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.

June 28, 2010
Tony Roberts strikes just the right note in his reading of Woods's latest Barrington Stone adventure. Stone unwillingly takes on as a client the perpetually clueless trouble magnet Herbie Fisher, who has just come into several million dollars of lottery money. In addition, Stone is hired by Felicity Devonshire of British Intelligence to try and find an ex-agent who may, or may not, have resurfaced after 12 years under a new identity. As the story unfolds (and his clients multiply), Stone wonders if any amount of money is worth the trouble he runs into. Filling the story with thrills, titters, and titillation, Woods moves the story along, and Roberts keeps pace with him step for step. He delivers the author's prose with a wry arch of an eyebrow that tells the listener to sit back and enjoy the ride, but don't take it all too seriously. A Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 15).

Stone Barrington's got it all: money, brains, and women. Actor Tony Roberts brings Stone to life in the 18th novel featuring the New York City lawyer. Here Stone is working for a new client, the beautiful (naturally) British Intelligence officer Felicity Devonshire, who wants him to prove that businessman Jim Hackett is a missing MI6 operative. In this installment the hero comes off as rather cold, both in the text and Roberts's performance, as he doesn't seem to care what MI6 plans to do with the man once he's exposed. In addition to Felicity's British accent, Roberts adds some ethnic color to his performance though the character of Stone's best buddy, New York cop Dino Bacchetti. A great summer read. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine