Stone Barrington is back in New York, and after a rather harrowing sojourn in Key West, he's looking to stay closer to home and work on some simple divorce and custody cases for Woodman & Weld. But when he crosses paths with a fetching Broadway actress-and sometime lip model- Stone gets a little more deeply involved with business than he'd expected. When his new lady love turns out to be a lady with a shady past, Stone and downtown cop Dino Bacchetti realize that her beauty may have an unusually high price. . . .

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At the start of bestseller Woods's entertaining 17th Stone Barrington novel (after
Loitering with Intent
), the handsome New York lawyer smoothly picks up Carrie Cox, an aspiring actress who's recently moved from Georgia to New York City, at Elaine's, his favorite Manhattan restaurant. As usual, every beautiful woman Barrington encounters pursues him, including Carrie, art gallery assistant Rita Gammage, U.S. attorney Tiffany Baldwin, and mentally unstable Dolce Bianci, to whom he was once briefly married. In spite of all the female attentions, Barrington manages to shield Carrie from her ex-husband, protect young heiress Hildy Parsons from a con artist/drug dealer, and plot to take down Ponzi scammer Sig Larsen. Too crafty to let Barrington sail unscathed through encounters with women or criminals, Woods devises plenty of snarls to provoke laughs and keep the action interesting in a series that excels at playing out male fantasies.
(Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From

Woods’ lawyer and private investigator Stone Barrington has never wanted for female company, but even he concedes he has too much on his plate in this latest outing: three lovers and three would-be companions, including his unbalanced ex-wife, Dolce. Stone is taken with beautiful actress Carrie Cox the moment he sets eyes on her at Elaine’s, and he agrees to help her secure the lead in a Broadway play and fend off the lascivious director. Carrie’s problems don’t end there, but Stone turns to a case of his own. A wealthy gallery owner wants Stone to find a way to separate his daughter from her disreputable artist boyfriend, Derek. When Stone learns that Derek is not only a swindler but also a drug dealer, he is drawn into an elaborate police sting operation, and into bed with an undercover officer and her girlfriend. Even Stone agrees his bedroom antics are a little over the top this time around, lamenting, “I used to enjoy sex,” but now there are “too many demands being made.” Readers looking for a fun, breezy page-turner will not be disappointed, and longtime fans of the series will have their curiosity piqued by Dolce’s return. —Kristine Huntley

Table of Contents

BOOKS BY STUART WOODS

FICTION

Hothouse Orchid*
Loitering with Intent
^†Mounting Fears
^‡Hot Mahogany
^†Santa Fe Dead
^§Beverly Hills Dead
Shoot Him If He Runs
^†Fresh Disasters
^†Short Straw
^§Dark Harbor
^†Iron Orchid*
Two-Dollar Bill
^†The Prince of Beverly Hills
Reckless Abandon
^†

Capital Crimes
^‡Dirty Work
^†Blood Orchid*
The Short Forever
^†Orchid Blues*
Cold Paradise
^†L.A. Dead
^†The Run
^‡Worst Fears Realized
^†Orchid Beach*
Swimming to Catalina
^†Dead in the Water
^†Dirt
^†Choke

Imperfect Strangers
Heat
Dead Eyes
L.A. Times
Santa Fe Rules
^§New York Dead
^†Palindrome
Grass Roots
^‡White Cargo
Deep Lie
^‡Under the Lake
Run Before the Wind
^‡Chiefs
^‡

TRAVEL

A Romantic’s Guide to the Country Inns of Britain and Ireland (1979)

MEMOIR

Blue Water, Green Skipper (1977)

*A Holly Barker Novel
^†A Stone Barrington Novel
^‡A Will Lee Novel
^§An Ed Eagle Novel

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Publishers Since 1838
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York,
New York 10014, USA • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East,
Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) •
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland,
25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) •
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124,
Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd,
11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ),
67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division
of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd,
24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Other books

Vibrations: Harmonic Magic Book 1 by P.E. Padilla

Crashing the Net by Wayland, Samantha

Matt Reilly Stories by Flyboy707

Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell

05. Children of Flux and Anchor by Jack L Chalker

Woman on Fire by Amy Jo Goddard

CLASS ACT (A BRITISH ROCKSTAR BAD BOY ROMANCE) by Julia Gardener

The Girl from Her Mirror (Mirrors Don't Lie Book 1) by Willis, Becki

Prophet's Prey by Sam Brower

Marie (Teumessian Trilogy Book 1) by Ana Elise Meyer