STUART WOODS NOVEL A THRILLER THIS TIME

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992                   TAG: 9202020244
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: F-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO BOOK PAGE EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
STUART WOODS NOVEL A THRILLER THIS TIME
NEW YORK DEAD. By Stuart Woods. HarperCollins. $20.
Stuart Woods is, if nothing else, a solid craftsman. Sometimes he stumbles. His last novel, "Palindrome," was so strangely plotted and riddled with cliches and coincidence that even his sure touch with locations and characters couldn't save it.
While "New York Dead" is no less preposterous, it's a lot more fun. If "Palindrome" was a hardcover miniseries, this novel could easily be turned into a fine 90-minute thriller.
It begins late one night when New York police detective Stone Barrington (that breathless name tells you a lot) is walking home from Elaine's. (The name dropping is shameless and completely appropriate for this kind of escapism.) A few blocks away, he sees a woman hurtling through the air. And this is not just any woman; it's Sasha Nijinsky, the glamorous anchorperson!
Before Stone can determine who was in the apartment with her, the case takes several bizarre turns. As luck and a huge pile of dirt on Second Avenue would have it, Sasha may be alive. A cameraman on the scene says her eyes were moving when she was loaded into an ambulance.
Minutes later the plot becomes even more bizarre when . . . but that would spoil the fun.
In short order, Woods introduces a cast of glitzy media types and Big Apple stereotypes. Then he seasons the mix liberally with sex, turns the burner up to high and before you know it, the pot is boiling away. All too often, in this kind of fiction, the opening chapters are the strongest. It's not that hard to come up with an intriguing "what-if" hook; it's much more difficult to work it through to an equally surprising conclusion.
For my money, Woods dropped that particular ball in "Palindrome." In "New York Dead" though, his payoff is completely unexpected, scary and, at the same time, logical. So, this time, don't wait for the movie. Read the book.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB