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Summary
Summary
Cop-turned-investigator Stone Barrington returns in this eighth adventure following his biggest New York Times bestseller yet, last season's Cold Paradise. Stone's new client, John Bartholomew, asks Stone to fly to London in search of a young woman whom he suspects has taken up with a mysterious character. Bartholomew asks Stone to see what he can find to discredit the man, Cabot, which seems a simple enough task, and Stone is eager to spend time in London and with his friend Sarah Buckminster. What Stone finds is more bizarre than he had expected. The woman in question isn't related to Bartholomew in quite the way he had implied. And it appears that Bartholomew and Cabot, who once worked together on a secretive assignment, now have very different versions of what went wrong. When Stone himself is implicated in a shocking double murder, he and his partner, Dino, know they have stepped into a strange case unlike any other.
Author Notes
Stuart Woods was born in Manchester, Georgia on January 9, 1938. He received a B. A. in sociology from the University of Georgia in 1959. He worked in the advertising business and eventually wrote two non-fiction books entitled Blue Water, Green Skipper and A Romantic's Guide to the Country Inns of Britain and Ireland. His first novel, Chiefs, was published in 1981. It won an Edgar Award and was made into a TV miniseries starring Charlton Heston. His other works include the Stone Barrington series, the Holly Barker series, the Will Lee series, the Ed Eagle series, the Rick Barron series and the Teddy Fay series. He won France's Prix de Literature Policiere for Imperfect Strangers. His autobiography, An Extravagant Life, was published in June 2022. Stuart Woods died on July 22, 2022, at his home in Lichfield, Connecticut. He was 84.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In recent Woods bestsellers like Cold Paradise, N.Y.P.D. detective-turned-PI Stone Barrington has gone upscale in lifestyle, international in expertise. This time, mogul John Bartholomew hires Stone to fly to London and persuade his niece, Erica, to leave her cocaine-smuggling boyfriend, Lance Cabot, and to make sure Lance winds up in jail. Dapper Stone charms Erica, who offers to set him up with her sister, Monica, and then introduces him to Lance. With help from two British investigators, Stone learns John Bartholomew is not who he seems: not only is he not Erica's uncle, he's really CIA biggie Stan Hedger. Confronted, Stan owns up, revealing that Lance is an ex-CIA agent who blew ops, ran with cash and nearly killed him. Meanwhile, Monica asks Stone to a country weekend with Lance and Erica at what turns out to be the manse of his old flame, Sarah Buckminster, who previously dodged a New York bombing and is now engaged to a megatycoon. The fog thickens when Stone's N.Y.P.D. pal Dino Bacchetti flies over to smooth out the beating death of one of Stone's investigators and Scotland Yard brings in MI6, who suspect Lance is after a top-secret military device for a Mideast client. Woods may have left behind the police action of L.A. Dead, but he churns up plenty of conflict and twisted plotting in this speedy tale. Several bombshell revelations and multiple resolutions combine with the cinematic plot for a perfect flight or beach read. Agents, Morton Janklow and Anne Sibbald. (Apr.) Forecast: Though some fans miss the more rugged Stone of earlier novels, Woods is eternally in bestseller mode and this title should be no exception. Major ad/promo; author tour; Putnam Berkley audio. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Woods picks up his popular Stone Barrington series where he left off in Cold Paradise [BKL Mr 1 01]. Stone's much younger lover, Callie, dumps him, leaving him depressed, but a new assignment soon piques his interest. John Bartholomew asks Stone to find his niece, Erica, and separate her from her paramour, Lance, whom Bartholomew claims is a drug dealer. Although Stone has his doubts, he heads off to London where Erica and Lance are living. He soon meets up with the pair and begins observing them. His doubts intensify when he spots Bartholomew in London and discovers that the man is using a false identity. But other distractions impede Stone, such as the reappearance of his former girlfriend, Sarah Buckminster, who is now engaged to a wealthy wine seller. After her fiancedies in a suspicious boating accident, she begins to pursue Stone. As if that weren't enough to contend with, Stone runs into Arrington Calder, the love of his life, at a diplomatic dinner. Meanwhile, Stone discovers Bartholomew's true identity and realizes he's been drawn into a major international scandal with incredibly high stakes. Filling his story with enough twists and turns to dizzy even the most seasoned reader, Woods keeps the tension high until the last page. Kristine Huntley
Kirkus Review
Hours after his latest lover dumps him, that paragon of lawyer/adventurers Stone Barrington (Cold Paradise, 2001, etc.) is en route to London for a round of intrigue that does indeed seem to go on forever. Stone's charge is simple: to rescue John Bartholomew's niece, Erica Burroughs, from the clutches of drug mule Lance Cabot and get Cabot arrested for something or other before Stone returns to the US with Erica. But the job is complicated by the fact that John Bartholomew doesn't exist and Erica Burroughs (who's soon fixed Stone up with her eligible sister Monica) doesn't have an uncle. Even murkier waters open when the sisters take Stone to a house party at the home of painter Sarah Buckminster, another of his inexhaustible supply of ex-lovers, and he's on hand to see Sarah's fiance, wine trader James Cutler, fall to his death from her yacht. Or did Sarah, overenthusiastic at Stone's return, really arrange his demise? Just when you think the story's settled into a mystery mold, Woods changes course again, like a kindergartner with a short attention span, and drops Stone into the middle of the mutual recriminations of Bartholomew and Cabot, each of whom insists the other is a ruthless criminal spy (and there's evidence they both may be right). To the smorgasbord of plotlines already on display-Bring Home the Lady, Did She or Didn't She, and Who Do You Trust-Woods eventually adds a fourth when Cabot inveigles Stone into a fast-money scheme to smuggle an unnamed McGuffin out of its closely guarded industrial home and into the hands of international provocateurs. Seasoned fans will know better than to take the spy stuff any more seriously than the rest of this potluck supper. Woods notes in closing that his editor requested no changes in his manuscript, since nothing needed fixing. Readers may well come up with other explanations. Author tour
Library Journal Review
Woods's recurring hero, former NYPD detective and now private investigator/lawyer Stone Barrington, has been hired by the mysterious John Bartholomew to go to London to find his niece. Apparently the beautiful twentysomething Erica is in a relationship with alleged cocaine smuggler Lance Cabot. Not only does Stone find the girl, he discovers that she is not John's niece. With the aid of a couple of local London P.I.s and a contact back in the states, Stone finds that John is really a former CIA bigwig and that Lance, too, is a former agent who went astray, fleeing with money that wasn't his in an operation in which both men were involved. Woods's plots and subplots are well developed into a good story that holds the listener's interest. Robert Lawrence's narration and well-done British accents add to the entertainment; a good addition to mystery collections.-Steven J. Mayover, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
