to the hospital – except the woman, who has disappeared. Is she alive or dead?

This is the confusing start to a plot that has more twists and turns than the Mississippi River. Stone is initially put in charge of the investigation, but his belief that the woman is alive puts him at odds with the NYPD brass who want to quickly close the case. He is drummed out of the force with a medical excuse. He is given a generous disability pension but Stone can’t let the case rest.

I won’t go into all of the complications that arise but I found the plot to be complex, plausible and very satisfying. I had a hard time putting the book down.

9 out of 10. WAY better than Foreign Affairs.

Copyright 2021 by David Benjamin. Published by Last Kid Books, Madison WI.

The usual disclaimer: I know the author. He is one of my oldest and dearest friends.

This is #3 in Benjamin’s series of mysteries featuring Jim Otis, Sheriff of Hercules WI, a small town disparagingly called “hicksville.” Otis is a former Chicago cop who was forced out of both his job and his marriage by a romantic liaison with a young woman who turned out to be underage. That woman appears briefly in this book and she is one of the women giving Otis trouble, but there are others: his ex-wife, his girlfriend, a fire-and-brimstone preacher, several members of the local Ho-Chunk tribe and, most of all, Josie Dobbs, the teen temptress who caused Otis to lose his job in Hercules, later to be regained.

Sherlock Holmes has Professor Moriarty; Jim Otis has Josie Dobbs. She is an “angel” who raises hell. But never gets blamed for the trouble she generates. In this book the trouble is the disappearance of the star junior cheerleader at Hercules High. It is a suspected kidnapping, but no ransom is sought. Josie Dobbs, now a freshman at Bryn Mawr, over a thousand miles away, was in Hercules the weekend when Carrie, the cheerleader, disappeared. Could that fact be significant? Otis has a “hunch” that it is, but he doubts himself due to his personal painful history with Josie (he lost his job because he was accused of raping her). But that history has convinced him that Josie is the Devil incarnate. He may be right.

The plot is not terribly complex, but the story proceeds in a gripping way and the characters and locations – Ajay’s bar, Calamity Jane’s breakfast joint, Hercules High, the stone quarry and the Little Red Church in the Vale – are fully formed. I could picture them as I read. It was a good read.

7 out of 10. More complexity would have boosted the score.