The latest Stuart Woods novel "Son of Stone" featuring his principal character Stone Barrington is now on the shelf with the thousands of other dead horses that litter my house and garage. I don't know why I keep expecting something different out of Woods but I always do and I'm always disappointed. This time is no exception.

For those that are unfamiliar with the lead character in the series that has now reached its 21st episode, Stone Barrington is an ex NYPD cop let go at a young age on a job related injury who becomes a lawyer and routinely falls into women and money and a seemingly endless string of adventures.

In his latest romp, Stone, a confirmed bachelor, gets married and turns into a "Dad" to a 16-year-old son he kinda knew he had but wasn't really ready to admit yet. They stay close to home at his NYC Turtle Bay townhouse where junior enrolls in a prestigious prep school and is ultimately accepted to Yale all in the course of a couple of weeks. Their one escapade up to his new wife's country home in Virginia turned sour but nothing but good things continued to happen to Stone and son.

While I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop in Wood's feel-good books, it never does. There's no punch-line, no plot twists and certainly no surprise endings. Everything turns out just swell again in this grown-up fairy tale.

Having grown up with The Hardy Boys series I can hardly wait for the next "Stone" novel to arrive. "DC Dead" is on my wish list at Amazon and is due out December 27, 2011.

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• NYT Best Sellers for October 2, 2011 at ACLS (alleganylibrarydirector.wordpress.com)