Everyone keeps telling me Stuart Woods is 'beach read' territory—the literary equivalent of a margarita. Easy, forgettable, pleasant enough. I went in expecting to be mildly entertained during a late shift at the library, sorting through a donation box of old paperbacks while Shirley judged me from her perch on the returns cart.
They're not wrong about the beach read thing. But they're underselling what Tony Roberts does with it.
Billy Bob Is the Whole Show (And Roberts Knows It)
Look, Stone Barrington is fine. He's the protagonist equivalent of a well-tailored suit—functional, professional, gets the job done. But Billy Bob Barnstormer? This slick Texan con man with his wad of two-dollar bills and his 'aw shucks' routine that slowly reveals something genuinely unsettling underneath? That kind of charming-then-chilling villain work shows up in Second Wife too, where the narrator has to sell you on someone before pulling the rug out.
That's where Roberts earns his paycheck.
He starts Billy Bob with this slightly over-the-top good ol' boy drawl—the kind that makes you want to check your wallet. But as the character's sociopathic edges start showing, Roberts shifts the performance. The accent stays, but something in the cadence changes. The charm curdles. It's subtle work, and honestly? It's the kind of character transformation that makes me wish more thrillers trusted their villains to be interesting instead of just threatening.
Stone and Dino Walk Into a Bar (Repeatedly)
The banter between Stone Barrington and his ex-partner Dino is where Woods clearly has the most fun writing, and Roberts matches that energy. There's genuine comedic timing here—the kind of back-and-forth that actually made me snort while shelving true crime (my coworker gave me a look). 20th Victim has that same partner banter energy, the kind that makes procedural work feel less like work. These two have the rhythm of old friends who've been giving each other grief for decades, and Roberts handles the dialogue shifts with the ease of someone who's been living in these characters across multiple books.
Is it high art? No. Is it the audiobook equivalent of comfort food with a side of murder? Absolutely.
What This Isn't
Here's where I have to be honest with you: if you're coming to this expecting the kind of dread that crawls under your skin and stays there—the Shirley Jackson slow-burn terror that I live for—you're in the wrong aisle. This is a different beast entirely. A thriller that moves at a clip, doesn't ask too much of you, and delivers exactly what it promises.
Some listeners felt this particular entry doesn't hit as hard as other Woods novels. Fewer twists, maybe. A little more predictable in its plotting. And yeah, I can see that. The mystery of who killed whom in Stone's townhouse resolves in ways that feel more procedural than surprising. But Roberts keeps the pages turning (metaphorically—I was listening at 2 AM, which is my horror hour, but this didn't require any lights-on moments).
The production is clean. Single narrator, no sound effects, no music—just Roberts and the text. For a book this dialogue-heavy, that's the right call. You don't need atmospheric soundscapes when your narrator can differentiate between a federal prosecutor and a Texas con man with just a shift in register.
Who Gets the Two-Dollar Bill (And Who Should Pass)
This is for the commuters. The treadmill warriors. The people who want something engaging enough to make the time pass but not so demanding that missing thirty seconds means you're lost. If you've been following the Stone Barrington series, Roberts is consistent—he knows this world, he knows these characters, and he delivers with the same breezy charm that's made him an AudioFile Earphones Award winner.
Skip if you need your thrillers to leave you shaken. Skip if you want literary complexity or moral ambiguity that keeps you up at night. This isn't that book, and it's not trying to be.
But if you want nearly eight hours of competent thriller with a narrator who commits to the bit—especially when that bit involves a sociopath in cowboy boots—you could do a lot worse.
The Librarian's Stamp
I finished this during a quiet Sunday shift, Shirley asleep on a stack of overdue notices, rain against the windows. It was exactly the right book for that moment. Not every audiobook needs to haunt you. Sometimes you just need a smooth-talking villain, some witty banter, and a narrator who understands that even beach reads deserve real performance.
Tony Roberts gets that. Stuart Woods wrote him the material to prove it.
Worth your time if you're in the mood. Just don't expect to lose sleep over it—unless you're listening at 2 AM like a fool, in which case that's on you.
