Dark Harbor

January 30, 2006
Bestseller Woods's tepid 12th Stone Barrington novel finds the New York lawyer taking a much-needed working vacation after the deadly trials and tribulations of the action-packed Two-Dollar Bill
(2005). Stone has inherited a house on the island of Dark Harbor, Maine, from his first cousin Dick after Dick and his family have been shot in what the local constabulary thinks is a murder/suicide. Of course it isn't, and Stone, along with series regulars NYPD Lt. Dino Bacchetti, CIA agent Lance Cabot and lover Holly Barker, goes to Maine to look into the deaths. Stone is never in real danger, though once again it becomes clear that women who sleep with him run a good chance of being captured and held hostage until Stone and his posse can ride to the rescue. Fans will be happy to learn that Dino is finally free of his problematic wife; Holly is still crazy about Stone; and Arrington, the mother of Stone's son, brushes off a scary domestic plot twist introduced in Two-Dollar Bill
. One hopes that a well-rested Stone will spring back into more serious action in his next adventure.

June 5, 2006
Ex-cop/attorney Stone Barrington travels to the isolated island community of Dark Harbor, Maine, to handle the estate of his late cousin Dick, who was found dead in his home along with his wife and daughter. The police initially think it's a murder-suicide, but Stone disagrees and launches an investigation of his own. Roberts reads with a confident and assured voice, using a variety of subtle accents, ranging from Stone's mild upper-crust New Yorker to Dino Bacchetti's somewhat hammy New York Italian and the Eastern New England drawl of most of the island's residents. He also shifts skillfully between male and female characters; the combination of this and his skill with accents leaves the matter of which character is speaking never in doubt. There is one aspect of the performance that was a bit beyond Roberts, however. In a crucial scene toward the end of the novel, a kidnapper speaks to his victim through a voice modulator, and Robert's attempts to duplicate the mechanical altered voice comes off as silly—ruining the atmosphere of the scene. But aside from this quibble, the adaptation is proficient and should satisfy most audiophiles. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 30).

In Woods's latest novel starring Stone Barrington, ex-cop turned lawyer turned CIA consultant, narrator Tony Roberts does a fine job with a plethora of agents bumbling over bodies on an island off the coast of Maine. There is more talk than action, and suspense is not ratcheted up-despite seven deaths-until CIA Agent Holly Barker is kidnapped. Roberts keeps the dialogue flowing and distinctive, from the aristocratic tenor of Holly's boss to the New York City cop chat of Barrington's ex-partner to the bullies who are Barrington's ill-fated second cousins. This is not Woods's best, but Roberts keeps the story moving and the eventual action scenes lively. D.P.D. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine