May 11, 2015
Bestseller Woods’s glittering 34th novel featuring Stone Barrington (after Hot Pursuit) finds the suave cop turned attorney helping Jose “Pepe” Perado, a Texas brewer, open a beer distributorship, and possibly a brewery, in New York City. The opposition, in the manner of 1930s gangster films, intends to “dissuade him.” So Stone, with the help of buddy Dino Bacchetti, the commissioner of police, fights back. Later, Pepe slides into the background, and the assorted bad guys offer a primer on how to rob banks, among other crimes, as the body count rises. Stone still has time for a stellar sex life, bedding any woman who crosses his path and is a) beautiful, b) wealthy, c) well connected, or d) all of the above. Over dinner at the Four Seasons, one such damsel tells Stone, “I want to go back to your house, then fuck your brains out.” Once in bed, she takes “him in her hand.” Some readers may not immediately realize him means penis. Why so coy? Agent: Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit.
June 1, 2015
In between rounds of pie-in-the-sky international intrigue, Stone Barrington takes time out to help a San Antonio brewer find a new New York distributor-and inherits all the brewer's enemies. Jose Perado just wants to sell his family's product, Cerveza Perado, in the Big Apple. When Stone rescues him outside a restaurant, he's getting hassled and worse by a pair of cops, Eugene Ryan and Al Parisi, who turn out to be ex-cops discouraging Perado on behalf of Al's father, Gino, whose Bowsprit Beverages, the distribution firm he inherited from his mobbed-up father, Perado has just let go. Gino soon supplements Gene and Al with some proper muscle, Frank Russo and Charlie Carney, who follow Stone and his latest conquest, sex-addicted advertising art director Caroline Woodhouse, to Stone's island retreat in Maine and back, growing more impatient all the while. Since international terrorism never really takes a day off, Stone's soon playing host to Maj. Ian Rattle, an MI6 officer marked for assassination by the Middle East no-goodniks who can't accept the fact that the door has closed on Hot Pursuit (2015). When somebody takes a shot at Rattle, Stone's old friend Dino Bacchetti, the NYPD Commissioner, suggests that maybe Stone was the intended target, and the two plot a retaliatory strike that sends the bad guys packing. Pursuing different dreams, Gene, Frank, and Charlie all end up in Florida, where they hatch nefarious new schemes, make new enemies of their own, and wait for the page count to reach the end. The stakes seem so low throughout this installment, filled with dead ends and dropped stitches, that you can't help wondering if Woods has set his word processor to auto-type.
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June 1, 2015
Hitting shelves just two short months after Hot Pursuit (2015), Woods' latest Stone Barrington thriller finds the barrister once again under fire after he rescues a Texas brewer from a pair of fake cops. Naturally, one of the hotheads, Eugene Ryan, targets Stone, making for several suspenseful moments of jeopardy when Ryan attacks an MI6 operative staying with Stone and then guns down Stone's best friend, Police Commissioner Dino Bacchetti. Also of interest: Stone meets a woman who is too much for him between the sheets. But far too much time is devoted to following a group of crooks who flee New York for Florida after tangling with Stone and company. Will readers really care about their bank robbery plans and the ways they double cross each other? Diehard Woods fans might, but others may well be disappointed by yet another sub-par entry in the long-running series. Still, plenty of loyal fans will likely seek out Woods' latest for an easy read on the beach or porch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)
February 1, 2015
Who knew beer making and distribution could cause so much trouble? Stone Barrington finds out when he rescues a prominent brewery owner from two rogue policemen. Woods on his usual roll.
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