When Tip Hanks, a PGA tour golf pro, returns home early to Santa Fe after missing the cut in a tournament to find his wife dead, he is accused of the murder. Hanks was born in Delano, Georgia (Georgia is home to many of Wood's characters and Woods himself).

Hanks calls upon Ed Eagle who convinces the district attorney to drop the charges and have Tip released from jail. After his release, Tip needs help around the house and hires an attractive secretary named Dolly.  

When we last saw Barbara Eagle (Ed's former wife who has tried on numerous occasions to kill him), she was in a Mexican prison for murder. Barbara has become the warden's mistress; she drugs him and slips out the bathroom window to escape with Jimmy Long who is set to produce a film for Ed Eagle's new wife. Barbara flies in a private plane with Jimmy back to the United States and begins to plot her revenge against Ed Eagle.

When we last saw ex-CIA agent turned bad, Teddy Fay, he had run off with Lauren Cade who worked with the Florida police. Teddy and Lauren arrive in Santa Fe ready to start a new life together. However, Holly Barker (protagonist of the Orchid series), who now works for the CIA after serving as police chief of Orchid Beach, Florida, is tasked by her boss Lance Cabot to find Teddy when he learns that Teddy is still alive.  

Santa Fe Edge is not what we’ve come to expect from Stuart Woods. The story is pure soap opera, especially the segments about Barbara Eagle and Teddy Fay. In the words of that great ESPN philosopher Tom Jackson, "C’mon man!" Here’s hoping Mr. Woods gets back on track with his next book.

--Jerry Solot