Santa Fe Rules

By: Stuart Woods

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Successful movie producer Wolf Willett is stunned when he sees his own death reported in a major newspaper. It says he was a victim in a triple homicide during a sordid tryst with his wife and a friend. But who is the unidentified corpse? Why can't Wolf remember anything about the night in question? And who wants him dead?

Wolf had the means and motive - and his inexplicable memory loss seems far too suspicious to suit Sante Fe's crusading DA, who promptly has Wolf arrested. And when another murder complicates the scenario, he turns to hotshot criminal attorney Ed Eagle to help clear his name - and stop a killer who's determined to finish the job.

©1992 Stuart Woods (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Clever plot!

The story was very clever although it glossed over the relationship between Wolf’s wife and friend Marcus.

As a Native Santa Fean and defense attorney

I enjoyed “Santa Fe rules“. As in the case of most books where the listener has an intimate familiarity with the scene… If not the players… There are a few details with which I might quibble as a nitpicking prerogative of those who have boots on the ground. In addition, several things struck me as sort of pointless… Like why the digression into Ed Eagles ethnicity? It didn’t bother me, and I certainly wasn’t offended, but, again unless this was an intended bit of levity, I didn’t really understand the sidebar. I don’t know a single 6 foot eight Native American…OR Ashkenazi…certainly none that are lawyers, so the whole ethnic switcheroo… Well, it left me with a question mark. Finally, the story seemed a little bit of a stretch since I’ve yet to encounter a single client in 35 years of practice that are so intricately…conspiratorial… but I guess that’s what makes a mystery good rather than plausible. The story is engaging and the writing is fast paced.
As far as Michael Kramer is concerned, if local words weren’t totally massacred, his “Spanish”accent made me cringe. Clearly he knows more about Cubans than Northern New Mexicans as he rendered our local patois like some thing out of a Lucy and Ricky Ricardo sitcom… not a huge criticism in light of his overall delivery, but enough of a distraction to hurt this local’s ears.

Good Story Overall

As someone who has spent time in both LA and Santa Fe, this was a fun story. It's a little simplistic for my tastes and most of the characters aren't that likeble. Probably deserves a 3/5 but I enjoyed the Santa Fe and entertainment aspects so I gave it a 4/5. Michael Kramer is amazing as always.

Great Book!!! Great Story!!!

I enjoyed every minute of this book. Never wanted to put it down. Well written, and Michael Kramer narrating. Does not get better than that.

Good characters, narrative OK, setting was good.

A good Stuart Woods romp. NOT As good as Stone Barrington but enjoyed. Will get next in series.

Read in order

I love Ed Eagle. I advise listening/reading in order as they were written to avoid being confused or knowing something that already happened.

Good story

Exciting. Good whodunnit set in the morally corrupt entertainment world. No one particularly admirable, but plenty of interesting, quirky characters.

surprise

This book begged me to listen to the end from the first chapter. This kept me guessing and I was delighted with the surprise ending.

Really worth it

it kept us guessing, which is rare, but it didn't have an ending that was out of left field - the way that some writers try in order to prove that they can outsmart the reader.

I hope this was intended to be humor

Weird book. Thank the Buddha that Kramer was reading it. Kind of like Stephanie Plum on acid.