Book Review: Family Jewels (crime mystery, dog)

Family Jewels: A Stone Barrington Novel, by Stuart Woods (Putnam, 2016, 311 pages, $28) Number 37 in a series of 44 (28 of which are bestsellers – or is it 50? The internet disagrees with itself.)

Every once in a while, I get an itchin’ to read a good (short) mystery, really fast, to get it out of my system. Sort of like an occasional yummy desert. I read John MacDonald (Travis McGee), Jonathan Kellerman, David Baldacci, James Patterson, Spencer Quinn (dog mysteries), and Sue Grafton.

Stuart Woods’ work is fast paced, and a mystery, so it fits the bill perfectly. When I noticed Family Jewels for $5 at Barnes and Noble, I grabbed it, hoping I hadn’t read it before! (Reading several dozen books a year, I can easily start the same one twice – especially after a few years or with a new cover.)

Woods is an almost professional pilot and sailor: the flying experience comes through in nearly every book, to entice a specific reader niche, while the Nancy Drew-like plot carries the rest of the readership. Add wealth and women and you have a recipe for a good night’s read. With lots of conversation.

Our protagonist, Stone Barrington, is an attorney, a former cop in New York City with residences in various locations, a private plane, and a few women in every book – every man’s dream. He is on dining-out terms with the NYC chief of police and his phone calls are accepted by the US president (female), whose husband is also a former US president!

Family Jewels takes us to New Mexico with a wealthy bejeweled divorcee who believes her ex is out to get her so she hires Stone. Would you believe the ex also tries to hire Stone because he thinks she is out to get him? Or so they say, until the woman is murdered.

Where’s the Dog?

I would probably not be writing about Family Jewels if there weren’t (wasn’t?) a dog involved. This one, Bob, is a delightful Labrador who adopts Stone Barrington (love that classy name). I smile whenever Bob comes on the scene. He is a good dog who goes out to dinner with our hero and lies politely under the restaurant dinner table nursing a juicy T-bone bone.

So goes the plot - and the pace is quick until towards the end we finally learn a bit about Nazi history.

The Cover

Family Jewels has an electrifying front cover which contains a hint to part of the plot - a ruby and diamond necklace. And you'll want to read more of Woods' novels with many of the same recurring characters.

Woman in Gold*, Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, Helen Mirren

If the names above are not quite familiar to you - you have heard them somewhere but can't quite place them, you may at least remember something about the Helen Mirren movie of four years ago. Chances are if you didn’t see it then, you will want to after reading Family Jewels!

And now, I think it’s about time I read another Spencer Quinn canine mystery of the Chet and Bernie type. Quinn must have a new one out now: it’s been about a year since I curled up for a couple of hours with that talking sleuth of a canine!