Book Review: Reckless Abandon

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Reckless Abandon     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Stuart Woods
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller
Series: Stone Barrington # 10
Putnam, April 2004, $25.95, 384 pp.

When Holly Barker, Chief of the Orchid Beach Police in Florida travels to New York to apprehend a fugitive, she contacts Stone Barrington who invites her to stay at his home. They met when Stone witnessed a bank robbery in which Holly’s fiancé was killed. Trini Rodriguez, who is part of the Mafia, is wanted in the murder of over a dozen people after he bombed a church. Holly couldn’t keep him behind bars because Trini was a very important informant who the FBI put in the Witness Protection Program.

Holly hopes to find him in New York City and arrest him on a fugitive warrant but the FBI wants her to hold off on serving it until Trini’s infiltrates an Arab terrorist cell so the government can arrest them on information the thugs delivers. After the cell is broken up the FBI spirit Trini away with Stone and Holly trailing them all over the country to hand down the warrant. While perusing Trini and company, Holly and Stone begin a hot and steamy affair that gets her mind off of her obsessive need to find her criminal.

In RECKLESS ABANDON, the FBI comes across as bumbling idiots who can’t shake a tail or keep their informant hidden. The fact that they are willing to protect him after he killedg over a dozen innocents will enrage readers as much as it does Holly. The teaming up of the protagonists from Stuart Woods’ two series works so well together, it is to be hoped that they will pair up in future novels.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner