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Read Short Straw (2007)

Short Straw (2007)

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Rating
3.72 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0451220846 (ISBN13: 9780451220844)
Language
English
Publisher
signet

Short Straw (2007) - Plot & Excerpts

On the day that his elegant new office suite opens, Santa Fe attorney Ed Eagle awakens to find that his wife Barbara has left him, and taken all of his money with her. Eagle quickly takes action, getting back most of his stolen money and sending two private detectives after his wife, who has fled to Mexico. What Eagle doesn't know, but soon finds out, is that his soon to be ex-wife has placed a contract on his life...The thought that most reoccurred to me while reading Stuart Woods' novel Short Straw was, "Why yes, Mr. Woods, I am a big fan of Elmore Leonard myself. But you, sir, are no Elmore Leonard." While Short Straw is an acceptable piece of escapist trash entertainment, it lacks the razor sharp and strangely good-natured edge that make the novels of Elmore Leonard so much fun to read. Author Stuart Woods does an adequate job of aping Dutch's story rhythm, Short Straw plays out almost like a comedy of errors, where everything that can go wrong does for the story's hapless heroes. Those heroes are actually private detectives Vittorio and Cupie Dalton, an Apache and a retired LAPD detective, respectively. The central character of Ed Eagle really doesn't do a whole lot, other than blow away a potential hit man and hook up with a hot n' comfy Hollywood actress in what has to be the most laughable excuse for a middle-aged romance fantasy that I have read in quite some time.Short Straw's biggest failure, however, is its characters. They're not really characters, just stick figures that move through the novel's "Whatever can go wrong, does" style plot with an emotionless vigor. There is not a single moment during the book's 286 pages where any of the characters ever truly come alive, emotionally speaking. Plot twist after plot twist is delivered by Woods in a monotone narrative voice, with his cast reacting with all the heartfelt emotion of a Pod Person from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. With no one in the story described as reacting in an emotional manner to the countless double-crosses and repeated murder attempts, it was hard for me, as a reader, to really care about any of it.

This is the second book in a series which i never read the first of. It was a very quick and easy read, i blew right through it. The book is about a lawyer, Ed Eagle, who wakes on his 50th birthday to find that his wife had drugged him the night before and run off to mexico with all of his money, including the money for his new firm. He manages to stop part of the money transfers, and hires 2 private detectives to track down his wife and get her to sign divorce papers. It really got to me how awful this woman was. Eagle thought they loved each other, but she was faking it and planning to steal his money and cheat the whole time, and even tries to kill him and others. too many rotten people in this world... anyway, im not giving anything away because the point of the story are the twists and turns and adventures etc, and it sometimes doesnt even seem like eagle is the main character. id read more from this series. oh, and i dont know why others have rated this to have a lot of graphic sex. i didnt find that to be true at all. i also didnt think it seemed particuarly male vs female the way some others have.

What do You think about Short Straw (2007)?

This book was a reminder as to why I even started reading Woods' books in the first place. A fun read that wasn't over-complicated with extra plot points, fast paced and easily found at yard sales for under a $1 a book.I had read the 3rd Ed Eagle book before I found this one but I never read any of the Stone novels in order so whatever, wasn't about to start now. I'll be honest and say that I barely can recall a single thing that happened in the 3rd book so if book 3 had spoilers for books 1 and/or 2, I have no memory of it.This book was Classic Woods', back when he would write a book that made sense, one that he attempted to take his time with and wasn't pushing them out for money.Ed meets a woman and they don't fall in bed minutes after meeting! They don't even sleep together after knowing each other a whole day! In fact, she stays at his house, in a different room! Poor Ed, he must just not have the same charismatic charm that Stone does. The overall story was wrapped up by the end of the book. I don't mean that it tied up so neatly that another book was impossible but rather, you can read this book as a standalone and not be kept up at night with questions. Ed has money, much like Stone but Woods doesn't shove it in your face every chapter. Stuart Woods has started filling his books with outrageous displays of wasting money, large, ridiculous sums of cash that boggle the mind and stretch the plot so thin that you can't even enjoy the story but this book was written previous to that bad habit. I'm not saying that Ed doesn't have cash to burn but it is nothing like the newer Barrington books.I will complain that the fictional "town" in Ga that Woods's created for Chiefs that so many of his characters are from.... it can't be a small town if half the world of Stone, Ed and Will is fictitious from this town which must be a sprawling metropolis at this point. And enough with the Georgia drinkers loving Knob Creek. Been there, read that.. move on!
—Ashley

Barbara fucks Ed Eagle royally. Ed Eagle awakes drugged to find his wife Barbara has vanished and emptied his bank accounts and brokerage accounts and fled to Mexico City. Ed dispatches Cupie to find her and sign pages for a divorce decree, but Cupie is shot instead. Ed dispatches Vittoriot to back Cupie up, and Vittorio is seduced by Barbara and thrown in the Gulf of California during a blow job. Ed meets Susannah and hooks up with his next starlet, and directs the hunt for Barbara, ending at the Tijuana crossing and her arrest for murder.
—Will

Woods is a prolific writer with a handful of prime characters living within a fictional era (1930s to present day). These characters are incestuous – figuratively, that is – intermingling with one another in his various works. This book features Ed Eagle, the Santa Fe attorney protagonist in Santa Fe Rules, an earlier work. Yet still, a few more characters return from other Woods novels, fueling interest further for prior fans. In this paperback, Eagle awakens late on his 50th birthday to discover his wife had drugged him the night before, cleaned out his business, personal, and brokerage accounts to the tune of $4+ mil, chartered a jet, and flew to Mexico. His efforts to recover are interrupted by a judge assigning him work that the public defender’s office is too busy to perform. A couple of detectives become involved, and the chase is on. His wife Barbara proves to be a worthy adversary. In earlier years, Woods developed plots and characters more thoroughly. Nevertheless, I found this story sufficiently compelling to continue reading until 3 a.m. in order to reach the conclusion of the book. But “finished” with woods doesn’t mean “the end.” I expect to see yet more of Ed Eagle
—John Mcconahey

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