Customer Reviews

Imperfect Strangers

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoy reading most Stuart Woods books. This book is no exception. The short chapters and quick character development make this book a quick read. If you are looking for a book to take on a trip to pass the time this is the one for you. With the exception of Dirt and What Lies Beneath, I think you will enjoy this exceptional quick read author.

Book starts out with good intrique... it moves along and keeps your interest as you try to figure out where things will go. So, for the most part, it is a fun and quick read BUT the ending was boring and too disappointing - Mr. Woods could have done so much better if the ending had some surprize. Oh well.

Stuart Woods always gives a quick read, filled with action. This book is no different. Within the first two chapters, the plot of the book is layed out. Sandy Kingsolving and Peter Martindale meet on an airplane. Ironically, they are both having difficulties with their wives, and plot to kill each others wife! They meet and work out the details, but Kingsolving has seconds thoughts and calls the entire thing off. His wife still ends up dead, and Martindale tries to blackmail him.

Will Kingsolving finish through with the plan and kill Martindale's wife next? Or will be go to the police and hope they believe him? Won't you be surprised when you find out just who Sandy is really supposed to kill...

Apparently you folks havent read Stuart Woods early novels. Try Chiefs, Grassroots, White Cargo, Palindrome or Heat. He's definately not writing the kind of book he used to! Dead Eyes was good but Imperfect Strangers, Choke and Dirt dont quite live up to my expectations of a novel by such a super writer

Picture yourself in the aftermath of a moment in which, after feeling frustrated to the point of believing your life to be doomed after someone plans to screw you over, you give in to a nasty temptation seeking revenge, but just as you realize how stupid you've been, you are suddenly in too deep to escape. That is what happens throughout this book and it makes for an interesting read.

I think this is a great Stuart Woods book and understand why it was nominated for an award.
The fundamental plot is disturbing, but perhaps more disturbing is the lack of moral awareness (at least much of the time) of the two main characters in the book (Sandy and Peter) - Sandy thankfully decides not to proceed with the plot until he is essentially blackmailed into fulfilling his end of the bargain, but Peter goes from being merely a suspicious character to outright diabolical. I think the book is interesting because it features a flawed hero dealing with an array of nasty problems created in part by his wife but also by his own actions which inevitably come back to haunt him. You never really "like" Sandy 100%, or even 80%, but you perhaps become sympathetic to his desire to escape from this situation.
Woods' writing and imagination in this book are very good, better than in some recent novels (see Reckless Abandon). I enjoy this book a lot and would recommend it to anyone heading to the beach.

This truly was an 'easy read.' There was suspense but I wouldn't call that the reason for not putting the book down. The story does develop with an interesting twist.

I would have been interested to read of a strong moral problem for Sandy when thinking of his own responsibility in the murder. There doesn't seem to be much angst over any of the deaths in the story. The characters just were not intense.

The story did flow easily from one premise to another. I believe that probably is what makes the book so difficult put down.

I do plan to read another of his stories just to compare the two books.

I enjoyed this book, having found and bought it on sale at a local bookstore. The concept begins simply enough - two men meet on a trans-Atlantic plane flight, both of them are in unhappy marriages, and they end up making a deal to kill each other's wives. The protagonist of this book, Sandy Kinsolving, decides to back out of the deal, but the other man has something else in mind and goes ahead with his part of the bargain and kills Sandy's wife. The story spirals from that moment on and is, for the most part, quite interesting.
There were two editorial errors though. One: Sandy's wife is killed while he is waiting in a limo for her. While waiting, he takes a mobile phone call from his brother-in-law, but is OFF the phone at the time of the actual killing. However, he and his bro-i-l both tell the police that they were talking at the time ("I was still talking to him [his bro-i-l] when...the doorman came to get me") and that was simply not the case. I thought at first he was trying to cover himself but that was also not the case.
Second error: Sandy states later in the book that his wife had told him that she had pictures of him [commiting adultery]. Well, that never happened, at least in the conversation written in the book regarding why she wants a divorce and I would think that that would certainly be mentioned.
The book is typical Stuart Woods material, meaning certainly enjoyable but nothing worthy of any awards or high praise. I read this one in about 3 hours on a rainy Sunday. So if you enjoy Grisham-ish books and have a few hours to kill, this is certainly for you.

I've already read around 10 other Stuart Woods books and can't get enought. Imperfect Strangers kept me reading and in suspense as usual, however I found the ending to be a little disapointing.

Sandy Kinsolving meets Peter Martindale on a plane from London to the US. They happen to sit next to each other and watch Alfred Hitchcock's classic Stranger on a Train where two strangers meet. Sandy and Peter are drunk or nearly so and tell each other that they have the same problem depicted in the movie. Each is dissatisfied with his wife and, as in the movie, they decide that each will kill the other's wife. This will make it possible for the husband to have an alibi. The murderer will not be suspected because, as far as the police or anyone else knows, he had no relationship with the victim and did not even know her.

They discuss why the Hitchcock murderers failed. The problem was that one of the husbands changes his mind and did not want the other to kill his wife, and the other man was a psychopath. They decide that they will be able to avoid the problems and kill each other's wife. Sandy tells Peter how and when he can kill his wife. They give each other an out. They can call and cancel the deal.

As the day for the murder approaches, Sandy decides to cancel. He calls and leaves a message for Peter at his hotel. He later calls Peter's hotel again and is assured that Peter got the message. He is also told that when Peter read the message, he smiled. However, when the evening arrives for Sandy's wife to be killed, she is killed, just as he and Peter arranged. The police suspect Sandy of being involved because he inherits an enormous amount of money with her death, but the officers admit to each other that they have little chance of proving his guilt.

Without revealing too much detail about the rest of this engrossing tale, Peter admits killing Sandy's wife and insists that Sandy kill his wife. He says that if Sandy refuses to do so, he will hurt him and his son. He tells Sandy that he gave his lawyer a detailed description of what happened to be opened upon his death, so if Sandy kills him he will go to jail as an accomplice to his wife's murder. Sandy meets a very attractive woman and the two fall in love. It turns out that the woman is Peter's wife.

What will Sandy do? How can he save himself, Peter's wife, and his son from Peter? Will the police find out the truth or part of it?

I am a Woods fan, and enjoyed this book enough to finish it, but I thought there was too much sex talk, which requires no talent, and it was about 50 pages too long. I have read about 6 of his books and this is the first one I was ready for the story to wrap up. But, the characters were diverse, the story original and the Lady Villian was a REAL terror. I still wonder if she Loved Anybody.