From the New York Times bestselling author A chance encounter with a small-time crook sends Stone Barrington straight into the heart of New York's mafia underworld...

As with many 'serial authors', the more they crank out, the worse they get. I just listened to the audio version of this one, and gratefully arrived at my destination with about 1/2 the book left...it went directly back to the lending library unfinished.
CORNY is the most descriptive, clean, one-word review I can give to this POS book.
This is the guy who thinks Barrington should have married Arrington, making her......I can't bring myself to write it down. Beyond corny. Stone, another corny name from the 50's (Tab, Rock, etc). Suits the guy, tho. Corny how he has a special table at a special restaurant, gets laid with beautiful strangers he meets in every other chapter, cop buddy who had no qualms about breaking the law to help him, a loyal, ever-efficient long-suffering personal assistant named Joan...Stone and Joan, get it?
Maybe he should develop a black lead character so he can use all 99 ways to spell Antoine.
Stone and his high ranking cop buddy just can't wait to vomit out police/private/priveleged information to a total stranger (beautiful female) who sat down at the table next to them. And they keep this sort of thing up...dumb and dumber.
The first Woods book I read, years ago, was something that started with a guy waking up at home in New Mexico...I loved that book, and have read his books for years since...some good, some really good, and some bad.
This will be the last one I ever pick up with his name on it.
And BTW, Stuart, you rich doofus, I hope you read this.

Fresh Disasters replaces The Prince of Beverly Hills as Stuart Woods' worse book. At least the latter was readable. This had almost no story and what it had was about perfectly despicable people, including the hero, Stone Barrington, who has become a rather amoral creature.

The Margin

Woods gets slammed by critics in Fresh Disasters. I've said it before--reads like he's being pressured by the publisher to get another one out regardless of the quality.
I don't dismiss it categorically, as some reviewer's have, it has some redeaming points. It has a few nice twists and turns, in places it's funny and it is easy to read.

Marvin Wiebener, author of The Margin

When you open (or listen to) a Stone Barrington novel you get what you always get: a lawyer/private eye character who is ultra suave, yet self-effacing, who lives a life somewhat like James Bonds, with fancy restaurants, houses and women at the drop of the hat. There is also a good plot and two very good side-kicks - Dino, he police lieutenant, and Joan, the "Gal Friday".

This is the proto-typical Barrington novel. There are a few plots going onL: one with a ne'er-do-well client, Herbie Fisher, who always just eludes murder; a crazed stalker who arranges the rapes and murders of beautiful women; and the divorce of a wealthy lawyer who has ties to the mob. The plots are good and the ones with Herbie Fisher and the divorce lend humor.

These novels are unpretentious. THere is no attempt to make them anything they are not. They are meant to be read, enjoyed and passed on to the next person lying on the beach. This one is good romp as Stone romps from plot to plot and bedroom to bedroom. A bit formulaic, but the formula is light and enjoyable.

A note on the audio: It is terrific and the reader has voices of Stone and Dino down pat.

I have enjoyed several of Mr. Woods books and especially enjoy the Stone Barrington series. On page four of this book the Dino character fires a cheap shot at President Bush. I say put a sock in it! P.S. One star is my rating of the cheap shot...I'll keep reading this book but may not buy any others. I've done that with other authors.