Loitering with Intent

As I've been working my way through my tbr shelves I discovered several titles by Stuart Woods. I only had one novel from the Will Lee series, "Grass Roots" and I decided to read that novel prior to the 3 books from the Stone Barrington series. I'm glad I read that novel first as I had a positive reaction to beginning to read "Loitering with Intent" and although it is Book 16 of 57 in the series to date, it is the 1st novel of 3 in the series (#16, #30, and #32) that I had available on my tbr shelves.

The novel is a quick read and easy to enjoy as a stand-alone. I know I'll date myself here but I'm quite okay with that as the thoughts running through my mind as I continued reading and turning pages were:

(1) The character of Stone show more Barrington reminded me of Thomas Magnum in the television series Magnum, P.I. (1980–1988) as portrayed by Thomas Selleck even though Barrington is an attorney and Magnum was a private investigator. Barrington seemed to have all the sex scenes that could never have been portrayed on television in Magnum's 1980's time frame. I have not watched any of the remake episodes with Jay Hernandez portraying Magnum so I can't comment in any regard. Perhaps I also thought of the comparison of Barrington and Magnum since Tom Selleck has been portraying Frank Reagan, NY Police Chief Commissioner for years and Barrington and many of his cronies and networking contacts are either currently employed by the NYPD or retirees with continued connections to law enforcement.

(2) In the 80's and 90's, I was reading each new novel by a particular romance novelist that is still publishing today. It took me way too long to stop reading her books but I finally couldn't endure one more predictable storyline. Some may think I'm being too quick in judgment but it feels like regardless of the novel selected in this series line-up that it will be another predictable storyline for the NYPD comrades.

If friends that share books provide other novels by Stuart Woods, I might try another from the Will Lee series or one of his other novels (stand-alone or another series) but I know I'll pass on Barrington. When I do my own used bookstore shopping Stuart Woods will not be on my list as there are many other authors that are new to me for desired investigation. show less

I fear that the Stuart Woods of old has permanently disappeared, and along with him goes any semblance of good writing or character development. Stone Barrington and Dino head to Key West under the absolute thinnest of circumstances and it seems that every other page finds Stone having wild, insane, mind-blowing sex with a Swedish bombshell. Oh. What. Fun. Ugh. The dialogue is horrid and nothing, from the plot to the sub-plots makes any sense beyond the thinnest of veils. I think this ends my journey in the world of Stone Barrington...too bad Stuart Woods seems to use these novels to play out his sexual fantasies instead of writing good crime fiction. His early stuff is great and only in recent years has taken a sharp turn for the show more worse. Don't waste your time with this one... show less

Review: Loitering With Intent by Stuart Woods.

This was an interesting mystery and suspenseful story. There was a lot of action in the story as Stone Barrington who was the main character working as a lawyer was hired to locate Bill Egger’s son and get his signature on documents for the sale of the family’s business which is worth millions of dollars. Bill was estranged from his son, Evan Keating and his sons last known place was Key West, Florida.

Stone hops on a plane with a buddy named Dino who was a former cop, so they left New York and headed to the Keys for a working vacation. There were many twists and turns throughout the story that kept me curious plus the identity of who’s who was confusing at times. I was surprised that show more the story had so many little skits here and there. The book was read in a fast pace in order to keep up with all the events and adventure.

There was a sniper, a private plane, a remote airport, drugs, and family drama between grandfather, father and son, deception, con man, a vast amount of boats, and a girlfriend who was a muscle woman…. show less

Woods, once again, follows the familiar Stone Barrington formula. This time, Dino and he are in Key West, working against a multi-millionaire. This plot could be played anywhere, except that Key West makes a good locale for a relaxing, formulaic novel. Yes, the love interest gets a bullet to the head--she almost always does. I'll bet this plot was ripped from a Perry Mason story from the 1950s? I thought Stone transitioned nicely from finding the object of his search to being good friends. The Brit Key West cop was a little incredulous. Thank you Mr Woods, I'll have another.

Dumped by his glamorous Russian girlfriend during dinner at Elaine’s and running low on cash, Stone Barrington is not having a good week. So his luck seems to be improving when he’s hired to locate the missing son of a very wealthy man—lucky because the job pays well, and because the son seems to be hiding in the tropical paradise of Key West. But when Stone and his sometime running buddy Dino Bacchetti arrive in the sunny Keys, it appears that someone has been lying in wait. Stone very nearly loses his life after being blindsided at a local bar, and he realizes that the missing son he’s been hired to track may have good reason for not wanting to be found. Suddenly Key West is looking less like Margaritaville and more like the show more mean streets of New York... show less

I had nearly given up on Stuart Woods as his writing has become predictable, but this recent effort was better than his last few, although it was obvious to me who was the person behind the mystery.

Stone Barrington has just gotten dumped by his girl at his favorite restaurant in New York, Elaine's. So, he is quite happy to get an assignment that takes him out of New York for a bit and into the sunshine of Key West. It seems like a pretty easy job. All he has to do is get Evan Keating to sign a document that will allow his father to sell the family business. Dino and Stone head to Key West, find Evan eventually, but he refuses to sign. It then gets even more complicated...

Ahhh, Stone Barrington, I just love him! I must admit, however, that this series is getting a bit repetitive. I enjoy Stone and his adventures, but it would be nice to read more substance, more details, more of everything. It would also be nice to see Stone have show more more compassion...his girlfriend gets killed and it seems to be no big deal to him-have a heart! Maybe next time... show less