International Man of Mystery MDI among the homes of globe-trotting author Stuart Woods

Like a good real estate agent, Stuart Woods appreciates the value of location, location, location. In his personal life, the mystery writer splits his time among homes in New York and Florida and on Mount Desert Island.

But the veteran traveler, an accomplished pilot and yachtsman, is also a strong believer in doing research, to make his settings as authentic as possible.

“I’ve lived in or visited all the places I’ve written about,” said Woods, 64, in a phone interview from his New York City home. “Still, imagination comes into it in a very strong way.”

Woods tends to be wherever it’s warmest. He has been coming to Maine since the early ’60s, and built a home on MDI four years ago.

“I like the summer weather, the water and the seascapes,” he explained.

Will Maine ever pop up as the backdrop for one of his novels? “Could happen,” he said mysteriously.

Of his 25 novels, 14 feature three recurring characters: New York attorney Stone Barrington (eight books), Georgia politician Will Lee (three books) and small-town Florida police chief Holly Barker.

Woods is philosophical about revisiting familiar characters in his books.

“I still try to make each book as different as possible from all the others,” he has said. “Too many writers have worn me out as a reader by, essentially, writing the same book again and again. I try hard to avoid that.”

Barker is back in Woods’ latest, “Blood Orchid” (Putnam, $25.95). In the novel, which came out in October, Barker, assisted by her Doberman, Daisy, and her father, Ham, tries to find the connection between the shooting deaths of two Miami businessmen, who have placed bids on a local property, and a drowning death in a nearby waterway. Along the way, Barker, who had been grieving the death of her fiance, falls for an FBI agent in town on an investigation.

Does an older male have any trouble writing a 30ish female character?

“No, except for the sex scenes,” Woods said. “It’s hard for me to write those from the point of view of a woman. Mostly, I just treat them like people, and hope for the best.”

Quite naturally, Woods’ interests find their way into his text. For example, he often pilots his Piper Malibu Mirage on his trips around the country. In “Blood Orchid,” Barker starts taking flying lessons from her father’s new girlfriend.

Woods’ first writings came during his 15 years working at advertising agencies in New York and London. In 1973, he decided to write the novel he’d been planning since age 10. He moved into a small flat in the stable yard of a castle in southern County Galway, Ireland, where he wrote the first 100 pages of the novel while working part-time at a Dublin ad agency.

Then he discovered sailing, after which “everything went to hell. All I did was sail.”

He took an inheritance that his grandfather left him, and sunk it into a boat. While his boat was being built, he learned all he could about sailing, then competed in the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race in 1976, finishing in the middle of the pack. He also took part in the Fastnet Race in 1979, in which 15 competitors died. That same year, he sailed a friend’s yacht across the Atlantic, finishing at Antigua.

He settled in his native Georgia, then over the next couple of years wrote two non-fiction books: “Blue Water, Green Skipper,” an account of his Irish experience and the subsequent transatlantic race; and a travel guide titled “A Romantic Guide to the Country Inns of Britain and Ireland.”

W.W. Norton, who purchased the American rights to “Blue Water,” also contracted for Woods’ uncompleted novel. The result was “Chiefs,” that went on to win the Edgar Allen Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America. The book was turned into a TV movie starring Charleston Heston, Danny Glover and John Goodman.

Woods was later nominated again for 1990’s “Palindrome.” More recently he was awarded France’s Prix de Literature Policiere for 1995’s “Imperfect Strangers.”

The author writes two books a year. He takes a fairly linear approach.

“I just write one at a time,” he said. “I don’t think very far ahead. When I send one off, I go straight into the next one.”

Despite his success as a novelist, Woods said he hasn’t often been tempted to try other media.

“I’ve written a couple of screenplays, that never got produced,” he said. “That’s more collaborative. Everyone wants to change it. It becomes less yours and more theirs as the process unfolds.”

Woods doesn’t worry about critics pigeonholing him as a “mystery writer.”

“I write the book I want to write, the book I want to read, and leave it to other people to categorize,” he said.

Woods is at an age when many consider slowing down, but he’s still going strong.

“I feel guilty if I don’t write,” the author said. “I don’t look forward to retiring. I want to be productive.”