A month full of Woods

Although the PGA golf tour started in January, a month of Woods refers to the man who holds a pen and not a club.

As one series ends another starts. Life goes on while others don't.  The ending of the Spenser series by Robert B. Parker not only coincided with the end of 2011, but the finality of the series left me at a crossroad. Should I continue to read it now that Parker has passed away? How does one write in the after life? Au contrair, Parkers estate has allowed Ace Atkins permission to continue to the series. So, I'll anxiously await the next one due out in May called, Robert B. Parker's Lullaby.

In the meantime, I was in search of a new character. The greatest thing that I've discovered in reading fiction and sometimes non-fiction, is depending how its written,  you can escape into the world of that character.

So for the month of January ( yea, I'm alittle behind on this post)...Meet Stone Barrington, an ex NYPD cop turned attorney turned investigator.

• Elaine's , yes the famous eatery in Manhattan; put to lyrics and melody in Billy Joel's Big Shot.
• Dino Bachetti, his former NYPD partner
• Wild Turkey
• Amarone Wine

• His glorious house inherited from his grandmother
• A cottage in Connecticut
• and...Women!

Those are Stone's trusted friends, places, vices and lustings.

The Barrington series starts off with the death of a TV News anchor in New York Dead. Followed by Dirt , a novel about slanderous rags we find on the news paper stand at the grocery checkout counter.  Dirt ranks right up there with Rupert Murdoch's hacking scandal at the News of the World.

Dirt, which you find when you scuff a golf ball on the fairway and  or hit it fat and right into the water leads us directly there - - Dead in the Water.  Barrington's next adventure as he awaits for his soon to be fiance in a castaway island resort only to find another bathing beauty sailing to shore.

We're not dead yet as Barrington has us Swimming to Catalina then having our Worst Fears Realized in Barrington's next mystery thriller.

Coastal travels plays into Barrington's repertoire as he finds himself in L.A. Dead and Cold Paradise.

Then in The Short Forever, which can also be construed as a three foot putt that must go in, Stone takes his talents to London.

We  closed out the month of January with Dirty Work which is Woods best and boldest effort thus far as the 9th in the 23 book series.  The other Woods although he's playing a little better in recent tournaments he has yet to regain is pre-scandal form( now he's "injured"). Perhaps his own past Dirty Work is still effecting this game?!