Scandalous Behavior

Scandalous Behavior by Stuart Woods

I can’t say I’m a big fan, or even a fan, of Stuart Woods and his novels. But for more than a decade now, I’ve been reading his new releases, time permitting, as pure, unadulterated escapist fiction. Just fun stuff. Make-believe world with a shrewd novelist’s eye for detail, story that pulls it along. Characters, travel, intrigue.

What I’ve grown to admire, most of all, is the lack of stylistic affectations. A style that’s nothing but clean prose. Craftsmanship, well-done. Like a well-constructed cabinet, or piece of furniture, not flashy, no ornate finishes, nothing fancy, just good, solid prose. This novel picks up where the last left off. Protagonist gets in a plane and flies away in the last novel, and this one starts with the same guy landing, the same plane.

Different country, different girlfriend, but some things never change.

The serial quality of this canon of works has never been so apparent.

While there’s a perfectly good First Edition here, I prefer the digital library version. Took a week or so, but I snagged it s soon as it popped up in the library. Made me think, though, about the serial nature of the work. New book is $25, that author releases maybe three in a year, each at 50K words. That’s 150K words in a year, and the totally serial nature of this?

As a serial, the seamless integration, each novel is capable of standing on its own, but also flows so well as a series. It’s really good if you like this kind of stuff. I don’t, but I do like these. More than halfway through, I paused, looked at the time and the calendar, and thought, “Sure, I can finish this tonight.”

Scandalous Behavior – Stuart Woods

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