Lucid Intervals

February 15, 2010
Stone Barrington continues to enjoy good food, good drink, and good sex provided by an eager succession of beautiful women in bestseller Woods's smooth 18th novel to feature the New York City attorney (after Kisser
). Unstable ex-wife Dolce Bianci once again menaces Stone; “walking catastrophe” Herbie Fisher pays Stone a $1 million retainer to keep him, Herbie, out of trouble; and attractive British intelligence officer Felicity Devonshire hires Stone to find Stanley Whitestone, an ex-agent still wanted by her superiors after 12 years and recently spotted in New York. Stone walks a tricky ethical line by agreeing to work for Jim Hackett, who owns a large private security firm, and who may in fact be Whitestone. Stone's powerful cop friend, Dino Bacchetti, is ready to do favors or share a Knob Creek bourbon at Elaine's. Woods mixes danger and humor into a racy concoction that will leave readers thirsty for more. Author tour.

February 15, 2010
Jet-setting New York attorney Stone Barrington's old acquaintances present him with a fistful of new problems.

Herbie Fisher, the most clueless member of the New York bar (Fresh Disasters, 2007), turns up in Elaine's announcing that he's won a $30 million lottery prize, shoving a handbag full of hundreds in Stone's face and insisting that he needs a lawyer of his own because somebody wants to kill him. Moments later, he's followed by Dame Felicity Devonshire of MI6 (Capital Crimes, 2003), who offers Stone the relatively piddling sum of£100,000 to find Stanley Whitestone, who since retiring from Her Majesty's Secret Service a dozen years ago has been selling classified information on the open market. Since Felicity offers a sweetener Herbie can't hope to match, Stone agrees to her terms as quickly as he declined Herbie's. Next morning, he awakens to find that he's inadvertently accepted both clients. If Herbie's constant demands for help and Felicity's for sex aren't draining enough, Stone also learns that Dolce Bianchi, the homicidal Mafia princess to whom he was once married for a heartbeat (L.A. Dead, 2000), has stabbed her minder and gone off the rez, presumably gunning for Stone and his ladylove. Things get even more complicated when Jim Hackett, the security expert Felicity is convinced is really Stanley Whitestone, takes to Stone so warmly that he offers him a job at his firm, Strategic Services, creating what passes for moral conflict in Woods's world of frothy wish-fulfillment. Will Stone ace his first assignment for Security Services by qualifying to fly Hackett's private jet? Will he, and should he, convince Felicity that Hackett isn't Whitestone? Will Herbie get killed? If he isn't, will Stone be able to spring him from a jail cell? And what will become of Dolce, armed, dangerous and demented?

Some of these riddles are handily resolved, others fade away, and then this weightless tale is done, setting the stage for the inevitable next installment.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 15, 2010
Hot on the heels of Kisser (2010), Woods new Stone Barrington mystery features the charismatic lawyer juggling an unwanted new client and a hunt for a former British intelligence operative. Stone is less than thrilled when Herbie Fisher, the feckless nephew of his friend Bob Cantor, walks up to him at Elaines and drops $1 million in his lap in exchange for representation. But Stone has bills to pay, so he helps Herbie with everything from a real-estate deal to a prenuptial agreement. But soon Stone has more pressing matters on his hands: Felicity Devonshire, a beautiful member of British intelligence, has need of his services, in and out of the bedroom. Felicity is on the hunt for Stanley Whitestone, an agent who defected and may be in New York. Felicity wants Stone to find Whitestone, a task he takes on wholeheartedly, until his investigation leads him to believe that Whitestone might not be the nefarious traitor British intelligence claims he is. Fans of Woods long-running series will not be disappointed by this romp, which is peppered with plenty of humor courtesy of the hapless Herbie.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)